by Mary Gindling

Created on: April 16, 2010

The only Comanche leader ever recognized as "Chief of the Comanche Indians" by the U.S. Government was Quanah Parker, the son of a Comanche chief and a white woman. ‘Though he was undefeated in his encounters with the U.S. Army, he surrendered rather than see his people destroyed, and then successfully led them into the white man’s world.

Early Life

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Quanah Parker is generally thought to have been born in 1852 near Cedar Lake in what is now Oklahoma, although some accounts date his birth to as early as 1845. His father was Comanche Chief Peta Nocona, leader of the Noconi band. His mother, Cynthia Ann Parker, had been kidnapped by the Comanches during a raid on Parker’s Fort, Texas in 1836. His family also included another son and a daughter, but both died in childhood.

Tragedy on the Pease River

Quanah Parker was only about eight years old when his life was changed forever. The Comanches had been at war for years with the American and Mexican governments. In 1860 a contingent of Texas Rangers, soldiers, and Tonkawa Indian scouts raided Peta Nocona’s encampment on the Pease River in northwest Texas. Quanah’s father was killed, and his mother and young sister Topasannah ("Prairie Flower) were taken prisoner. The raid nearly destroyed the Noconi band and Quanah made his way to the Quahada band of the Staked Plains.

During the 1860's, the Quehadas were reputed to be the most warlike of all the Comanche bands. During this time Quanah, an accomplished horseman, gradually proved himself as a leader. Quanah and the Quehada leaders refused to accept the terms of the 1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodge, which confined the southern Plains Indians to a reservation where they would receive clothing and be taught to farm. The Quehada band decided to remain on the warpath, hunting buffalo and raiding settlements in Texas and Mexico.

The Red River Wars

For the next seven years, Quanah Parker and his band roamed, hunted, and raided towns in Texas and New Mexico. They outfought, outmaneuvered and outran their enemies and were never defeated in encounters with the U.S. Army contingents sent against them. In 1871, Army Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie and his Fourth U.S. Cavalry were assigned to track and subdue the Comanches, but were unsuccessful, and Mackenzie gave up the attempt in 1872. The Army continued its pursuit however, during the Red River Campaign of 1874-75.

Parker realized that buffalo hunters posed one of the greatest threats to the Comanche

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