45 Facts About Quanah Parker

Quanah Parker was likely born into the Nokoni 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.

Quanah Parker was never elected chief by his people but was appointed by the federal government as principal chief of the entire Comanche Nation.

Quanah Parker became a primary emissary of southwest indigenous Americans to the United States legislature.

Quanah Parker was elected deputy sheriff of Lawton in 1902.

Quanah Parker is buried at Chief's Knoll on Fort Sill.

Cynthia Ann Parker and Nocona's first child was Quanah Parker, born in the Wichita Mountains of southwestern Oklahoma.

Cynthia Ann Quanah Parker committed suicide by voluntary starvation in March 1871.

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.

Quanah Parker left and rejoined the Kwahadi band with warriors from another band.

Quanah Parker surrendered to Mackenzie and was taken to Fort Sill, Indian Territory where he led the Comanches successfully for a number of years on the reservation.

Quanah Parker was never elected principal chief of the Comanche by the tribe.

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.

At that gathering, Isatai'i and Quanah Parker recruited warriors for raids into Texas to avenge slain relatives.

Quanah Parker hid behind a buffalo carcass, and was hit by a bullet that ricocheted off a powder horn around his neck and lodged between his shoulder blade and his neck.

The wound was not serious, and Quanah Parker was rescued and brought back out of the range of the buffalo guns.

Quanah Parker went on hunting trips with President Theodore Roosevelt, who often visited him.

Fragmented information exists indicating Quanah Parker had interactions with the Apache at about this time.

Quanah Parker was said to have taken an Apache wife, but their union was short-lived.

But, Quanah Parker changed his position and forged close relationships with a number of Texas cattlemen, such as Charles Goodnight and the Burnett family.

Quanah Parker earned the respect of US governmental leaders as he adapted to the white man's life and became a prosperous rancher in Oklahoma.

Quanah Parker had his own private quarters, which were rather plain.

Quanah Parker extended hospitality to many influential people, both Native American and European American.

Burnett assisted Quanah Parker in buying the granite headstones used to mark the graves of his mother and sister.

President Roosevelt and Quanah Parker went wolf hunting together with Burnett near Frederick, Oklahoma.

Quanah Parker wanted the tribe to retain ownership of 400,000 acres that the government planned to sell off to homesteaders, an argument he eventually lost.

Quanah Parker asked for help combating unemployment among his people and later received a letter from the President stating his own concern about the issue.

Quanah Parker took two wives in 1872 according to Baldwin Parker, one of Quanah Parker's sons.

Quanah Parker had wed her in Mescalero by visiting his Apache allies since the 1860s and had got her for five mules.

Yellow Bear pursued the band and eventually Quanah Parker made peace with him.

Quanah Parker had eight wives and twenty-five children.

Quanah Parker stayed for a few weeks with them, where he studied English and Western culture, and learned white farming techniques.

Quanah Parker is credited as one of the first important leaders of the Native American Church movement.

Quanah Parker adopted the peyote religion after having been gored in southern Texas by a bull.

Quanah Parker was visiting his uncle, John Quanah Parker, in Texas where he was attacked, giving him severe wounds.

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.

Quanah Parker taught that the sacred peyote medicine was the sacrament given to the Indian peoples and was to be used with water when taking communion in a traditional Native American Church medicine ceremony.

Quanah Parker was a proponent of the "half-moon" style of the peyote ceremony.

Quanah Parker advocated only using mind-altering substances for ritual purposes.

Quanah Parker acted in several silent films, including The Bank Robber.

At the age of 66, Quanah Parker died on February 23,1911, at Star House.

In 1911, Quanah Parker's body was interred at Post Oak Mission Cemetery near Cache, Oklahoma.

Quanah Parker dressed and lived in what some viewed as a more European-American than Comanche style.

Quanah Parker did adopt some European-American ways, but he always wore his hair long and in braids.

Quanah Parker refused to follow US marriage laws and had up to eight wives at one time.

The Quanah Parker Society, based in Cache, Oklahoma, holds an annual family reunion and powwow.