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Women of the West
Women of the West And Every Day Life Along the Trail
  • Annie Oakley She could shoot the head off a running quail when she was twelve years old.
  • "Baby Doe" Elizabeth "Baby Doe" McCourt, lived out one of the most famous success stories, and tragedies, of the gold-rush days.
  • The Ballad of Belle Starr Belle Starr, Belle Starr,
    With a bullet in your back,
    Are you lyin' there a-wishin'
    That you'd never joined that pack?
  • Belle Starr From 1875 to 1880, Belle was the undisputed leader of a band of cattle-and horse-thieves. Here's a biography and lyrics of the Woodie Guthrie song about her.
  • Belle Starr: The Bandit Queen Neither a "belle" nor the "star" of any outlaw band...still she remains a legendary wild woman of the Old West.
  • Black Women of the West "(Black) women of the West were devoted mothers, daughters or wives burdened by their labors and often oppressed by bigotry. They were loyal to their families, churches and communities. Often a young wife gave birth by candlelight in a crude log cabin, prairie shack or sod house. Under primitive frontier circumstances many died in the effort. " This statement, from this web site, could just as easily been said about white, red, yellow, or brown women.... Women historically have been subjected to the same pain, heartache, trials, hopes and dreams worldwide.... color is not an issue.
  • Borland, Margaret Heffenan By 1873 she owned a herd of more than 10,000 cattle. She was said to be the only woman known to have led a cattle drive.
  • Calamity Jane An Autobiography
  • Calamity Jane: the "Heroine of the plains." Hung around the Overland Trail territory, was even a Pony Express rider, and friends with other "personalities" of the west during the mid to late 1800's.
  • Calamity Jane The Life and Adventures of Calamity Jane: An autobiography
  • Calamity Jane: The "White Devil of the Yellowstone"
  • Calamity Jane , born Martha Jane Canary, was a wandering American frontierswoman who dressed like a man and frequented bars, telling stories of her adventures
  • Cattle Kate The first woman hanged by vigilantes.
  • Charley Parkhurst One of the earliest drivers of stage coaches
  • Charley Parkhurst The "Whip"--She Was A Man!
  • A Divorce Petition, 1858 Getting a divorce required an act of the legislature in Oregon Territory. This petition to the legislature in 1858 recounts the hard life that Nancy Judson was having.
  • Elizabeth Simpson Bradshaw A widow, with five children, the youngest only 6 years of age, walked across the American prairie pushing all her family possessions in a handmade, wooden handcart. After much tribulation, more than could ever be told, Elizabeth, with all of her children still alive, arrived at her destination, the Salt Lake Valley. There in the West she made her home, reared her children, and is honored by her posterity.
  • Grace Maria Bransford Bulls This autobiography, written by her grand-daughter, Mary Jarvis, is filled with little anectdotes from every generation.
  • Frontier Women-- Movers & Shakers of the West Frontier Art, Books about Women in the West, and Old West Photos
  • Pearl Hart: First Known Female Stage Robber In Arizona Territory After being captured for the stage robbery, she said that she "would never consent to be tried under a law she or her sex had no voice in making, or to which a woman had no power under the law to give her consent." She had become a strident voice for "women's emancipation."
  • Indian Women from literature selections.
  • The James - Younger Gang Women: women in the lives of the outlaws.
  • Joyce Badgley Hunsaker, Living History Actress Pioneer descendant Joyce Badgley Hunsaker has won international acclaim in her unforgettable portrayals of FANNY! and Sacagawea. She has performed on stage for audiences from coast to coast, and has been featured many times on national television and radio. she has also performed by special invitation for the Smithsonian, National Geographic, Disney, and at federal heritage sites across the nation.
  • The Lady Outlaw's Hideout
  • Laura Ingalls Wilder A very comprehensive page. Check it out!
  • Life on the Plains Elizabeth Totten Thorne married at the early age of 15; these memoirs tell of early life in Kansas.
  • Lizzie E. Johnson Williams Schoolteacher, cattle dealer, and investor.
  • Lola Montez...Femme Fatale.. Early feminist of sorts and writer of a book of beauty tips. Homicidal temper; carried a whip. One of the most outrageous women of her time.
  • Mary Fields stagecoach driver, ex-slave from Tennessee. This tall, powerfully built woman was ambitious, daring and liked a good fight.
  • Mary Fields From the Wild West Magazine. Mary had a standing bet that she could knock a man out with one punch, and she never lost a dime to anyone foolish enough to take her up on that bet!
  • My Antonia by Willa Cather
  • Nellie Cashman--The Angel of Tombstone Described by her bioghapher, "Pretty as a Victorian cameo and, when necessary, tougher than two-penny nails," the extraordinary Nellie Cashman wandered frontier mining camps of the 1800s seeking gold, silver and a way to help others.
  • Narcissa Prentiss: American Martyr
  • Narcissa Whitman: A Most Unusual Honeymoon
  • Natawista. daughter of Two Suns, the chief of the Blood (Kainah) tribe of the Blackfeet Confederacy worked tirelessly with her husband, Alexander Culbertson, a Mountain Man, for nearly thirty years to bridge the gap between the white adventurers on the Upper Missouri frontier and the native inhabitants of that region.
