Dustin Tahmahkera

PhD (2007): American Culture Studies, Bowling Green State University
MA (2002: English, Midwestern State University
BA (1999): English, Midwestern State University

Born in the Comanche Nation capital of Lawton, Oklahoma, Dustin Tahmahkera is a Tulsa Artist Fellow, a playwright of Comanche-centric theatre, and professor of Indigenous art, media, and sound at the University of Oklahoma, where he serves as the Wick Cary Chair of Native American Cultural Studies. He engages the history and futurity of creative Natives’ images, sounds, and performances through onscreen, onstage, and on-mic storytellers and artists. In all, he uses his art and writing to strengthen relational accountability, well-being, and bridge-building in the spirit of his creative and intelligent ancestors.

Tahmahkera’s books include Tribal Television: Viewing Native Peoples in Sitcoms and Cinematic Comanches: The Lone Ranger in the Media Borderlands. He consulted on Hulu’s feature film Prey, interviewed on-camera for Ken Burns’ PBS film The American Buffalo and Kevin Costner's The West, and co-wrote and narrated the popular TED-Ed film about his ancestor Chief Quanah Parker. Tahmahkera’s short play 9-1-1 Comanchería, starring a Comanche man who challenges a west Texas town’s 1970s centennial celebration, received both the best play and audience favorite awards at Native Voices at the Autry’s play festival in Los Angeles. His Theatre for Young Audiences play Comanche Girl on the Moon is co-commissioned by Native Voices and the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis.

Tahmahkera may be contacted at numu@ou.edu.

Numunuu/Comanche studies
Indigenous soundscapes
Cultural history and representation

Tahmahkera, D. (2022). Cinematic Comanches: The Lone Ranger in the Media Borderlands. (Indigenous Films Series). University of Nebraska Press.

Tahmahkera, D. (2018). Hakarʉ Marʉʉmatʉ Kwitaka? Seeking Representational Jurisdiction in Comanchería Cinema. Native American and Indigenous Studies, 5(1), 100. https://doi.org/10.5749/natiindistudj.5.1.0100

Tahmahkera, D. (2017). "We're Gonna Capture Johnny Depp": Making Kin with Cinematic Comanches. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 41(2), 23-42. https://doi.org/10.17953/aicrj.41.2.tahmahkera

Tahmahkera, D. (2016). Tubitsinakukuru: Listen closely. Biography - An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, 39(3), 309-313. https://doi.org/10.1353/bio.2016.0040

Tahmahkera, D. (2014). Tribal television: Viewing native people in Sitcoms. University of North Carolina Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469618692_tahmahkera

View all publications on Illinois Experts