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The
Half-breed Savage
QUANAH PARKER
by
Murray Montgomery |
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I
guess you could say that Mr. Parker was very successful man. After
all, he had made some $40,000 dealing in railroad stock - he was a
prominent rancher and entrepreneur - a leader of men. Not too bad
for a man once looked upon by the people of Texas as a "half-breed
savage."
According to information acquired from the Handbook of Texas,
Quanah Parker was born around 1845 near the Wichita Mountains in what
is now Oklahoma. He was the son of Peta Nocona, a war chief of the
Nocone Comanches, and Cynthia Ann Parker, a white captive. Cynthia
was captured in 1836, when she was eight years old, during a Comanche
raid on Parker's Fort.
History has recorded that Chief Nocona later married Cynthia and made
her his only wife. It was the way of the Comanche for a man to have
several wives but Nocona went against this tradition. It seems that
over the years Cynthia Ann converted to the Indian way of life. She
went on to have two more children, a girl named Topasannah (Flower)
and a son named Pecos. |
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his book, They Rode for the Lone Star, author Thomas W. Knowles
describes Quanah Parker's childhood as fairly normal, but this all
changed in December of 1860. While Chief Nocona was away on a hunting
trip, Texas Rangers under the command of Capt. Lawrence Sullivan Ross
attacked the Comanche camp. Cynthia Ann and Topasannah were captured
and returned to the Parker
family. There are conflicting reports as to what happened to Nocona,
one version has it that he returned during the battle and was killed.
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Order
Here
They Rode for the Lone Star |
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Cynthia and her
young daughter remained with the Parker
family - despite her pleas to be returned to the Indians she was
not allowed to do so. She tried to escape several times and was placed
under guard. Cynthia had been raised by and lived with the Comanches
for over 20 years. She couldn't speak English and she longed to take
her young daughter and return home.
Things got worse for Cynthia Ann; her little girl became ill with
a "white man's" disease and died. And in the way of the Comanche,
Cynthia grieved with wailing prayers and self-mutilation. She eventually
starved herself to death.
Now
an orphan, Quanah Parker was taken in by the Quahadi Comanches of
the Llano Estacado. This band was described as the most warlike of
all the tribes. It seems young Quanah adapted well to his new family
and later became a war chief of the Quahadis. He swore vengeance against
the white man for the death of his parents and sister. Quanah's Comanche
band created havoc on the plains, raiding white settlements at every
opportunity. Although constantly pursued by units of the United States
Army, the Comanches continued to terrorize the frontier and were never
captured.
The end was near for the Comanches however, as the buffalo hunters
poured onto the plains and slaughtered the animals so important to
the Indian's survival. Again Quanah gathered his people for one last
attempt to drive the white man from the plains. He formed an alliance
with the Cheyennes, Arapahos, and Kiowas. This group was made up of
about 700 warriors.
Finally, an attack by the Indians on buffalo hunters at Adobe
Walls was a disaster for the tribes. The superior firepower of
the hunters proved to be too much for Quanah's men and they were soundly
defeated. Fifteen were killed and many more were wounded, including
Quanah Parker.
There was no fight left in the Indians - they were constantly on the
run and near starvation. Parker and his men finally gave up and allowed
themselves to be moved onto the Kiowa-Comanche reservation in southwestern
Oklahoma.
Quanah
Parker was a smart, resourceful man and a great leader. Again he urged
his people to make a transition; this time to the white man's way
of life. Under his direction, schools were built and children educated.
He created a ranching industry on the reservation and leased grazing
land to the white ranchers. He showed his people how to build houses
and plant crops. Quanah advocated cooperation with the whites but
maintained that the Indians should never abandon their own traditions.
Parker went on to become a wealthy man. Although he embraced the white
culture, to some extent, he continued the Comanche way. He refused
to become a Christian or become monogamous. Quanah maintained a 22-room
house and had seven wives and numerous children. One of his sons,
White Parker, became a Methodist minister.
The federal government decided in 1901 that Quanah's Comanches were
becoming too powerful, in an economic sense. They decided to break
up the reservation into individual holdings and open it up to settlement
by outsiders. Parker continued to make money with his ranch however,
and he maintained his position as the most influential man among his
people. They honored him in 1902, by electing him sheriff of Lawton,
Oklahoma.
On February 23, 1911, the white man's disease did what their bullets
couldn't do - Quanah Parker died of an "undiagnosed ailment."
History
has been kind to Quanah Parker. He has been remembered as a splendid
warrior and leader of men - an outspoken lobbyist using the white
man's own law to gain rights for the Indians. Perhaps his greatest
accomplishment of all came when he won full American citizenship for
all of his people.
Author Thomas W. Knowles said it best, "In the person of Quanah Parker,
an extraordinary man in whom the blood of two strong peoples flowed,
the Lone Star and the Comanche Moon at last found common ground."
The last great chief of the Comanche Nation is buried near his mother
in a cemetery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. |
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