(1) Quanah Parker's mother, Cynthia Ann Parker ("Nadua" meaning "Someone Found"), was captured in a Comanche raid on Fort Parker when she was nine years old. She was adopted into a Comanche family, became a wife of Chief Peta Nocona, bore his children, and refused multiple attempts to ransom her, pointing to her young sons as her reason to stay. She was recaptured with her young daughter when Quanah was about 15. Nadua begged a Comanche speaker to take her from her white relatives back to her Comanche family, promising him horses and wives, to no avail. Mother and daughter died a few years later.
(2) Quanah Parker was born in Texas or Oklahoma sometime around 1845. His name means "Fragrance."
(3) Quanah became a Comanche warrior ("the Eagle") sometime between 14 and 16 years old, and became a war chief a few years later.
(4) In 1871, Quanah led the Quahada band of Comanches in escaping Colonel Ranald Mackenzie and troops from Fort Richardson (located in what is now Jacksboro, Texas).
(5) Quanah survived a bullet in the side at the Second Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874 (near Stinnett, Texas), stating later that the bullet was deflected by the buffalo horn powder case he was wearing.
(6) The sustained conflict between Comanche, Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Arapaho warriors on one side and the buffalo hunters, the U.S. Army, and the Texas Rangers in 1874-75 is called the Red River War. The tribes were responding to the loss of the buffalo, encroachments on their range, and massacres of their people. The Army and the Texas Rangers were responding to persistent raids on settlements, which caused settlers to pull back.
(7) In 1875, the Quahada band of Comanches under Quanah surrendered to Mackenzie and went onto the reservation in Oklahoma.
(8) When the Comanches left the reservation to hunt in 1878 and discovered the vast bison herds were almost totally gone, Quanah negotiated a deal with the legendary Texas cattleman Charles Goodnight to respect the ranch's citizens and property in exchange for two beeves every other day while the Indians were in Palo Duro Canyon. Surviving bison were thus allowed to continue roaming the JA rangeland, assuring the survival of the Southern Plains Bison.
(9) Quanah learned the cattle business from Charles Goodnight and other noted Texas ranchers. He believed cattle and education were the future of the Comanches, and worked to negotiate payments to the Comanches, Kiowas, and Apaches for grazing rights on their reservation land.
(10) In the 1890s, Quanah invested $40,000 in a railroad line from Quanah, Texas (a town named after him) to Floydada, Texas. It was called the Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway.
(11) Quanah Parker is remembered for his hospitality and generosity at his home, Star House, hosting both notables (President Theodore Roosevelt, British Ambassador Lord Brice, Texas cattlemen Charles Goodnight and Burk Burnett) and young runaways adopted into his household.
Information taken from The Last Comanche Chief: The Life and Times of Quanah Parker and from the Proclamation of Quanah Parker Day.
