Quanah Parker was born
about 1845 to famed war chief, Peta Nocona, and Cynthia Ann Parker, the famed
captive of a Comanche raid on Parker's Fort in 1836. In 1860, the Texas Rangers
raided the Comanche village where he, his father, mother, and sister were
living. Quanah’s father died in the attack and his mother and sister were
captured. With the Noconis wiped out from the attack and Quanah, now an orphan,
he took refuge with the Quahada Comanches of the Llano Estacado.
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| Cynthia Ann Parker, Quanah's Mother |
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| Chief Quanah Parker |
The Quahadas ("Antelopes")
Quahadas
means antelope. The Quahadi (Kwahadi, Kwahari, Kuahadi, Llaneros, Quaahda,
Quahada) Indians were a major band of Comanches who dwelled in the southwest in
what is called Llano Estacado or the Staked Plains. Antelopes were plentiful there
and also a main source of food for the Native Americans who lived in the area.
Of all the Comanche
bands, the Quahadas were the supreme warriors. They rejected the Medicine Lodge
Treaty Council and refused to go to the reservation as the treaty required.
Quanah’s superior skills and strengths in horsemanship, leadership, and
military strategy served him and his fugitive band well as he basically held
the Texas plains unchallenged, beyond the reach of the US Calvary. For the next
seven years, the Quahadas continued to hunt buffalo in the traditional way and
raid pioneer settlements in the area.
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| Quanah on horseback. |
Soon, buffalo hunters streamed onto the plains and in
turn destroyed the Comanche’s chief source of food. Quanah and a medicine man
named Isa-tai, formed a multitribal alliance so they could drive the hunters off
the plains. On June 27, 1874, 700 brave warriors—Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas,
and Comanches—attacked twenty-eight hunters and one woman at Adobe Walls. The
hunters, with their superior weapons, fended off the repeated attacks. Only one
hunter was killed, but the Indians suffered numerous losses and Quanah was wounded.
The Indians retreated, and the alliance crumbled. Within a year Quanah and the
Quahadas, were suffering starvation. Quanah knew that further resistance would
lead to the annihilation of the Comanches. So, on June 2, 1875, Quanah and the
Quahadas surrendered at Fort Sill. They were then moved to the Kiowa-Comanche
reservation in southwestern Oklahoma.
Adjustment to Reservation Life
Most of the Quahadas had
a hard time conforming to life on the reservation. However, Quanah’s adjustment
was so smooth, federal agents named him chief. They thought it would help unite
the various Comanche bands. This action fell outside the federal government’s
jurisdiction and was unheard of in Comanche tradition. But even so, the
Comanche agreed to it, since the tribe had been essentially left leaderless. It
proved to be a brilliant choice, for over the next quarter century, from the
ashes of defeat, Quanah led the Comanches by example, encouraging independence
and self-reliance, into the white man’s world of civilization.
He was all for
building schools on reservation lands and advised young people to learn the
white man's ways. In fact, his children were educated on the reservation as
well as at boarding schools.
Quanah achieved wealth
and success from raising his own stock, and he encouraged his people to attain
financial security through ranching. Since the ranchers were already using
Comanche pasturelands for their herds, he leased grazing lands on the
reservation to specific white ranchers. By creating legal agreements with those
ranchers, he hoped they would help him prevent ranchers without leases from accessing
those grazing lands. He taught his followers to build houses designed like the white
man's and to plant crops.
Quanah believed in
cooperating with whites and in cultural transformation in the areas of ranching,
education, and agriculture. He served as a judge on the tribal court and
negotiated business deals with white investors. He traveled many times to
Washington DC to represent his people in front of Congress. He also fought
efforts to undermine the changes he’d initiated, for example, he prevented the
spread of the ghost dance among his people. Quanah also encouraged the establishment
of a Comanche police force, to help the Indians handle their own affairs.
He grew rich through
his astute investments, including $40,000 worth of stock in the Quanah, Acme, and
Pacific Railway. He was a friend of Theodore Roosevelt and many prominent Texas
ranchers. In 1905, he even rode in President Roosevelt’s inaugural parade. Quanah
was often interviewed by reporters on a variety of subjects, including
political and social issues.
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| Quanah second from left. |
However, he was a
traditionalist in several ways:
- · He refused to cut his braids
- · Remained a polygamist, maintaining a twenty-two-room house for his seven wives and numerous children.
- · Would not convert to Christianity
- · Belonged to the Native American Church
- · Initiated the use of peyote among the tribes in Oklahoma.
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| Quanah's daughters. |
But, in 1901 the
federal government broke the Kiowa-Comanche reservation up into individual
holdings and opened it to settlement by outsiders. In the final days of his
life, Quanah ran his profitable ranch, continued to build business
relationships and friendships with whites, and remained the most influential
person among the Comanches. In 1902 his people honored their leader by naming
him deputy sheriff of Lawton, Oklahoma.
In February 11, 1911,
while visiting the Cheyenne Reservation, he became ill, returned home, and died
on February 23. For his funeral, Quanah
was dressed in full Comanche regalia, befitting his position as chief. He was buried
beside his mother in Post Oak Mission Cemetery near Cache, Oklahoma. About 1500 people formed his funeral
procession that was over two miles long. Unfortunately, thieves looted his
grave four years later, since a large sum of money had allegedly been buried
with him.
Due to the expansion
of a missile base in 1957, Post Oak Mission Cemetery was relocated and Quanah
Parker, the last Comanche Chief, was reburied with full military honors at Fort
Sill Post Cemetery in Lawton, Oklahoma, in a section of the cemetery known as
Chief's Knoll. Cynthia Ann Parker was moved to that cemetery as well.
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Great info. So many of our American Indians did so much good. I've not learned enough about the tribes in the South. Thank you for this information.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this concise bio of an American legend. Seeing the many threads in his life gives a well-rounded picture of the man, chief and much needed leader.
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