Cynthia Ann Parker

Cynthia Ann Parker was born to Silas Mercer Parker and Lucinda Parker (née Duty) in Crawford County, Illinois. Her birth date is uncertain; according to the 1870 census of Anderson County, Texas, she was born in 1824 or 1825.[1] Originally, her middle name was Ana, but over the years, it was changed to Ann. When she was nine or 10 years old, her grandfather, John Parker, was recruited to settle his family in north-central Texas; he was to establish a settlement fortified against Comanche raids, which had been devastating to the Euro-American colonization of Texas and northern Mexico. The Parker family, its extended kin, and surrounding families established fortified blockhouses and a central citadel—later called Fort Parker—on the headwaters of the Navasota River in what is now Limestone County.

John Parker, the patriarch of the family, had experience negotiating with various Native American nations going back to the 18th century, when he was a noted ranger, scout, Native American fighter, and soldier for the United States. Historians conjecture that when he negotiated treaties with the local non-Comanche natives, he believed those treaties would bind all Native Americans. If so, this was a tragic mistake.[6]

On May 19, 1836, a force of anywhere from 100 to 600 Native American warriors,[7] composed of Comanches accompanied by Kiowa and Kichai allies, attacked the community. John Parker and his men, who lacked sufficient knowledge of the Comanches' military prowess, were caught in the open and unprepared for the ferocity and speed of the Indian warriors. They managed to fight a rearguard action to protect some of the escaping women and children, but soon all of the settlers retreated into the fort. The Native Americans attacked the fort and quickly overpowered the outnumbered defenders. Parker and five other captives were led away into Comanche territory. The Texans quickly mounted a rescue force. During the Texans' pursuit of the Native Americans, one of the captives, a young teenage girl, escaped. All of the other captives were released over a period of years as ransom was paid, but Parker remained with the Native Americans for nearly twenty-five years.[8] She may have been as young as 8, or just older than 11, when she was captured.

Parker was soon integrated into the tribe. She was adopted by a Tenowish Comanche couple, who raised her as their own daughter. She forgot her original ways and became Comanche in every sense. She married Peta Nocona, a chieftain. They enjoyed a happy marriage, and as a tribute to his great affection to her, he never took another wife, although it was traditional for chieftains to have several wives. They had three children: famed Comanche chief Quanah,[9] another son named Pecos (Pecan), and a daughter named Topʉsana (Prairie Flower).

Texas historical marker in Crowell, Texas

In December 1860, after years of searching at the behest of Parker's father and various scouts, Texas Rangers led by Lawrence Sullivan Ross discovered a band of Comanche, deep in the heart of Comancheria, that was rumored to hold American captives. In a surprise raid, the small band of Rangers attacked a group of Comanches in the Battle of Pease River.

After limited fighting, the Comanche attempted to flee. Ranger Ross and several of his men pursued the man who had appeared as the leader, and who was fleeing alongside a woman rider. As Ross and his men neared, she held a child over her head. The men did not shoot, but instead surrounded and stopped her. Ross continued to follow the chief, eventually shooting him three times. Although he fell off his horse, he was still alive and refused to surrender. Ross' cook, Antonio Martinez, identified the man as Nocona and killed him.[10]

The Rangers began questioning the woman fleeing with Nocona and other surviving Comanche. In broken English, she identified herself and her family name. Her information matched what Ross knew of the 1836 Fort Parker Massacre.[11]

Tintype, 1861

There is some question whether the man killed was actually Nocona. Parker stated that he was her personal servant, a Mexican slave named José. Nakoni Quanah Parker refused to correct the story of his father's death. According to his daughter, Nelda Parker Birdsong, Quanah is reported to have said, "out of respect to the family of General Ross, do not deny that he killed Peta Nakona. If it is any credit to him to have killed my father, let his people continue to believe that he did so."[12]

Ross sent her and her child to Camp Cooper and then notified her uncle, Colonel Isaac Parker.[13][14] When Colonel Parker mentioned that his niece's name was Cynthia, she slapped her chest and said, "Me Cincee Ann."[11] He took her to his home near Birdville.[15]

Parker's return to her birth family captured the country's imagination. In 1861, the Texas legislature granted her a league (about 4,400 acres) of land and an annual pension of $100 for the next five years,[16] and made her cousins, Isaac Duke Parker and Benjamin F. Parker, her legal guardians.[17]

Parker never adjusted to her new surroundings, and although white and physically integrated into the community, she was uncomfortable with the attention she received. Her brother, Silas Jr., was appointed her guardian in 1862, and took her to his home in Van Zandt County. When he entered the Confederate Army, she went to live with her sister, Orlena Parker O'Quinn.[18] According to some, the cause of her unhappiness was that she missed her sons and worried about them.[16][19]

