What is Bone Tomahawk based on?

Bone Tomahawk is an original, fictional story, screen-written by the same guy directing it:

Screenwriter S. Craig Zahler (“The Brigands of Rattleborge”) is set to make his feature directorial debut with Caliber Media Co.’s horror Western “Bone Tomahawk,” which will star Kurt Russell, Peter Sarsgaard, Richard Jenkins and Jennifer Carpenter.

The brutally violent, character-driven “Bone Tomahawk” follows a sheriff (Russell), a gunslinger, a befuddled oldster (Jenkins) and a cowboy (Sarsgaard) as they attempt to rescue a group of captives (including Carpenter) from a band of cannibalistic troglodytes.

Zahler wrote the original script, having previously sold the specs “The Big Stone Grid” to Sony, with Michael Mann attached to direct, and “Conflicts of the Last Progenitors” to Andrew Adamson. His Western script “The Brigands of Rattleborge” topped the 2006 Black List and is currently being developed by Red Granite Pictures and director Park Chan-wook (“Oldboy”).

The cannibals are, thankfully, not meant to represent any real world Native/First Nation people. In fact, the troglodytes...

they are cavemen or Cro-Magnon. Seriously.

I wouldn't be so sure. The Karankawa tribe of southeast Texas were known to cannibalize their defeated enemies. And if you look into the work done by David Paulides (The Missing:411 books), there are still baffling disappearances happening all over the United States. Sometimes only bones and clothing are found. Sometimes nothing. Sometimes alive but at inconceivably long distances. The cases are certainly baffling to say the least.

He (Dave P) also said that a park ranger admitted to him (unless he is flat out lying) that in some places there is such a thing as "wild people" that live in the deep wilderness. My brother also went so far as to say such incidents may give credence to the missing tribe of Dan from the 12 nations of Isreal. Not so sure about that last one. But boy do i love a good theory.

Just some possibilities......