WHAT DO YOU KNOW?

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about Quanah Parker? Quanah Parker was one of a kind. The son of a Comanche war chief and a white woman, he grew to become a man of two worlds.___________________ On a day when the tribesmen and boys were out hunting, their village was raided by Texas Rangers. Only the women and a few braves were there and most were killed except Quanah’s mother who fled on horseback with her infant daughter. However she was chased, captured, and identified as a white woman named Cynthia Ann Parker. She was returned to a white settlement where Parker relations lived. It is believed that Peta Nocona, Quanah’s father, lived another 3 or 4 years before his two sons became orphans.___________________ The vast area called Comancheria had an eastern boundary through Austin and Llano north to the Red River. It included all of the Panhandle of Texas and the south plains to approximately Interstate 10. Before 1860, it was half of Texas plus parts of New Mexico and Oklahoma. Quanah was raised by a band of Comanche in the Llano area. He grew to be a man and his leadership was recognized in the Red River War of 1874-1875.__________________ When around age 30, Quanah formed a multi tribal alliance of 700 warriors to resist U.S. Treaties (established from 1774 to 1832) providing reservations in Oklahoma where Native Americans were to live. Quanah and his followers became fugitives on the staked plains of West Texas continuing to hunt buffalo and raid white settlements while the U.S. Cavalry unsuccessfully searched for them. Eventually, they were found and besieged in Adobe Walls of the Palo Duro Canyon. General Mackenzie’s troops killed their horses so the only escape was by scaling the walls. They had endured a terrible winter; Starving and frozen, many died. Nature and the superior weapons of the U.S. Army finally bested the Indians. In 1890, Quanah and his remaining followers surrendered and moved to the Kiowa-Comanche reservation in Oklahoma. __________________ Although most Indians found life on the reservation difficult or impossible, Quanah did not. He was a forceful pragmatic leader and federal agents recognized him as a chief. He worked with white ranchers creating a ranching industry for his people. He supported construction of schools for Native American children. Houses were built and crops were planted. He established a Comanche police force and served as a judge in tribal court.______________________ Quanah maintained a 22 room house for his seven wives and children. Investments included a railroad. He became a wealthy man. Panhandle ranchers and President Theodore Roosevelt were his friends. Magazines interviewed him on politics and social issues. He was a member of the peyote eating Native American Church, but had a son who became a Methodist minister. He operated his profitable ranch and in 1902 his people named him deputy sheriff of Lawton, Oklahoma.______________________ He died and was buried in full Comanche ceremonial regalia with a large sum of money. Robbers plundered Quanah’s grave four years after the burial. In 1957, he and Cynthia Ann Parker were reinterred in a burial site called “Chief’s Knoll” with full military honors at the Fort Sill Cemetery in Lawton Oklahoma. Carole Sikes 5/2022 Ref: Article by Brian C. Hosmer. Also histories by T.R. Fehrenbach and Stephen Harrigan