why did quanah parker surrenderwhy did quanah parker surrender

In late September 1871, Mackenzie set out with 600 troops of the 4th Cavalry and 11th Infantry, as well as the 25 Tonkawa scouts, to punish the Quahadis. Western settlement brought the Spanish, French, English, and American settlers into regular contact with the native tribes of the region. He became an influential negotiator with government agents, a prosperous cattle-rancher, a vocal advocate of formal education for Native . He and his band of some 100 Quahades settled down to reservation life and Quanah promised to adopt white ways. Yellow Bear pursued the band and eventually Quanah Parker made peace with him. Quanah Parker and his band were unable to penetrate the two-foot thick sod walls and were repelled by the hide merchants' long-range .50 caliber Sharps rifles. Quanah Parker's majestic headdress. Young Quanah grieved when Nautda and his sister, Prairie Flower were captured by Texas Rangers during an attack on his bands camp at Pease River, Texas, in 1860. From the Sphinx of ancient Egypt to the dragons of China and the Minotaur of ancient Greece, one, The Rufus Buck gangs exploits didnt last long, but they were brutal enough to quickly go down in, Wyatt Earp may be lionized for his role in the gunfight at the O.K. Quanah Parker Trail, a small residential street on the northeast side of, 2007, State of Texas historical marker erected in the name of Quanah Parker near the, This page was last edited on 12 April 2023, at 01:19. Iron Jackets charmed life came to an end on May 12, 1858, when Texas Rangers John S. Ford and Shapely P. Ross, supported by Brazos Reservation Native Americans, raided the Comanche at the banks of the South Canadian River. The criminals were never found. [8] The second expedition lasted longer than the first, from September to November, and succeeded in making it clear to the Comanche that the peace policy was no longer in effect. Through the use of Tonkawa scouts, Mackenzie was able to track Quanah Parker's faction, and save another group of American soldiers from slaughter. Comanche political history: an ethnohistorical perspective, 17061875. A course of action used to achieve a goal. 1st Scribner hardcover ed.. New York: Scribner, 2010. Given the Comanche name Nadua (Foundling), she was adopted into the Nokoni band of Comanches, as foster daughter of Tabby-nocca. Although Mackenzies force tried to pick up the Comanches trail in the canyon the following day, they were unsuccessful. He had wed her in Mescalero by visiting his Apache allies since the 1860s and had got her for five mules. Quanah Parker Last Chief of the Comanches In the early hours of October 10, Parker and his warriors fell upon the U.S. Army soldiers with blood-curdling yells. Download the official NPS app before your next visit. Quanah Parker wanted the tribe to retain ownership of 400,000 acres (1,600km2) that the government planned to sell off to homesteaders, an argument he eventually lost. To fight an onset of blood burning fever, a Mexican curandera was summoned and she prepared a strong peyote tea from fresh peyote to heal him. After Peta Nocona's death (c. 1864), being now Parra-o-coom ("Bull Bear") the head chief of the Kwahadi people, Horseback, the head chief of the Nokoni people, took young Quanah Parker and his brother Pecos under his wing. The Quahadi were noted for their fierce nature; so much so that other Comanche feared them. ), you were probably thrilled when, When Josephine Marcus Earp died in Los Angeles on December 19, 1944, her small memorial attracted little attention, 50 Native American Proverbs, Sayings & Wisdom Quotes, 10 Places to See Native American Pictographs & Petroglyphs in the West, 10 Revealing Facts About Isaac Parker, the Old Wests Hanging Judge, 7 Remarkable Native American Women from Old West History, The Fighting Men & Women of the Fetterman Massacre, The Brief & Heinous Rampage of the Rufus Buck Gang, 10 Important Battles & Fights of the Great Sioux War, 5 Spectacular Native American Ruins in Colorado You Can Visit Today, Flint Knapping: Stone Age Technology that Built the First Nations, 10 Native American Mythical Creatures, from Thunderbirds to Skinwalkers, The Complicated Legacy of Peacemaker Ute Chief Ouray, 15 Native American Ruins in Arizona that Offer a Historic Glimpse into the Past. According to his daughter "Wanada" Page Parker, her father helped celebrate President Theodore Roosevelt's 1905 inauguration by appearing in the parade. At one point, they shot Parkers horse from under him from one of the outposts buildings at 500 yards. Related read: 10 Revealing Facts About Isaac Parker, the Old Wests Hanging Judge. Between 1867 and 1875, military units fought against the Comanche people in a series of expeditions and campaigns until the Comanche surrendered and relocated to a reservation. Cynthia Ann Parker had been missing from Quanahs life since December 1860, when a band of Texas rangers raided a Comanche hunting camp at Mule Creek, a tributary of the Pease River. [1] Quanah and his band, however, refused to cooperate and continued their raids. Cynthia Ann reportedly starved herself to death in 1870. P.338, Pekka Hamalainen. