Empire of the Summer Moon

Empire of the Summer Moon

Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches

By

S. C. Gwynne

“Empire of the Summer Moon” tells the story of Quanah Parker, the half Comanche/half white man and his rise to become the last and greatest Chief of the Comanches.

The Comanche tribes (there were several) were the first American Indians to fully utilize the horse for travel, food and battle. They first encountered the horse somewhere around 1650 and within approximately 50 years became expert breeders and equestrians. Their skill on a horse is legendary and included the ability to ride full speed while using the body of the horse as a shield from other arrows or bullets.  They were able to shoot 20 arrows in the time it took a white man to load a musket (white men did not fight from horseback until much later). With this, combined with a culture completely centered on war, they dominated an area of approximately 250,000 square miles (600 miles by 400 miles) called “Comancheria” which included parts of today’s Colorado, Texas, Kansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

Ft. Parker was located approximately 90 miles south of today’s Dallas and was on what was then the “extreme” West of development and infringing into Comancheria. The Fort was established by the Parker Family (who later became a predominant family in Texas), was about one acre in size and consisted of six log cabins, four blockhouses, a bulletproof front gate, and enclosed by sharpened, cedar-timber walls 15 feet high. In 1836 a group of Comanches were to attack Ft. Parker, kill and mutilate several family members and abduct Cynthia Ann Parker, who was 9 years old at the time.

The Parker abduction represented an early attack (out of thousands) over a 40 year war, where white victims were mutilated, raped, tortured, killed, and abducted by the Comanches. Early on in response to these attacks, the Texas Rangers formed, and initially were a ragtag bunch of untrained young men who were seeking adventure and were composed of alcoholics and vagrants. In 1840, John Coffee (Jack) Hays became the Captain of the San Antonio Rangers and did much to change the Rangers into a trained force. Jack had been a surveyor in Texas (imagine what that job was like on the edge of Comancheria) for two years and had become known for protecting his men from Indians. Hays was the first to really study and emulate the Indian tactics and strategy, and was able to use them successfully. Also, the development of the Colt pistol by Samuel Colt provided the rangers with the first multi-shot weapon that the men could use on horseback. In The Battle of Walker’s Creek in June of 1844, Hays and his men used the Colt for the first time against a much larger force of Comanches and completely dominated the battle. “It was said that before Hays, Americans came into the West on foot carrying long rifles, and that after Hays, everybody was mounted and carrying a six-shooter” is a quote from Wynne’s book.

With Hays influence and training the tide began to turn against the Commanches, however, this was interrupted by the Civil War. Able men with any experience left to fight for either the Union or Confederates, and any advantage or gain against the Commanches was lost once the Commanches realized what was happening.

Cynthia Ann Parker had become Nautdah of the Comanches and was the wife of Peta Nocona, who was Chief of the Noconis (a Comanche band). Nocona had been in the party of Comanches at Ft. Parker in 1836 when Cynthia Ann was abducted. In 1848 (estimated) Quanah Parker was born to Cynthia Ann and Peta Nocona. For his first 12 years Quanah lived the privileged life as the son of a war chief, however, that was shattered at the Battle of Pease River in 1860. At Pease River, the Noconi band was surprised in their camp by a detachment of Texas Rangers, Nocona was killed and Cynthia Ann was captured. Quanah had lost his Mother and Father at 12 years old. At that point, he was considered a second class citizen by other Comanches because he lost status with the loss of his parents. Nevertheless, he became a full warrior (an achievement of status in the Comanches) by the the age of 15. Because of his conspicuous bravery in battle over the years, Quanah become a Chief by 20 years of age.

In the early 1870’s, Quanah recruited a war party of 21 Comanche warriors, and eloped with Weckeah the daughter of Old Bear (despite his status as a chief, Quanah was a pauper in the Comanche’s eyes, and a half-breed. Old Bear would not accept him as a son-in-law). Over the next year their main activity was horse stealing (horses were a sign of wealth for the Comanches) and their “war party” grew to a band of several hundred. After that year, Quanah negotiated a settlement (it cost him 19 horses, he owned a large herd at that time) and returned to the tribe as a fully fledged war chief.

During the Civil War the Comanches had begun a new enterprise, cattle stealing. This was the time that Texas established itself as a cattle empire and it was an obvious thing for the Indians to delve into, especially with their new freedom because of the war. After the war, General Sherman and Ranald Slidell MacKenzie (himself a Civil War hero) traveled to Texas under Grant’s orders to explore the “Indian situation”. They were alarmed to find out that not only had Quanah and others stopped westward expansion, the settlers had actually lost ground. Quanah and his Comanches had been raiding and pillaging with impunity with no rangers or Army to get in their way. The Army was still governed by Grant’s “Peace Policy”, where the theory was that if you treated the Indians “nicely”, they would be peaceful. Sherman gave Mackenzie “unofficial” orders to get aggressive with the Indians, and Mackenzie proceeded to establish his reputation as one of the greatest Indian fighters in our history. This was the beginning of the end for the Comanches.

It should also be noted that central to the Comanches existence were the buffalo. The buffalo were the Comanches’ commissary. They provided food, clothing and shelter and were plentiful, until the arrival of the “buffalo men”. Between 1868 and 1881, 31 million buffalo were slaughtered and the beast was driven nearly into extinction. This was a huge blow to the Comanches’ existence.

By July of 1874 Grant tired of the “Indian Situation” and reversed his “Peace Policy” and made the ruling that all Indians were to live peacefully on the reservation or be eliminated. The last wild band was Quanah Parker’s and the hunt was on.

Mackenzie and his forces (3,000 men, the largest force ever put out to combat the Indians) pressed the small band of Indians until the final action which was during the “Red River War” at Palo Duro Canyon. Quanah and a good part of his band had escaped; however, they had had enough. The Army was closing in on them, the buffalo were gone, and the Whites were once again infringing on their territory. On June 2, 1875 Quanah and his band of 407 Quahadis (a Comanche band) turned themselves in at Ft. Sill in present day Oklahoma.

Quanah and his band were treated well, and surprisingly, Quanah put all of his energies into learning the white man’s way and working for the benefit of all of the Comanches. He learned English, dressed in suits, and became friends with Theodore Roosevelt and his one time nemesis, Mackenzie. He became fairly wealthy, built a large house and entertained on a large scale. He also fed every Indian who came by, and because of his extreme generosity died almost broke. He died February 23, 1911.

When writing a book review, it is often difficult to decide what to include and what to leave out. It was extremely so in this particular case. S.C. Gwynne weaves an excellent, detailed, and entertaining narrative that diligently presents the perspectives of both the Comanches and the Whites with no apparent bias. He reveals both the bad and good on both sides (there was plenty of both) and provokes much thought about the conflicts between our early settlers and the Indians. This is a must read.