Quanah Parker

Quanah Parker, man of vision, fought against all odds to save the Comanche way of life. Then, he fought to survive and prosper in a white man's world. His mother, a white woman captured by Indians at age nine, was raised a Comanche. When Quanah was a young boy, Cynthia Ann was recaptured against her will by Texas Rangers on the Pease River in 1860. He never saw her again. As a warrior, Quanah showed great bravery leading Indian forces especially in the Battle of Adobe Walls, he was never routed and never captured. Facing the encroaching civilization of the white man, he chose to lay down his shield and arms in the spring of 1875 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. As he approached the fort, he dismounted and turned his horse loose saying "There goes the spirit of the Comanche." However Quanah was never defeated. Acknowledged as a leader by the Comanches and whites alike, he became a Tribal Judge, cattleman, spokesman to Washington and friend of President Theodore Roosevelt. The town of Quanah was named for him. In 1890, on a visit to Quanah, he pronounced his blessing on the town he called "My Town" his epitaph reads: "Resting here until day breaks and shadows fall and darkness disappears is Quanah Parker, last chief of the Comanches.", (Circa 1845 – 1911). , Secondary plaque, Dedicated to the memory of the last great Comanche chief, Quanah Parker. He pronounced this blessing on "his" town Quanah, Texas. "May the great spirit smile on your little town, may the rain fall in season, and in the warmth of sunshine after the rain, may the earth yield bountifully. May peace and contentment be with you and your children forever."