Quanah Parker's mother, Cynthia Ann Parker (born ca. 1827), was a member of the large Parker frontier family that settled in east  Texas in the 1830s. She was captured in 1836 (at age nine) byComanches during the raid of Fort Parker near present-day Groesbeck, Texas.

 

 Given the Indian name Nadua (Someone Found), she was adopted into the Nocona band of Comanches.^[1] Assimilated into the Comanche, Cynthia Ann Parker later married the warrior Peta Nocona, (also known as Noconie, Tah-con-ne-ah-pe-ah, or Nocona).

 

  His father was the renowned chief Iron Jacket, famous among the Comanche for wearing a Spanish coat of mail.

Nadua and Nocona's first child was Quanah (Fragrance), born in the Wichita Mountains of southwestern Oklahoma. Biographer Bill Neeley cites a letter Quanah wrote late in life to his friend, rancher Charles Goodnight, in which Quanah stated, “From the best information I have, I was born about 1850 on Elk Creek just below the Wichita Mountains.”

 

  Author S.C. Gwynne supports the Oklahoma claim in his 2010 book, Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History.

 

 However, another account disputes the birthplace, contending that in 1911 Parker was seen traveling by automobile near Lubbock, Texas, telling observers he was going to visit what he understood to be his birthplace at Laguna Sabinas (Cedar Lake) in Gaines County, Texas.^[4]

Nadua and Nocona also had another son, Pecos, and a daughter, Topsana (Prairie Flower). In December 1860, Nadua (Cynthia Ann) and Topsana were captured in the battle of Pease River, which actually took place along Mule Creek. American forces were led by Sgt. John Spangler, who commanded Company H of the U.S. 2nd Cavalry, and Texas Rangers under Lawrence Sullivan Ross (better known in Texas history as Sul Ross). Quanah, his brother Pecos, and his father Peta Nocona were almost certainly not at Mule Creek. However, in an effort to further his political career, Sul Ross later fabricated a story wherein he claimed to have killed Peta Nocona at Pease River. Ross would later become a Texas state senator, and eventually governor.

Meanwhile, Nadua (Cynthia Ann) and her daughter Topsana were reunited with her white family, but after having made her life 24 years with the Comanche, she wanted to return to them and her sons. However, Topsana died of an illness in 1863. Cynthia Ann Parker died in 1870.

                                               

                                                Career

Quanah was introduced into the Destanyuka band, where Kobe (Wild Horse) took him under his wing only after his father's death, several years after Pease River. Until Nocona died, he took care of his son and raised him. Kobe (Wild Horse) taught Quanah the ways of the Comanche Warrior and he grew to considerable standing as a warrior. He left and joined the Quahadi (Antelope Eaters) band with warriors from another Tribe. Quanah Parker surrendered to Mackenzie at Fort Sill, Indian Territory, and led the Comanches successfully for a number of years on the reservation. Quanah was never elected principal chief of the tribe Quahadi by the people; it was the U.S. government that appointed Quanah Parker principal chief of the entire nation once the people had gathered on the reservation and later introduced general elections. In October 1867, Quanah was only a young man who had come along with the Comanche chiefs as an observer at treaty negotiations at Medicine Lodge. Kobe (Wild Horse) made a statement about his refusal to sign the Medicine Lodge Treaty.

 

 In the early 1870s, the Plains Indians were losing the battle for their land with the United States government. Following the capture of the Kiowa chiefs Satank, Adoeet (Big Tree), and Satanta, the Kiowa, Comanche, and Southern Cheyenne tribes joined forces in several battles. Colonel Ranald Mackenzie led U.S. Army forces to round up or kill the remaining Indians who had not settled on reservations.

 

 On June 1874, a Comanche medicine man named Isa-tai called for a Sun Dance, even though that ritual had never been part of the Comanche religion. At that gathering, he and a young war leader of the Quahadi band of Comanches, Quanah Parker, recruited warriors for raids into Texas to avenge slain relatives of theirs.

 

 Other Comanche chiefs, notably Isa-Rose (White Wolf) and Tabananica (Sound of the Sun) of the Yapparika band and Kobe (Chief Wild Horse)of theDestanyuka band, identified the hide merchants as the real threat to the Indian way of life.

 

 They suggested that if Quanah were to attack anybody, he should attack the merchants. A war party headed west into the Panhandle of Texas. The Indians were repelled by long-range Sharps rifles. As they retreated, Quanah's horse was shot out from under him at five hundred yards. He was then hit by a ricocheting bullet that lodged in his shoulder.

 

  The attack on Adobe Walls caused a reversal of policy in Washington and led to the Red River War which culminated in a decisive Army victory in the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon. On September 28, 1874, Mackenzie and his Tonkawa scouts razed the Comanche village at Palo Duro Canyon and killed nearly 1,500 Comanche horses, a source of the Comanche wealth and power.

 

                                      On the reservation

 

 

With their food source depleted, and under constant pressure from the army, the Quahadi Comanche finally surrendered in 1875. With Colonel Mackenzie and Indian Agent James M. Hayworth, Parker helped settle the Comanche on the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation in southwestern Indian Territory.