  • No Place For A Woman? The California gold camps were hard on the ladies, but that didn't stop them from arriving, surviving, and sometimes thriving.
  • Notorious Ladies of the Old West Frontier women appear to be remembered in two distinct groups: the good, hardworking, plains woman and the infamous, treacherous outlaw or prostitute.
  • Outside the Law: Women Criminals in Arizona History Some of these women broke the law deliberately with shocking disregard to personal life or property. Others broke the law reluctantly, only trying to feed themselves or their families. Read about them: the stagecoach robber, Pearl Hart, Alfrida Mercer who was sent to prison for adultery, Theresa Garcia was sentenced for receiving stolen property, though the charges against her partner, Roberto Gudino, were dismissed for lack of evidence, and more.
  • Cynthia Parker a captive of the Comanches in 1836 remained with the Indians for almost twenty-five years, forgot white ways, and became thoroughly Comanche.
  • Pioneer Women A bibliography of books on the pioneer woman.
  • Pioneer and Emigrant Women A collection of biographical information and narratives that come from diaries, biographies and autobiographies of early pioneer women
  • Pioneer Life of Nancy Kelley Coming to Texas as a young bride in 1850, Nancy Kelly was a fearless woman who raised her children on a remote ranch. It was difficult to even get water from the spring without taking a gun for fear Indians were hiding close by.
  • Etta Place: Companion to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. She was often described as the most beautiful and wildest of all women in the Old West.
  • Sacajawea?Sakakawea?Sacagawea? The Spelling, Pronunciation, and Meaning of the Shoshoni Indian woman's name
  • Sacagawea, the Guide for Lewis & Clark Sacagawea helped Lewis and Clark map and explore Western America, giving birth to a baby boy along the way.
  • Several entries about Sacajewea written by students from grades 2 to 8.
  • Ellen Watson: Lynched along the Sweetwater River, Wyoming in 1889 Also known as "Cattle Kate," this is the true story as told by her great-nephew.
  • Western Warrior Women In spite of domestic drudgery, which was taken for granted, some Indian woman found opportunities to become social leaders. Women hunters and warriors brought food for their families and defended their communities, like the famous Kutenai titqattek (berdache), Madame Boisverd a warrior woman who became an inter-tribal courier and a prophet of "smallpox and other fearful happenings" in the early 1800s, and Woman Chief, a berdache and chief of the Crow nation, who achieved the third highest rank in her tribe.
  • Western Women's History: great links!
  • Wild Women West Women of the West who "passed" as men to pursue the life of an Army recruit, become stage drivers, enter the university to become doctors, and much more!
  • Wild Women of the West The History Net's site. Some of the ladies were short on virtue, but virtually all of them were long on courage as they faced the dangers and uncertainties of life on the frontier.
  • Women and the Civil War Manuscript sources in the Special Collections Library at Duke University
  • Women's Historical Manuscript Collection Containing information about women and their status and roles throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
  • Women in the Gold Rush This web page is by a recognized authority on women in the gold rush, JoAnn Levy, whose book, They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush, was praised by the San Francisco Chronicle as "one of the best and most comprehensive accounts of gold rush life to date."
  • The Women: Actresses, Hotel Keeper, Gamblers, Pie Maker, Muleteer, Miner, Speculator, Victim, Washerwoman, Chinese Prostitute... read their story here.
  • Women in Arizona History The main areas of focus are: pioneer ranching women, women teachers, the lives of Mormon women, and women criminals. All of these Arizona women had to overcome the challenges of being a woman in a new and sometimes hostile environment.
  • Women in the Fur Trade European or white women would not live under the conditions found at the fur posts or along the trails. Bourgeois and voyageurs alike would get lonely, but they also needed someone to help with the work. An Indian wife or a metis (a person with mixed Indian and European heritage), could make his moccasins, clean his house, cook and give him children. Another wife back in the east was not uncommon.
  • Women of the Shooting Iron Ms. Miller, a Deputy United States Marshall in the 1890's, had the reputation of being a fearless and efficient officer. It was said that she was a "young woman of prepossessing appearance, wears a cowboy hat and is always adorned with a pistol belt full of cartridges and a dangerous looking Colt pistol which she knows how to use."
  • Women in the Mexican American War Sarah Borginis became the principal cook at Fort Brown (Fort Texas). She was issued a musket, and never missed a target or neglected to prepare a meal.
  • Women in the West A comprehensive bibliographic listing of works.
  • Women of the West: The Pioneers of the Frontier Females who headed west seeking opportunities.
  • Women on the Mormon Trail
  • Wyoming Women: They tamed the west Read about one line of women said to be tougher than a boiled owl.
  • MORE Women of the West can be found at: Diaries, Memoirs, Letters and Reports Along the Trails West
  • New page for: Every Day Life Along the Trail
    •


