Charles Goodnight, inspiration for Lonesome Dove, and the Comanche Indians. One Last Buffalo Hunt. Charles Goodnight and The Comanche Indians. One last buffalo hunt. “A tale of an aging rancher and the passage of time; a brief, bloody glimpse of an old life that will never come again. Goodnight was willing to sacrifice his favorite buffalo, Old Shakespeare, just to give the Comanches their final hunt.” Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving were the inspiration that Larry McMurtry needed to write the novel Lonesome Dove. Supposedly based on a real incident where several old reservation Comanches ask Goodnight for a buffalo to kill in the old ritual way. If it ain’t true, it ought to be. Story told by Tom Kerlin, Cowboy Poet. Cover photo courtesy of TSHA.