Highwater gave seven pages of notes to producers regarding Chakotay's backstory, but his tribal ancestry was unresolved. By the end of that month, Michael Piller drafted the first version of the writer's bible for the series in which the character was named "Chakotoy". By the time Piller wrote the first draft of the story that eventually became the Voyager pilot "Caretaker", the character was known as "Chakotay" and been made a Sioux. By the third draft of the story, submitted at the start of November, he had become a Hopi, but by the following February, he once again had no tribal affiliation. Winrich Kolbe, the director of "Caretaker", was involved in casting the main cast for the series. He described the casting process for the part of Chakotay as difficult due to the lower numbers of Native Americans who were in the Screen Actors Guild. The casting process came down to two actors, and the producers decided on Robert Beltran, who until then was best known for appearing in the soap opera Models Inc. and was of Mexican heritage. Beltran was not familiar with Star Trek before auditioning, and went along on the strength of the "Caretaker" script which showed the character becoming the second in command of Voyager after both their vessels are stranded in the Delta quadrant. Beltran explained the audition experience, "I felt neutral about the audition, didn't much care one way or the other. I went in the first time and wasn't really trying to get the part. They asked to see me again, and they wanted to see more of an edge to the character." Chakotay was originally written as a "calm, stoic" character, but Beltran expanded on the character during the audition process, something that Kolbe credited him for. The writer's bible described Chakotay as a very traditional Native American with an altar and traditional art in his quarters. It also mentioned his spirit guide, something which was picked up in the media report in TV Guide. Beltran wore a facial tattoo while playing Chakotay, which was applied with make-up. The design was created by Michael Westmore, who deliberately created it so it did not represent any particular tribal culture. The in-universe story of the tattoo and Chakotay's tribal origins were explained in the episode "Tattoo". Beltran gained the reputation on-set as a comedian. Following the first season and during a group interview with