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. After years of searching, Quanah Parker had their remains moved from Texas and reinterred in 1910 in Oklahoma on the Comanche reservation at Fort Sill. There he established his ranch headquarters in 1881. Quanah Parker was a proponent of the "half-moon" style of the peyote ceremony. He rejected traditional Christianity even though, according to the Texas State Historical Association, one of his sons, White Parker, was a Methodist minister. With the outbreak of the Civil War, some Indian tribes attempted to align themselves with what they believed would be the winning side. Through his hospitality, political activism, and speaking engagements, the one-time war chief emerged as a national celebrity with a reputation for wit, warmth, and generosity. But bravery alone was not enough to defeat the buffalo hunters with their long-range Sharps rifles. Quanah was the son of Chief Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, a white woman captured by the Comanches as a child. Quanah Parkers surrender at Fort Sill to American authorities in 1875 was a turning point, not just for the Comanches, but for him personally. His first wife was Ta-ho-yea (or Tohayea), the daughter of Mescalero Apache chief Old Wolf. The battle raged until the Comanches ran out of ammunition and withdrew. Although most of the Comanches were killed, Cynthia and her Comanche daughter, Prairie Flower, were captured. Quanah later added his mothers surname to his given name. Quanah Parker had become one of the preeminent representatives of Native Americans to white society. Roosevelt said, Give the red man the same chance as the white. When pressed by authorities to just have one wife, Quanah impishly agreed and told the official, but you must tell the others.. To process the hides for shipment to the East, they established supply depots. After 24 years with the Comanche, Cynthia Ann Parker refused re-assimilation. Comanche chief who opposed the treaty and refused to move onto a reservation. He took his role seriously and did what he could for his people. However, the Comanches never had a chief with central authority. She then bore three children: Quanah, who was born between 1845 and 1850, Pee-nah (Peanuts), and Toh-Tsee-Ah (Prairie Flower). He had a two-story, ten-room house built for himself in the foothills of the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma. He was likely born into the Nokoni ("Wanderers") band of Tabby-nocca and grew up among the Kwahadis, the son of Kwahadi Comanche chief Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, an Anglo-American who had been abducted as a nine-year-old child and assimilated into the Nokoni tribe. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. [24] This event is open to the public. After a raid against white buffalo hunters in Adobe Walls Texas ended in defeat and was followed by a full scale retaliation by the U. S. Cavalry, it was still another year before Quanah Parker and his men finally succumbed to surrender. The cavalrymen eventually located Parkers former village. With their food source depleted, and under constant pressure from the army, the Kwahadi Comanche finally surrendered in 1875. [23], Quanah Parker did adopt some European-American ways, but he always wore his hair long and in braids. Surrenders increased in number until the last holdouts, Quahadi Comanches under Quanah Parker, surrendered to Mackenzie at Fort Sill, Indian Territory, on June 2, 1875. Quanah was wounded in what is referred to as The Second Battle of Adobe Walls. 3. Both men rode hard for each other. Following the Red River War, a campaign that lasted from AugustNovember in 1874, the Comanche surrendered and moved to their new lands on the reservation. In an effort to end the bloodshed, Sherman and the peace commissioners hoped to move various Southern Plains tribes to reservations, provide them with provisions, and transform them into farmers. [6] The campaign began in the Llano Estacado region where Comanche were rumored to have been camping. Mackenzie's third expedition, in September 1872, was the largest. In the Comanche language, kwana means "an odor" or "a smell". As always, Parker was in the thick of the action. [6] Changing weather patterns and severe drought caused grasslands to wither and die in Texas. 1st ed.. