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Late one night in 1871, a group of riders
descended on a sleeping army camp.
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In minutes they stirred the camp into a
panic,
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stole about seventy horses,
and disappeared.
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Led by a young chief named Quanah
Parker,
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the raid was the latest in a long series
of altercations
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along the Texas frontier between
the indigenous people known as the Numunu,
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or Comanches,
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and the United States forces sent to
steal Comanche lands for white settlers.
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Though the conflict was decades old,
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U.S. Colonel Ranald MacKenzie
led the latest iteration.
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From summer to winter, he tracked Quanah.
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But Quanah was also tracking him, and each
time the colonel drew near his targets,
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they disappeared without a
trace into the vast plains.
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The Comanches had controlled this
territory for nearly two hundred years,
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hunting buffalo and moving whole villages
around the plains.
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They suppressed Spanish and Mexican
attacks from the south,
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attempts to settle the land by the United
States from the east,
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and numerous other indigenous peoples’
bids for power.
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The Comanche Empire was not one
unified group under central control,
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but rather a number of bands, each with
its own leaders.
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What all of these bands had in common
was their prowess as riders—
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every man, woman, and child was adept
on horseback.
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Their combat skills on horseback
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far surpassed those of both other
indigenous peoples and colonists,
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allowing them to control an enormous
area with relatively few people—
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probably about 40,000 at their peak
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and only about 4-5,000 by the time Quanah
Parker and Ranald Mackenzie faced off.
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Born around 1848, Quanah was the eldest
child of Peta Nocona,
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a leader of the Nokoni band, and Cynthia
Ann Parker,
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a kidnapped white settler who assimilated
with the Comanches
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and took the name Naduah.
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When Quanah was a preteen,
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US forces ambushed his village,
capturing his mother and sister.
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Quanah and his younger brother sought
refuge with a different Comanche band,
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the Quahada.
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In the years that followed, Quanah proved
himself as a warrior and leader.
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In his early twenties, he and a young
woman named Weakeah eloped,
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enraging her powerful father and several
other leaders.
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They stayed on the run for a year,
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attracting followers and establishing
Quanah as a paraibo, or chief,
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at an exceptionally young age.
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Under his leadership the Quahada band
was able to elude the U.S. military
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and continue their way of life.
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But in the early 1870s, the East Coast
market for buffalo hides became lucrative,
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and hunters slaughtered millions of
buffalo in just a few years.
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Meanwhile, U.S. forces led
a surprise attack,
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killing nearly all the Quahada band’s 1400
horses and stealing the rest.
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Though he had vowed to never surrender,
Quanah knew that without bison or horses,
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the Comanches faced certain
starvation in winter.
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So in 1875 Quanah and
the Quahada band
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moved to the Fort Sill
reservation in Oklahoma.
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As hunter-gatherers,
they could not transition easily
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to an agricultural way of life
on the reservation.
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The US government had promised
rations and supplies,
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but what they provided was
wildly insufficient.
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Quanah, meanwhile, was suddenly in a
weak political position:
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he had no wealth or power compared to
others
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who had been on the reservation longer.
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Still, he saw an opportunity.
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The reservation included ample grasslands—
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useless to the Comanches but perfect for
cattle ranchers to graze their herds.
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He began a profitable arrangement leasing
the land to cattle ranchers,
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quietly at first.
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Eventually, he negotiated leasing rights
with the US government,
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which ensured a steady source of income
for the Comanches on the reservation.
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As Quanah’s status on the reservation
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and recognition from government
officials grew,
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he secured better rations, advocated for
the construction of schools and houses,
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and became one of three tribal judges
on the reservation court.
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Tired of speaking with multiple leaders,
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the U.S. Government wanted to appoint
one chief of all Comanches—
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a role that hadn’t existed
outside the reservation.
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Still, many Comanches supported Quanah
for this role,
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just as several older leaders had
supported him
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to lead them against the US armed forces.
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Even Quanah’s former adversary, Ranald
MacKenzie, advocated for his appointment.
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Quanah acted in Hollywood movies and
befriended American politicians,
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riding in Theodore Roosevelt’s
inauguration parade.
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Still, he never cut his long braids and a
dvocated for the Native American Church
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and the use of peyote.
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He began to go by Quanah Parker, adopting
his mother’s surname,
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and tried to track down his mother
and sister,
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eventually learning they had both
died shortly after their capture.
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Quanah adapted again and again—
to different worlds, different roles,
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and circumstances that would seem
insurmountable to most.
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Though he wasn’t without critics,
after Quanah’s passing,
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Comanches began using the term “chairman”
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to designate the top elected
official in the tribe,
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recognizing him as the last chief of the
Comanches
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and a model of cultural
survival and adaptation.
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In that spirit, today’s Comanche Nation
looks towards the future,
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with over 16,000 enrolled citizens
and countless descendants.