Burton Hersh

Comanche Country Burton Hersh

Early in Comanche Country Michael Landau's military-intelligence brother-in-law, the astute Lt. Colonel Sonny (Buffalo Hump), recruits Michael to take a look at the Comanche reservation in Lawton, Oklahoma. Years of drought have reduced the tribe; just then the elders are anguished because a major oil driller is about to frack beneath the Wichita Mountains, the burial ground of the tribe for centuries. Children are already starting to die from the attendant pollution while corrupt natives continue to sell drilling rights to the invading corporations. Perhaps Michael, his brother-in-law urges, can find some legal recourse that might permit the dwindling tribe to reverse the deepening poverty and widespread corporate exploitation. The Tea-Party administration in Oklahoma is apparently urging the drillers on. To deepen the local corruption, major casino operators are moving in, exploiting the Native-American franchise on gambling on the reservations. Visiting, Michael's son Ten Bears (Sylvan Landau II) happens to witness the assassination of a whistleblower. By then all the Landaus are tangled into the chaos of Lawton as an earthquake triggered by the incessant fracking tumbles tribal graves and ignites a revolution.