Quanah Parker, Comanche Chief

Oklahoma Western Biographies #6

by William T. Hagan

The biography of a remarkable figure of the Southern Plains the son of Cynthia Parker, a white captive whose subsequent return to white society and early death had become a Texas frontier legend who rose from able warrior to tribal leader on the Comanche reservation, and maintained a blend of progressive and traditional beliefs until his death in 1911 at the age of 57. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Genres: Native American, Nonfiction, Biography, History

160 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1993

Reviews

[BluLibrarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative, but also quite short. Felt like there were some things that got skipped over too quickly.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read, but like reading a textbook. Flow is a bit choppy but the content is thorough, concise, and very informative for Quanah's era of 1875 until his death in 1911.

[Efrem Sepulveda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a brief but informative book on the life of Quanah Parker, a mixed-blood Comanche who was prominent in the history of what is today southwest Oklahoma from 1875 to his death in 1911. Not much of this book details Quanah's early life before his relegation to the Comanche-Kiowa reservation after the Red River War of 1874-75. The main exception is that he was the son of Cynthia Ann Parker, a Texas girl who was taken into captivity by the Comanches in a raid on Fort Parker in 1836. It was probably some 15 years later that Quanah was born.

The book is divided into several chapters detailing Quanah's reservation life. The book describes Quanah as taking the "middle road" between the white man's way and the Comanche way. He was realistic in his view that the whites were here to stay and that he found ways to adjust to that life while at the same time keeping some of the old ways like keeping multiple wives, his hairstyle and his use of peyote which he first acquired from the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico.

Quanah was an astute businessman, acquiring income through leasing grasslands to Texas cattlemen and realizing that the reservation was being broken up after the Congressional ratification of the Jerome Agreement in 1900 tried to get the best possible deal for his people. He disagreed with Kiowa chief Lone Wolf with regards to holding on to the reservation as a whole and stopping the allotments of the land.

The book finishes up with comparisons between Quanah Parker and famous Indians such as Chief Joseph, Geronimo and Red Cloud. The book consists of 133 pages of text with an index and a list of sources that one can acquire to read more about Quanah Parker, Military campaigns that led to the setttlement of Comanches on the reservation and life on the reservation. A good introductory text to this famous Comanche.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book covers Quanah's life from around 1874 to his death in 1911. Essentially only his life on the reservation, non-the-less, the book was very interesting and provides many insights from both the Indian and White perspective about this dynamic time in American History.