Every Day Life Along the Trail




PARKER, QUANAH (ca. 1845-1911). Quanah Parker, the last chief of the Quahadi Comanche Indians, son of Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker,qv was born about 1845 near the Wichita Mountains in what is now Oklahoma. He was a major figure both in Comanche resistance to white settlement and in the tribe's adjustment to reservation life. Nomadic hunter of the Llano Estacado,qv leader of the Quahadi assault on Adobe Walls in 1874 (see RED RIVER WAR), cattle rancher, entrepreneur, and friend of American presidents, Quanah Parker was truly a man of two worlds. The name Quanah means "smell" or "odor." Though the date of his birth is recorded variously at 1845 and 1852, there is no mystery regarding his parentage. His mother was the celebrated captive of a Comanche raid on Parker's Fort (1836) and convert to the Indian way of life. His father was a noted war chief of the Nocone band of the Comanches. Despite his mixed ancestry, Quanah's early childhood seems to have been quite unexceptional for his time and place. In 1860, however, Peta Nocona was killed defending an encampment on the Pease River against Texas Rangersqv under Lawrence Sullivan Ross.qv The raid, which resulted in the capture and incarceration of Cynthia Ann and Quanah's sister Topasannah, also decimated the Nocones and forced Quanah, now an orphan, to take refuge with the Quahadi Comanches of the Llano Estacado.

By the 1860s the Quahadis ("Antelopes") were known as the most aloof and warlike of the various Comanche bands. Among them Quanah became an accomplished horseman and gradually proved himself to be an able leader. These qualities were increasingly in demand when, as a consequence of their refusal to attend the Medicine Lodge Treaty Council or to move to a reservation as provided by the treaty, the Quahadis became fugitives on the Staked Plains. There, beyond the effective range of the military, they continued to hunt buffaloqv in the traditional way while raiding settlements.

For the next seven years Parker's Quahadis held the Texas plains virtually uncontested. Attempts of the Fourth United States Cavalryqv under Col. Ranald S. Mackenzieqv to track and subdue the Indians in 1871 and 1872 failed. Not only was the army unable to find the Indians but, at Blanco Canyon on the morning of October 9, 1871, the troopers lost a number of horses when Quanah and his followers raided the cavalry campsite. Afterward, the Indians seemingly disappeared onto the plains, only to reappear and attack again. Mackenzie gave up the search in mid-1872.

But time was on the side of the army. As buffalo hunters poured onto the plains, decimating the Indians' chief source of subsistence, Parker and his followers were forced to take decisive action. Determined to maintain their independence, or at least their survival as a people, the Quahadis, under the guidance of Quanah and a medicine man named Isa-tai,qv formed a multitribal alliance dedicated to expelling the hunters from the plains. On the morning of June 27, 1874, this alliance of some 700 warriors-Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, and Comanches-attacked the twenty-eight hunters and one woman housed at Adobe Walls. From the Indians' point of view, the raid was a disaster; their planned surprise was foiled, and the hunters' superior weapons enabled them to fend off repeated attacks. In the end the hunters suffered just one casualty, while fifteen Indians died and numerous others, including Parker, were wounded. Defeated and disorganized, the Indians retreated and the alliance crumbled. Within a year Parker and the Quahadis, under relentless pressure from the army and suffering from hunger, surrendered their independence and moved to the Kiowa-Comanche reservation in southwestern Oklahoma.

