Comanche Tribal Members Participate in "1923" Production

Several Comanche Nation Tribal Members worked on the series “1923,” which was filmed in August in the Austin, Texas, area.

Moses Brings Plenty held a casting call at the Comanche Nation Tribal Complex for Comanches to be involved in the series.

Felix Hernandez, Modesto Schonchin, W and Brantley Kerchee were extras and background characters. Ruth Toahty taught Comanche on set, and William Morgan Tosee helped create a scene. However, others were also on set.

 Hernandez said his favorite scene was in the second episode, where he had to play dead because it took fewer takes in production. He also enjoyed meeting new people.

“It was nice meeting new friends. Like, oh, there's this one friend named Lucane. He's the nicest. Like, he's my friend now,” he said. “Like, I play the game with him sometimes and stuff, and I call him sometimes.”

Schonchin said it was different being on set and representing through film.

“It felt cool representing my tribe, my family, my northern tribes, and all the Indian countries around the world just to represent that…we're still here,” he said.

Schonchin’s favorite scene in the first episode is when the horse riders arrive at the Comanche camp.

“It felt exciting and new…since I've never experienced it, it was like, it was just a new experience for me because other ways that I represented the tribe was just dancing in front of people around the country,” he said. “But I never did anything like that in front of cameras like that, directors, real actors, famous actors.”

Schonchin was proud to be a part of the series.

Yazzie said it was cool to be in “1923.” He also enjoyed the camp scene.

“They…started shooting up the place,” he said.

As for being on a Hollywood set…

“It was a different feeling,” Yazzie said. “It was pretty awesome. I was pretty honored to be there.”

He said it was hot during filming.

Kerchee was also one of the horseback riders in the second episode.

“It felt unreal to actually be on a real movie set. It gave me an idea of how my Comanche people lived during that time period, especially with it being so hot,” he said. “But dancing at powwows and my straight dance regalia in 110-degree temperature all summer long helped prepare me for the scenes.”

Kerchee said his favorite scene was the nighttime scene in episode two.

“Because during the night scene, we tried to get revenge for killing the young Comanche boy and the Comanche men,” he said. “And plus, it was emotional for my family because of what happened to me in that scene.”

Kerchee wanted to thank Brings Plenty for the advice and encouragement on the set and the set workers.

Toahty translated English to Comanche and taught some of the actors the native language.

“The men learned fast. But the lady was kind of frustrating at times, but she picked it up,” she said. “You know, she couldn't get the, how would you say it, [the dialect]. She tried to say it, but she just didn't have that. And it took her a while. But the boys, they learned. They were all tribal going. And they learned by putting my recording that I did, they put it at night, they put it in their ear and, sleep with it and listen to it. And then, when they go about doing their chores, they get heard it all the time. To where when we got there, they had come to my trailer, and they sit down and talk to me. And they talk fluent, real good. Because they said, it took us two weeks to, you know, constantly. And they learned real good. They spoke it well.”

Toahty said some of the younger boys did well in learning.

“It was a great experience for them because not every Comanche child has an opportunity to be, you know, even an extra,” she said. “That meant a lot to them. But they could actually see how we were at one time, how we lived and what we had to do to survive. But all in all, it was a real good experience.”

Tosee was there at the casting call, and that’s when he told the crew of “1923” that he could put up teepees.

“Later on, got a call saying that they wanted me to come down to help with the Comanche camp to make sure they set it up right and stuff like that,” he said. “So, I said, ‘All right.’ I didn't get in the movie, but I got to be a bigger part of the movie. And then when I got down there, man, it was hot. It was hot. And so, they already had a teepee put up, and the poles were just stuck together like this. So, they said, ‘Well, how's that?’ And I said, ‘Nope, we'll take it down.’ They said, ‘For real?’ I said, ‘Yep.’ So, we took it down, and I showed them how to tie it up. And they were watching, they were taking pictures. And then we put it up, and we covered it. And they said, wow, that looks so neat now. And I was telling them about the teepee and stuff like that.”

Tosee also helped with items to be on set and what would be the most authentic for the series. He also brought some of his Comanche-made shields and lances.

“What I've been around at home and how we do at home and how I listen to my elders, my folks talk about things like that,” Tosee said. “I said, I just kind of imagined, pictured it and used things like we do here at home and how we would camp out. Because we used to do reenactments too around Fort Sill and put up teepees and things like that.”

He said growing up, there weren’t authentic Native American sets in Hollywood Western films.

“White people dress up like Indians, and they're white, and then they paint them brown, and their hair is all one deal,” Tosee said. “And you can see they use that one from this scene to the next scene, I mean, to the next movie, same, almost everything. And the way they talk and just trying to teach the non-Indians that we are still here. We're here every day. And you might work with them every day just because we don't have beads or feathers in our hair that were not gone. We're still here.”

He said he got to meet the producers and director of the show.

Paramount Plus is releasing the second season of “1923” through April.