The Comanche Indians created an origin story that dates back to many years. It is called The Legend of the Manitous Springs. Many times in this story it explains how the geography of the Comanche culture really relies on water. The geography of Oklahoma is dry, flat land and no water. The story tells how two Indians fight about drinking out of one end of the water and why one tribe could drink from the higher level and the other could not. At the beginning of the story it tells how the geography brought the culture together. Throughout the story it tells of a deeper message. The springs were very scared to them and if they lost it there would be no water for them. This tells that the land was so dry that when you find the water you have to keep that water for everything. Geography is a big part of this story and tells how the land was for that time.

The Comanche are a Native American tribe from the Great Plains whose historic territory, known as Comancheria, consisted of present day eastern New Mexico, southeastern Colorado, southwestern Kansas, western Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. The Comanche people are federally recognized as the Comanche Nation, headquartered in Lawton, Oklahoma.

Post-contact, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers with a horse culture. There may have been as many as 45,000 Comanches in the late 18th century. They were the dominant tribe on the Southern Plains and often took captives from weaker tribes during warfare, selling them as slaves to the Spanish and later Mexican settlers. They also took thousands of captives from the Spanish, Mexican, and American settlers.

Today, the Comanche Nation has 15,191 members, approximately 7,763 of whom reside in tribal jurisdictional area around the Lawton, Fort Sill, and surrounding areas of southwest Oklahoma. The Comanche Nation Homecoming Powwow is held annually in Walters, Oklahoma in mid-July.[citation needed]

The Comanche language is a Numic language of the Uto-Aztecan family, sometimes classified as a Shoshoni dialect. Only about 1% of Comanches speak their language today.

The name "Comanche" is from the Ute name for them, kimantsi (enemy).