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2003. She made a pathetic figure as she stood there, viewing the crowds that swarmed about her. [7] In April 1905, Roosevelt visited Quanah Parker at the Star House. Watch the entire 25-minute movie to see if you can spot him earlier in the film! Proof of this was that when he died on February 24, 1911, he was buried in full Comanche regalia. She grew up as a daughter of the tribe, married Nocona, and gave birth to son Quanah (Fragrant), son Pecos (Peanuts), and daughter Tot-see-ah (Prairie Flower). The campaign began with the Battle of Blanco Canyon. According to American History, War Chief Peta Nocona took Cynthia Ann as one of his wives. I do think peyote has helped Indians to quit drinking.. Pekka Hamalainen. Sherman turned to Colonel Ranald Mackenzie, the battle-hardened leader of the 4th U.S. Cavalry based at Fort Richardson, Texas, to cripple the Comanches capacity to wage war. All versions of the event agree that Cynthia Ann and her young daughter, Prairie Flower, were captured. Cynthia Ann Parker. Swinging down under his galloping horses neck, Parker notched an arrow in his bow. May the Great Spirit smile on your little town, May the rain fall in season, and in the warmth of the sunshine after the rain, May the earth yield bountifully, May peace and contentment be with you and your children forever. On September 28, the Comanche and Kiowa suffered a crippling defeat when Mackenzie swept through Palo Duro Canyon in the Staked Pains, destroying their village and capturing 1,000 horses. The wolf hunt was believed to be one of the reasons that Roosevelt created the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. While there was little direct combat between the two forces, the American tactics were successful. Her case became famous, and the Texas Legislature, upon hearing of her story, authorized a $100 annual grant payment for five years. The duel was over. In the summer of 1869 he participated in a raid deep into southern Texas in which approximately 60 Comanche warriors stole horses from a cowboy camp near San Angelo and then continued to San Antonio where they killed a white man. In 1873, Isatai'i, a Comanche claiming to be a medicine man, called for all the Comanche bands to gather together for a Sun Dance, even though that ritual was Kiowa, and had never been a Comanche practice. In December 1860, Cynthia Ann Parker and Topsana were captured in the Battle of Pease River. After a year of marriage and a visit of Mescalero Apache in the Quohada camps, Ta-ho-yea asked to return home, citing as her reason her inability to learn the Comanche language. [8] Related read: When Did the Wild West Really End? On October 21 the various chiefs made their marks on the treaty. Cynthia Ann had been kidnapped at age nine during a Comanche raid on her familys outpost, Fort Parker, located about 40 miles west of present-day Waco, Texas. [22] In 1957, his remains were moved to Fort Sill Post Cemetery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, along with his mother Cynthia Ann Parker and sister Topsannah ("Prairie Flower"). [9] In the winter of 1873, record numbers of Comanche people resided at Fort Sill, and after the exchange of hostages, there was a noticeable drop in violence between the Anglos and the Native Indians. To the Comanches surprise, the buffalo hunters spotted them as they approached. It was perhaps this incident that started the Red River War, which finished Comanche power, that made Quanah conclude that fighting against the whites was a losing proposition. The Army regiments steadily wore them down in countless clashes and skirmishes. After his death in 1911, Quanah was buried next to his mother, whose assimilation back into white civilization had been difficult. The two opponents skirmished frequently in the following weeks, eventually winding up in Blanco Canyon in the Staked Plains. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Quanah had seven or eight if you include his first wife who was an Apache, and who could not adapt to Comanche ways. However, he also overtly supported peyote, testifying to the Oklahoma State Legislature, I do not think this Legislature should interfere with a mans religion; also these people should be allowed to retain this health restorer. Weckeah bore five children, Chony had three, Mahcheetowooky had two children, Aerwuthtakeum had another two, Coby had one child, Topay four (of which two survived infancy), and Tonarcy, who was his last wife, had none. Parker, who was in the rear, urged the warriors on as bullets fired by a pursuing soldier whizzed past him. Parker decided that he needed living quarters more befitting his status among the Comanches, and more suitable to his position as a . After Comanche chief Quanah Parker's surrender in 1875, he lived for many years in a reservation tipi. The raid should have been a slaughter, but the saloonkeeper had heard about the coming raid and kept his customers from going to bed by offering free drinks. However, she retreated from white society and fell into depression, which grew worse after the death of Prairie Flower in 1864 from fever. Although first espoused to another warrior, she and Quanah Parker eloped, and took several other warriors with them. Events usually include a pilgrimage to