the frontier villages, who collect together several times a year, and launch upon the plains with a few trinkets and trumperies of all kinds, and perhaps a bag of bread or pinole." Some historians and writers have referred to the Comancheros as Mexican traders. While traders from Mexico were occasionally involved with the Comanchero trade, by far the majority were from New Mexico, Hispanics and people of mixed ethnicity. New Mexicans of the time were the descendants of the Spanish colonial settlers and soldiers and the Native American peoples of New Mexico. The native peoples in New Mexico included the Pueblo, the Comanche, the Apache, the Kiowa, and the Navajo. The Comancheros are distinguishable from the Ciboleros, the buffalo hunters from New Mexico. Both Comancheros and Ciboleros, however, were primarily Hispanics from New Mexico. Film and television roles Comancheros feature as villains and outlaws in many classic western films and television shows. The Gunsmoke TV series dealt with the subject of Comancheros in a 2-part episode called 'Women for Sale' (Season 19, Episodes 1 & 2) which aired Sept 10th and 17th, 1973. In this episode, James Whitmore guest-starred as leader of an Irish-born Comanchero trader. This episode also marked a Gunsmoke reunion for William Conrad who narrated the episode's opening. Conrad had played the original Matt Dillon in the Gunsmoke radio series from 1952-1961. In "The Last Comanchero" (1958), an episode of the ABC/Warner Brothers series Cheyenne, character actor Harold J. Stone is cast as outlaw Gabe Larkin, supposedly the last of the Comancheros. In the 1960 episode "The Last Viking" of the series Bonanza, Neville Brand plays a member of a band of outlaws referred to as "Comancheros." The film The Comancheros (1961), starring John Wayne and Lee Marvin, was based on the 1952 novel of the same name by Paul Wellman. The 1972 film The Revengers features a band of Indians led by Comancheros stealing horses and killing settlers. A band of Comancheros appear as attempted rapists in the 1976 film The Outlaw Josey Wales. See also Jose Tafoya References Bibliography Kenner, Charles L. (1994) The Comanchero Frontier: A History of New Mexican-Plains Indian Relations University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK, ; Lamadrid, Enrique R. (2003) Hermanitos comanchitos : Indo-Hispano rituals of captivity and redemption University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, ; Moncus, Herman H. (1970) The Comanchero’s neighbors Western Heritage Press, Fort Worth, TX; External links