Who was Quanah Parker?

Quanah Parker, the last chief of the Quahada Comanche Indians, son of Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, was born about 1845 on either Elk Creek in Oklahoma or on Cedar Lake northeast of Seminole, Texas, in Gaines County.

His mother Cynthia Ann Parker was the celebrated captive of a Comanche raid on Parker's Fort (1836) and convert to the Indian way of life after spending 25 years with the Comanches.

By the 1860s the Quahadas ("Antelopes") were known as the most warlike of the various Comanche bands. Among them Quanah became an accomplished horseman and gradually proved himself to be an able leader.

In later life, in an ironic turnabout, Quanah decided the best way for survival for his people was assimilation with White culture, as his White mother had assimilated with Comanche culture. As chief of the Kiowa-Comanches, he promoted the creation of a ranching industry and soon became a wealthy rancher himself. He invested in a railroad. He supported education and agriculture and served as a judge on the tribal court. He also approved the establishment of a Comanche police force, which he believed would help the tribe to manage their own affairs. In 1902 his people honored their leader by naming him deputy sheriff of Lawton, Oklahoma. On February 11, 1911, while visiting the Cheyenne Reservation, he became ill with an undiagnosed ailment. After returning home he died on February 23, 1911 and is buried beside his mother Cynthia in Fort Sill Cemetery, Lawton, Oklahoma.

More Info: www.tshaonline.org

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klmilles

His mother had been captured by Comanches when she was a kid (much of her family was killed during this raid). She was adopted by the Comanche and married a chief, living as a Comanche for 25 years. She was captured by Texas Rangers in 1860 (with Quanah's infant sister) and forcibly returned to a surviving brother's farm. She refused to reassimilate to an "American" lifestyle and died from deliberate starvation in 1871. Quanah is buried next to her and his little sister (who died at about age 3). Quanah tried to preserve his people by adopting American farming and ranching since the buffalo were gone. He helped found the Native American Church and championed the use of peyote as part of the rituals. He had 8 wives (most simultaneously) and about 25 kids. He kept his braids to the very end.

MRogers

Howard Gerritsen (Semiotician), the answer might have been more accurate to say the last Comanche war chief who mounted an unsuccessful effort to prevent further white settlement in western Texas. His effort failed resulting in his changing his approach (if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em).