sacred sites in Quanah, Texas; tour of his "Star Home" in Cache; dinner; memorial service at Fort Sill Post Cemetery; gourd dance, pow-wow, and worship services. More conservative Comanche critics viewed him as a sell out. Some, including Quanah Parker himself, claim this story is false and that he, his brother, and his father Peta Nocona were not at the battle, that they were at the larger camp miles away, and that Peta Nocona died years later of illness caused by wounds from battles with Apache. Hundreds of warriors, the flower of the fighting men of the southwestern plains tribes, mounted upon their finest horses, armed with guns, and lances, and carrying heavy shields of thick buffalo hide, were coming like the wind, wrote buffalo hunter Billy Dixon. After his death in 1911, Quanah was buried next to his mother, whose assimilation back into white civilization had been difficult. How many participants were involved on both sides, whether Nocona was killed, and whether Quanah and Nocona were even present are all disputed issues, though it seems likely that Nocona neither perished nor was present. [1] This did little to end the cycle of raiding which had come to typify this region. Empire of the summer moon: Quanah Parker and the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. In 1901 the Federal government subdivided the reservation into 160-acre parcels of land, which compelled many of the Comanches to move away. Topsana died of an illness in 1863. Corral, but Virgil Earp, In the last half of the 1800s, the bustling port town of San Francisco, which grew out of, If you are a fan of the Paramount+ series Yellowstone (and who isnt? Quanah Parker sent her back to her people. He stayed for a few weeks with them, where he studied English and Western culture, and learned white farming techniques. Parker attempted to confuse his pursuers by dividing the Comanches and animals into two groups and having them cross and recross their trails. Parker welcomed new technology he bought a car and owned one of the first home telephones in Oklahoma yet held on to his cultural traditions, refusing to give up any of his eight beautiful wives, his magnificent braids, or his peyote religion. Disappears is Her family, having searched for her . Colonel Mackenzie and his Black Seminole Scouts and Tonkawa scouts surprised the Comanche, as well as a number of other tribes, and destroyed their camps. But their efforts to stop the white buffalo hunters came to naught. Quanah and Nautda never met again after her capture, but Quanah took her name, cherished her photograph, and grew friendly with his white relatives. However even after that loss, it was not until June 1875 that the last of the Comanche, those under the command of Quanah Parker, finally surrendered at Fort Sill. We then discuss the event that began the decline of the Comanches: the kidnapping of a Texan girl named Cynthia Ann Parker. Combined with the extermination of the buffalo, the war left the Texas Panhandle permanently open to settlement by farmers and ranchers. He led a band of Comanche fighters who resisted Anglo American settlement of the Plains. In May 1836, Comanche and Caddo warriors raided Fort Parker and captured nine-year-old Cynthia Ann and her little brother John. Quanah Parker was a man of two societies and two centuries: traditional Comanche and white America, 19th century and 20th. (The rangers reported that they killed Peta Nocona in the same attack, but Comanche historians tell that he died years later from old wounds, still grieving the loss of his wife and daughter.) One Comanche ambush narrowly missed Sherman, who was touring U.S. Army forts in Texas and the Indian Territory in the spring of 1871. Parker and his brother, Pee-nah, escaped and made their way to a Comanche village 75 miles to the west. In October 1867, when Quanah Parker was only a young man, he had come along with the Comanche chiefs as an observer at treaty negotiations at Medicine Lodge, Kansas. Quanah Parker is credited as one of the first important leaders of the Native American Church movement. Then, taking cover in a clump of bushes, he straightened himself, turned his horse around, and charged toward the soldier firing the bullets. Although outsmarted by Parker in what became known as the Battle of Blanco Canyon, Mackenzie familiarized himself with the Comanches trails and base camps in the following months. In order to stem the onslaught of Comanche attacks on settlers and travelers, the U.S. government assigned the Indians to reservations in 1867. In fact, a town in Texas was named after him, he served as a judge on Comanche affairs, and consulted with white authorities on policy. Updates? Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press in cooperation with the American Indian Studies Research Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1996. In an attempt to unite the various Comanche bands, the U.S. government made Parker the principal chief. On June 2 Parker arrived at Fort Sill where he surrendered to Mackenzie. Part of them did surrender that fall. P.10-11, Pekka Hamalainen. American forces were led by Sgt. Thereafter, Quanah Parker became involved with peyote, which contains hordenine, mescaline or phenylethylamine alkaloids, and tyramine which act as natural antibiotics when taken in a combined form. He wheeled around under a hail of bullets and galloped toward the river, rejoining the other warriors who were swimming their horses through the brown water. The peyote religion and the Native American Church were never the traditional religious practice of North American Indian cultures. As early as 1880, Quanah Parker was working with these new associates in building his own herds. Quanah Parker extended hospitality to many influential people, both Native American and European American. As they retreated, Quanah Parker's horse was shot out from under him at five hundred yards. Assimilated into the Comanche, Cynthia Ann Parker married the Kwahadi warrior chief Peta Nocona, also known as Puhtocnocony, Noconie, Tah-con-ne-ah-pe-ah, or Nocona ("Lone Wanderer").[1]. While at first his mailshirt held true, at last six-shooters and Mississippi rifles killed the semi-legendary war chief. With the help of Parker, Isa-tai spread his message to the various tribes of the Southern Plains. There he and his wives fed hungry families who thronged their door, and took in several homeless white boys to be reared with their own two dozen children. A large area of todays Southern and Central Great Plains once formed the boundaries of the most powerful nomadic Native American people in history: the Comanche. The cavalrymen opened fire on the Comanches killing their leader. Quanah Parker was never elected principal chief of the Comanche by the tribe. Historian Rosemary Updyke, describes how Roosevelt met Quanah when he visited Indian Territory for a reunion of his regiment of Rough Riders from the Spanish-American War. P.335, Pekka Hamalainen. The meaning of Quanahs name is unclear. Expecting to catch the 29 whites asleep, Parker and his war party touched off the Second Battle of Adobe Walls in the early morning hours of June 27. They were the wealthiest of the Comanche in terms of horses and cattle, and they had never signed a peace treaty. A war party of around 250 warriors, composed mainly of Comanches and Cheyennes, who were impressed by Isatai'i's claim of protective medicine to protect them from their enemies' bullets, headed into Texas towards the trading post of Adobe Walls. He was just 11 years old when Texas Rangers carried off Cynthia Ann and little Prairie Flower, igniting in the boy a hatred of white men. The Comanche Empire. What happened to Quanah Parker? The two bands united, forming the largest force of Comanche Indians. Corrections? A faction of the Comanche tribe, the Quahadi, was arguably the most resistant towards the Anglo settlers. Quanah also maintained elements of his own Indian culture, including polygamy, and he played a major role in creating a Peyote Religion that spread from the Comanche to other tribes. quanah Parker became the last chief of the quahidi Comanche Indians and was also friends with many presadents Did Quanah Parker have any sisters or brothers? The Comanche Empire. The Quahadis used the Staked Plains, an escarpment in west Texas, as a natural fortress where they could elude both the U.S. Army and the Texas Rangers. Paul Howard Carlson. Taking cover behind a buffalo carcass, Parker was struck in the shoulder by a ricochet. Nevertheless, Mackenzies 1872 expedition came as a severe blow to the Comanches. [4], In the fall of 1871, Mackenzie and his 4th Cavalry, as well as two companies in the 11th Infantry, arrived in Texas, began to seek out their target. [1] He also refused to follow U.S. marriage laws and had up to eight wives at one time.[1]. the "basic Comanche political question". "Not only did Quanah pass within the span of a single lifetime from a Stone Age warrior to a statesman in the age of the Industrial Revolution, but he never lost a battle to the white man and he also accepted the challenge and responsibility of leading the whole Comanche tribe on the difficult road toward their new existence. Whites who had business dealings with the chief were surprised he was not impaired by peyote. During the next 27 years Quanah Parker and the Burnetts shared many experiences. In May 1915, one or more graverobbers opened the grave and stole three rings, a gold watch chain, and a diamond broach. P.337, Paul Howard Carlson. As American History explains, his stationary read: Principal Chief of the Comanche Indians. It was in this role that Quanah urged his fellow Comanches to take up farming and ranching. He summarized the talks that led to the Medicine Lodge Treaty as follows: The soldier chief said, Here are two propositions. The Apache dress, bag and staff in the exhibit may be a remnant of this time