Quanah Parker clasping a peyote feather fan

Cynthia's grave

In 1864, Parker's daughter, Topʉsana, caught influenza and died of pneumonia. Losing the only child she had had contact with since her return to her birth relatives caused her to be stricken with grief. She began refusing food and water and resisted encouragement to save herself. She died in March 1871 at the O'Quinn home and was buried in Foster Cemetery on County Road 478 in Anderson County near Poynor.[2][notes 1]

There is some confusion about Parker's actual birth and death dates. Different sources place her birth from 1825 to 1827 in Coles, Clark, or Crawford counties of Illinois, and her death from 1864 to 1871 in Anderson County.[20] The only record of her death, given as March 1871, is found in the unpublished notebook of Susan Parker St. John.[20] The only known document from the period supports the March 1871 date; An 1870 census for Anderson County lists her as a member of the O'Quinn household, born "abt 1825," age forty-five.[2]

In 1910, Parker's son, Quanah, moved her body to Post Oak Mission Cemetery near Cache, Oklahoma.[21][22] When he died in February 1911, he was buried next to her. Their bodies were moved in 1957 to the Fort Sill Post Cemetery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.[16][23]

The city of Crowell, Texas, has held a Cynthia Ann Parker Festival to honor her memory. The town of Groesbeck holds an annual Christmas Festival at the site of old Fort Parker every December. It has been rebuilt on the original site to exact specifications. Over time, Cynthia's story has been told from multiple historical and cultural perspectives.

• Carlson, Paul H. (2012) Myth, Memory, and Massacre: The Pease River Capture of Cynthia Ann Parker.
• Frankel, Glenn (2003) The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend.

• Cynthia Parker (c. 1939) is a one-act opera composed by Julia Smith.
• The 1954 novel The Searchers, by Alan Le May, is loosely based on Parker's life story.
• The 1956 movie The Searchers was based on Le May's novel, directed by John Ford, and featured John Wayne as an obsessed frontiersman searching for years for his kidnapped niece.[24][25] Natalie Wood and her younger sister, Lana Wood, portray the kidnapped woman at different ages.
• In the 1957 book The Hanging Tree, a collection of short stories by Western writer Dorothy M. Johnson, the story "Lost Sister" is a fictionalized account of Parker's relocation and her difficulty assimilating back into non-Native culture.
• The 1979 graphic novel Comanche Moon by Jaxon depicts Parker's story from her adoption by the Comanches through the life and death of her son, Quanah.
• Ride the Wind (1982) by Lucia St. Clair Robson is a fictionalized account of Parker's capture and life among the Comanches.
• Season of Yellow Leaf (1983) by Douglas C. Jones is a fictionalized story of Parker's life.
• Gone the Dreams and Dancing (1984), also by Jones, is a fictionalized story of Parker's son, Quanah, after he surrendered at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and "walked the white man's road."
• The character Stands With A Fist in the 1990 movie Dances With Wolves is based on Parker.[26]
• Where the Broken Heart Still Beats (1992) by Carolyn Meyer is a fictionalized account of Parker's return to her birth family.
• The Dutch writer Arthur Japin wrote a book, De overgave (2007), about the life of the Parker family and the loss of Parker.
• The 2008 miniseries Comanche Moon featured Cynthia Ann Parker's capture from the Comanches and return to White society. The part of Cynthia Ann is uncredited.

• Benner, Judith Ann (1983), Sul Ross, Soldier, Statesman, Educator, College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press, ISBN 9780890961421
• Exley, Jo Ella Powell (2001), Frontier Blood: Saga of the Parker Family, College Station: Texas A&M University Press, ISBN 978-1-58544-136-5
• Frankel, Glenn (2013), The Searchers: The Making of An American Legend, New York: Bloomsbury
• Gwynne, S. C. (2010), Empire of the Summer Moon, ISBN 978-1-4165-9105-4
• McBride, Joseph (2001), Searching for John Ford: A Life, New York: St. Martin's Press

• Carlson, Paul H. (2012), Myth, Memory, and Massacre: The Pease River Capture of Cynthia Ann Parker, ISBN 978-0896727465
• Hacker, Margaret (1990), Cynthia Ann Parker: The Life and the Legend, Texas Western Press, ISBN 978-0-87404-187-3
• Meyer, Carolyn (1992), Where the Broken Heart Still Beats: The Story of Cynthia Ann Parker, Gulliver Books, ISBN 978-0-15-295602-8
• Robson, Lucia St. Clair (1985), Ride the Wind, Ballantine Books, ISBN 978-0-345-32522-8
• Selden, Jack (2006), RETURN: The Parker Story, ISBN 978-0-9659898-2-4

• Cynthia Ann Parker (original Texas burial site) at Find A Grave
• Cynthia Ann Parker (final Oklahoma burial site) at Find A Grave