 

Parker's home in Cache, Oklahoma was called the Star House. Parker's was the last tribe of the Staked Plains or Llano Estacado to come to the reservation.

 

 Quanah was named chief over all the Comanches on the reservation, and proved to be a forceful, resourceful and able leader. Through wise investments, he became perhaps the wealthiest American Indian of his day in the United States.

 

 At this time, Quanah embraced much of white culture and adopted the surname Parker. He was well respected by the whites. He went on hunting trips with President Theodore Roosevelt, who often visited him.

 

 Nevertheless, he rejected both monogamy and traditional Protestant Christianity in favor of the Native American Church Movement, of which he was a founder.

 

Quanah Parker and Samuel Burk Burnett

 

The story of the unique friendship that grew between Quanah and the Burnett family is addressed in the exhibition of cultural artifacts that were given to the Burnett family from the Parker family. The presentation of a cultural relic as significant as Quanah’s war lance was not done lightly. It is a clear indication of the high esteem to which the Burnett family was regarded by the Parkers. The correspondence between Quanah and Samuel Burk Burnett and his son, Tom Burnett, expressed mutual admiration and respect. The historical record mentions little of Quanah until his presence in the attack on the buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls on June 27, 1874. Fragmented information exists indicating Quanah had interactions with the Apache at about this time.

This association may have related to his taking up the Native American Church, or peyote religion. Quanah was said to have taken an Apache wife, but their union was short-lived. The Apache dress, bag and staff in the exhibit may be a remnant of this time in Quanah’s early adult life. With the buffalo nearly exterminated and having suffered heavy loss of horses and lodges at the hands of the US military, Quanah was one of the leaders to bring the Quahada (Antelope) band of Comanches into Fort Sill during late May and early June 1875. This brought an end to their nomadic life on the southern plains and the beginning of an adjustment to more sedentary life. Burk Burnett began moving cattle from South Texas in 1874 to near present-day Wichita Falls, Texas. There he established his ranch headquarters in 1881.

 

  Changing weather patterns and severe drought caused grasslands to wither and die in Texas. Burnett and other ranchers met with Comanche and Kiowa tribes to lease land on their reservation—nearly 1 million acres (400,000 ha) just north of the Red River in Oklahoma.

 

Originally, Quanah, like many of his contemporaries, was opposed to the opening of tribal lands for grazing by Anglo ranching interests. But, Quanah changed his position and forged close relationships with a number of Texas cattlemen, such as Charles Goodnight and the Burnett family. As early as 1880, Quanah was working with these new associates in building his own herds.

 

  In 1884, due largely to Quanah’s efforts, the tribes received their first “grass” payments for grazing rights on Comanche, Kiowa and Apache lands. It is during this period that the bonds between Quanah and the Burnett family grew strong.

 

 Burnett ran 10,000 cattle until the end of the lease in 1902.

 

The cattle baron had a strong feeling for Indian rights, and his respect for them was genuine. Where other cattle kings fought Indians and the harsh land to build empires, Burnett learned Comanche ways, passing both the love of the land and his friendship with the Indians to his family. As a sign of their regard for Burnett, the Comanches gave him a name in their own language: Mas-sa-suta, meaning “Big Boss”.

 

 Parker earned the respect of US governmental leaders as he adapted to the white man’s life and became a prosperous rancher in Oklahoma. His spacious, two-story Star House had a bedroom for each of his seven wives and their children. He had his own private quarters, which were rather plain. Beside his bed were photographs of his mother Nadua (Cynthia Ann) and younger sister Prairie Flower.

 

 Parker extended hospitality to many influential people, both Native American and European American. Among the latter were the Texas surveyor W. D. Twichell and the cattleman Charles Goodnight. Of all his white acquaintances, Parker counted Burk Burnett the best. He reportedly said: “I got one good friend, Burk Burnett, he big-hearted, rich cowman. Help my people good deal. You see big man hold tight to money, afraid to die. Burnett helped anybody.”

 

 During the next 27 years Parker and the Burnetts shared many experiences. Burnett helped by contributing money for the construction of Star House, Quanah’s large frame home, which bore the inverted white stars signifying his rank.

 

  Burnett asked for (and received) Quanah's participation in a parade with a large group of warriors at the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show and other public events. The “Parade” lance depicted in the exhibit was usually carried by Quanah at such public gatherings. Burnett assisted Quanah in buying the granite headstones used to mark the graves of his mother and sister. After years of searching, Parker had their remains moved from Texas and reinterred in 1910 in Oklahoma on the Comanche reservation at Fort Sill.

According to his daughter Wanada Page Parker, her father helped celebrate President Theodore Roosevelt's 1905 inauguration by appearing in the parade. In April 1905, Roosevelt visited Parker at the Star House.

 

 President Roosevelt and Parker went wolf hunting together with Burnett near Frederick, Oklahoma. During the occasion, the two discussed serious business. Quanah wanted the tribe to retain ownership of 400,000 acres (1,600 km²) that the government planned to sell off to homesteaders. (Quanah eventually lost this argument.) Quanah asked for help combatting unemployment among his people and later received a letter from the President stating his own concern about the issue. Finally, the wolf hunt was believed to be one of the reasons that Roosevelt created the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.