in Quanah Parker's early adult life. The rest of the band, led by Quanah, surrendered at Fort Sill on June 2, 1875. Parker was born in Elk Valley in the Wichita Mountains in or around 1848. [21] In 1911, Quanah Parker's body was interred at Post Oak Mission Cemetery near Cache, Oklahoma. Quanahs group held out on the Staked Plains for almost a year before he finally surrendered at Fort Sill. Comancheria, as their territory was known, stretched for 240,000 square miles across the Southern Plains, covering parts of the modern-day states of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado. The attack was repulsed and Quanah himself was wounded. Quanah Parker has many descendants. After a few rounds were fired more than half the troopers and an officer galloped away. In a letter to rancher Charles Goodnight, Quanah Parker writes, "From the best information I have, I was born about 1850 on Elk Creek just below the Wichita Mountains. Segregated. By the end of the summer, only about 1,200 Comanches, of which 300 were warriors, were still holding out in Comancheria. Quanah also was a devotee of Comanche spiritual beliefs. He also snared a good size herd of horses and mules, the care of which he entrusted to his Tonkawa scouts. [15] Quanah Parker was never elected chief by his people but was appointed by the federal government as principal chief of the entire Comanche Nation. The Quanah Parker Trailway (State Highway 62) in southern Oklahoma. Word of the raid had reached troops stationed at Fort Richardson, and they caught up with the war band along the Red River. The Comanches received a badly needed reprieve the following year when Mackenzie was bogged down in operations along the U.S.-Mexican border. A storm blew up prompting Mackenzie to halt his command in order to give his men a much needed rest. Quanah grew to manhood in that environment, the son of a war leader, in a warlike society, during a time of frequent warfare. Comanche warriors often took on more active, masculine names in maturity, but Quanah Parker retained the name his mother gave him, initially in tribute to her after her recapture. Thus, the correct answer is option A. . After moving to the reservation, Quanah Parker got in touch with his white relatives from his mother's family. Quanah Parker's modern day gravesite. As a sign of their regard for Burnett, the Comanches gave him a name in their own language: Mas-sa-suta, meaning "Big Boss". He later became the main spokesman and peacetime leader of the Native Americans in the region, a role he performed for 30 years. Colonel Ranald Mackenzie led U.S. Army forces in rounding up or killing the remaining Indians who had not settled on reservations. After one particularly vicious raid, a conglomerate force of U.S. Cavalry, Texas Rangers, and civilian volunteers surprised the Comanches as they were breaking camp on December 18. Therefore, option (a) is correct. On the reservation, Quanah became a great advocate of peace and modern ways. After a few more warriors and horses, including Isa-tais mount, were hit at great distances, the fighting died out for the day. Burk Burnett began moving cattle from South Texas in 1874 to near present-day Wichita Falls, Texas. Joseph A. Williams is an author, historian, and librarian based in Connecticut. S.C. Gwynne is the author of Hymns of the Republic and the New York Times bestsellers Rebel Yell and Empire of the Summer Moon, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.He spent most of his career as a journalist, including stints with Time as bureau chief, national correspondent, and senior editor, and with Texas Monthly as executive editor. P.64, Pekka Hamalainen. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press in cooperation with the American Indian Studies Research Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1996. This association may have related to his taking up the Native American Church, or peyote religion. The U.S. Army burned villages and seized horses in order to cripple the last Southern Plains holdouts from reservation life. P.63, S. C. Gwynne (Samuel C. ). In the wake of the widely publicized massacre, the U.S. government resolved to force the remaining Comanches to submit to reservation life. Cynthia Ann, who was fully assimilated to Comanche culture, did not wish to go, but she was compelled to return to her former family. Quanah Parkers mothers story is certainly dramatic, but his fathers lineage is also compelling. Quanah Parker. Quanah's mother, Cynthia Ann Parker, was abducted by Comanche raiders on the Texas frontier when she was 9. When he spotted the main column of the enemy bearing down on him, Parker and his warriors fell back, slowly trading shots with the Tonkawa scouts leading Mackenzies advance. Parker, who was not at the village when Mackenzie attacked it, continued to remain off the reservation. However, descendants have said that he was originally named Kwihnai, which means "Eagle.".