Quanah Parker - The last Comanche Chief

When we gaze into the history of Quanah Parker, a look at his mother and father must be brought into the scene. His mother Cynthia Ann Parker was captured when she was eight-years-old during a Comanche massacre on her family at Fort Parker in 1836. His father was Chief Peta Nocona of the Quahada Comanche. Quanah was born in 1852, and while growing up under the tutelage of his father became a brave and skilled warrior. After Nocona’s passing, young Quanah became a leader to the Comanche

Quanah was not only shown to be brave, but very intelligent as well. In 1867 when the government was trying to negotiate a peace treaty among the various bands that dwelled in the land known as Comancheria. Many of the tribes that were present at Medicine Lodge Creek, Kansas signed the treaty but Quanah chose not to sign the treaty and his Quahadi band would do battle with the government forces until 1875 when Quanah’s band, which were the last free Comanche’s, were subjugated to a reservation in Southwestern Oklahoma.

At this point, Quanah Parker was appointed the Chief of all the Comanche that dwelled on the reservation. The intelligent and resourceful leader embraced much of white culture and even became friends with Teddy Roosevelt. Quanah was respected by white culture even though he rejected monogamy; Parker had five wives and 25 children. He also rejected protestant Christian beliefs and formed the Native American Church, which followed the belief in Peyotism the most widespread religion in the indigenous cultures. The last Comanche Chief passed over on February 23, 1911. His epitaph reads, “Resting Here Until Day Breaks, And Shadows Fall and Darkness Disappears is Quanah Parker Last Chief of the Comanche."