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Oklahoma City is OK
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by Tom Keener
Bill Neeley, author of The Last Comanche Chief: The Life and Times of Quanah Parker, discusses the legendary Native American chief, Quanah Parker, at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 17, at the Allen Public Library, 300 N. Allen Drive.
The story of Cynthia Ann Parker and her son Quanah Parker is part of the Texas mystique, constituting one of the most sensational chapters in Texas and Native American history. Quanah Parker was the only late nineteenth century Native American chief who was never defeated on the battlefield.
As a child, Cynthia Ann was kidnapped by Comanche raiders and was raised as a Native American. She later married Peta Nocona, the chief who gained fame for his raids on white settlements. They had 3 children: Quanah, Pecos and Topsannah. Quanah was the only one who survived to adulthood. On December 18, 1860, Texas Rangers under Lawrence Sullivan Ross attacked a Comanche camp at Mule Creek, a tributary of the Pease River. Peta Nocona was hunting nearby with his two sons, Quanah and Pecos. The Rangers discovered that one of the Comanches had blue eyes—a non-English-speaking white woman with her infant daughter. Col. Isaac Parker later identified her as his niece, Cynthia Ann. But she was never recon¬ciled to living in white society and made futile attempts to flee to her Comanche family.
Cynthia Ann’s every attempt to return to her people failed, and she was repeatedly caught and returned. Often refusing to speak or eat, she died in 1870 at the age of 43. At her death, she was buried in Fosterville Cemetery in Anderson County. In 1910, Quanah moved her body to Post Oak Cemetery near Cache, Oklahoma. In 1957, she was moved to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and reinterred beside Quanah.
In the 1860s, Quanah Parker eventually joined the Quahadis ("Antelopes") who were known as the most aloof and warlike of the various Comanche bands. Quanah became an accomplished horseman and gained a reputation as a leader. These qualities were increasingly in demand when the Quahadis refused to attend the Medicine Lodge Treaty Council or to move to a reservation as provided by the treaty. Under Quanah Parker, the Quahadis became fugitives on the Staked Plains. There, beyond the effective range of the military, they continued to hunt buffalo in the traditional way while raiding settlements.
As the buffalo and other food sources were depleted, and the Quahadis faced certain annihilation, Quanah and his warriors surrendered and were relocated to Indian Territory.
Bill Neeley states, "Not only did Quanah pass within the span of a single lifetime from a late prehistoric warrior to a statesman in the age of the Industrial Revolution, but he accepted the challenge and responsibility of leading the whole Comanche tribe on the difficult road toward their new existence."
Quanah Parker helped found the Native American Church and exclaimed, "White man goes into his church and talks about Jesus. The Indian goes into his tipi and talks with Jesus."
Born and raised on a farm between Tule Canyon and Palo Duro Canyon, Bill Neeley grew up with a love of the vast plains and the area’s fascinating heritage, especially that of the Spaniards and Comanches. A graduate of West Texas A&M in Canyon with two degrees in English, he taught English and Spanish at various schools and colleges in the Texas Panhandle and Trans-Pecos regions of Texas and served Southwest Oklahoma as a museum educator.
The land and the culture of the peoples who once inhabited it inspired his creative soul, prompting him to write his first of two biographies about Quanah Parker. The first, Quanah Parker and His People, was published in 1986 by the Swisher County Museum in Tulia, Texas. In 1995, John Wiley and Sons of New York brought out his second work, The Last Comanche Chief: The Life and Times of Quanah Parker. The book has received international attention and is considered by many critics to be the definitive biography of the famous Comanche chief. Research for the two biographies prompted Neeley to write his screenplay, Eagle of the Comanches.
Program is free and no reservations are required. For information, call Tom Keener at 214-509-4911. |
