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Quanah Parker: The Last Chief of the Comanche
The Comanche are a proud people, not unlike other tribes of Native Americans. What separates the Comanche, though, from other nations is their meteoric rise to power because of the horse. No other tribe or nation in North America would surpass them in horsemanship, with many experts even going as far as saying that they were the best light cavalry the world had ever seen. And, while there are many Comanches who have stood out in the history of the American West, only one is notable for not only being the Last Chief of the Comanche, but also for his close relationship with white cattle barons, his founding of the Native American Church, and his complicated reputation.
The early life of Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker’s mother, Cynthia Ann Parker, was a member of the large Parker frontier family that settled in east Texas in the 1830s. She was captured at age nine by Comanches during the raid of Fort Parker near present-day Groesbeck, Texas. Given the Comanche name Nadua (“Foundling”), she was adopted into the Nokoni band of Comanches, as a foster daughter of Tabby-nocca. Assimilated into the Comanche, Nadua Parker was married to the warrior chief Peta Nocona…
