Historical Inaccuracy

Anyone who knows anything about the Red River or Buffalo War of 1874-1875 can see numerous large historical inaccuracies in Comanche (1956).

But there are equal inaccuracies in the stories of Comanche history told by Jim Read and by the Mexican official.

Jim Read says that about 1705 or so the Spanish discovered silver and enslaved the Comanches to mine silver. But by then the Comanche were warlike and numerous, so it would have been extremely difficult to enslave all the Comanches to mine silver.

Jim Read also says that after a lot of trouble with the Comanche the Spanish decreed a bounty for Comanche scalps. The Mexican official says that after Mexico became independent those bounties were abolished.

I never read that the Spanish ever had bounties for Comanche scalps.

But by a combination of warfare and diplomacy, the Spanish pacified (most of) the Comanches and (most of) the Apaches by about 1800, so relations became much more peaceful than before.

Then came the Mexican Revolution in 1810-1821. After Mexico gained independence in 1821 its government was too poor, two disorganized by frequent coups, etc. to do much for the northern provinces. The food and presents for the Comanches and Apaches were discontinued in 1831, and the soldiers on the frontier were badly paid, badly fed, badly equipped, badly trained, and badly led, and couldn't do much to stop Apache or Comanche raids.

So after years of constant raiding by Apaches and Comanches, the governments of the northern Mexican states were desperate to try anything. The Mexican state of Sonora established a bounty on Apache scalps, followed by Chihuahua in 1837. The scalp bounties were changed, discontinued, and reinstated over several decades before finally being discontinued.

And I have not read of a bounty for Comanche scalps.

So northern Mexican states established bounties for Apache scalps after Mexico became independent and later abolished those scalp bounties a longer time after Mexico became independent. Thus the statement by the Mexican official was literally true but rather misleading.