While most Quahadis, indeed most Indians, found adjustment to the reservation life difficult or impossible, Quanah made the transition with such seeming ease that federal agents, seeking a way to unite the various Comanche bands, named him chief. While this action was recognized as lying outside the jurisdiction of the federal government and, perhaps more significantly, utterly without precedent in Comanche tradition, the tribe, essentially leaderless, acquiesced. It was a fortuitous choice, for over the next quarter century, Quanah provided his people with forceful, yet pragmatic, leadership. As chief, frequently leading by example, Quanah Parker worked to promote self-sufficiency and self-reliance. To this end, he supported the construction of schools on reservation lands and encouraged Indian youths to learn the white man's ways. Indeed, most of his children were educated, either at reservation schools or off-reservation boarding schools. Economically, Parker promoted the creation of a ranching industry and led the way by becoming a successful and quite wealthy stock raiser himself. He also supported agreements with white ranchers allowing them to lease grazing lands within the Comanche reservation. Parker defended this controversial idea by pointing out that herds belonging to white ranchers were already using Comanche pasturelands, with or without legal sanction. Therefore, by concluding arrangements with specific ranchers, Parker hoped to enlist the aid of whites who had a stake in preventing unlimited access to Comanche grazing lands. In addition, he called on his followers to construct houses of the white man's design and to plant crops. In general, then, Parker was an assimilationist, an advocate of cooperation with whites and, in many cases, of cultural transformation. Along with his support for ranching, education, and agriculture, he served as a judge on the tribal court, an innovation based on county tribunals; negotiated business agreements with white investors; and fought attempts to roll back the changes instituted under his direction. Here, his influence was most keenly felt in his successful attempt to prevent the spread of the ghost dance among his people. He also approved the establishment of a Comanche police force, which he believed would help the Indians to manage their own affairs.

Through shrewd investments, including some $40,000 worth of stock in the Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway, Parker became a very wealthy man, perhaps the wealthiest Indian in America at that time. As a testament to his successful conversion to white ways, Parker was a close associate of several prominent Texas Panhandle ranchers, counted Theodore Roosevelt as one of his friends, and was frequently interviewed by magazine reporters on a variety of subjects, including political and social issues. Yet, for all his efforts to embrace white culture, Quanah did not completely repudiate his past or endeavor to force his followers to abandon their traditions altogether. He rejected suggestions that he become monogamous and maintained a twenty-two-room house for his seven wives and numerous children. He refused to cut his long braids. He rejected Christianity, even though his son, White Parker, was a Methodist minister. Quanah was a member of the peyote-eating Native American Church and is credited with introducing and encouraging peyote use among the tribes in Oklahoma.

Despite his artful efforts to protect his people and their land base, by 1901 the movement to strip the Comanches of their lands had grown too powerful. The federal government voted to break up the Kiowa-Comanche reservation into individual holdings and open it to settlement by outsiders. For the remaining years of his life Parker operated his profitable ranch, continued to seek ties with whites, and maintained his position as the most influential person among the now-dispersed Comanches. In 1902 his people honored their leader by naming him deputy sheriff of Lawton, Oklahoma. On February 11, 1911, while visiting the Cheyenne Reservation, he became ill with an undiagnosed ailment. After returning home he died, on February 23. At his funeral he was dressed in full Comanche regalia but, befitting his position as a man of two worlds, was reputedly buried with a large sum of money. After robbers plundered his grave four years later, his remains and those of his mother were reburied at Polk Oak Mission Cemetery. In 1957 expansion of a missile base forced the relocation of Post Oak Cemetery and the reburial of Quanah and Cynthia Ann Parker at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: T. R. Fehrenbach, Comanches: The Destruction of a People (New York: Knopf, 1974). Clyde L. and Grace Jackson, Quanah Parker (New York: Exposition Press, 1963). William W. Newcomb, The Indians of Texas (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1961). Baldwin Parker, Narrative (MS, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.). John Edward Weems, Death Song: The Last of the Indian Wars (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1976).

PETA NOCONA (?-1860). Peta Nocona, husband of Cynthia Ann Parker and father of Chief Quanah Parker,qv was a physically enormous Comanche chief who led a band, the Noconies, in raids on the Texas frontier from the 1830s to December 18, 1860, when he was killed at the Pease River in a battle with Capt. Lawrence Sullivan Ross.qv Peta Nocona did not know when or where he was born, as Quanah Parker indicated in a letter to Charles Goodnight.qv He took part in, or perhaps led, the raid on Parker's Fort on May 19, 1836, when the Comanches took Cynthia Ann captive. It is not certain that white settlers knew Peta Nocona's name or distinguished him from other Comanche chiefs until after his death. Many years later, Quanah raised doubts about the identity of the chief killed at the Pease River, perhaps because of a Comanche belief that ill repute disturbs the peace of the dead. But the preponderance of evidence supports the contention that Peta Nocona was the chief killed at the Pease. Ross's Mexican interpreter, for instance, who said Nocona had taken him as a slave when he was a child, identified the chief. Cynthia Ann Parker wept over the dead man and called him Nocona. And after the battle at the Pease, which was itself big news, no one ever heard anything more about Peta Nocona until Quanah's disclaimer almost four decades later.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dallas Morning News, December 19, 1993. James T. DeShields, Border Wars of Texas, ed. Matt Bradley (Tioga, Texas, 1912; rpt., Waco: Texian Press, 1976). Rupert N. Richardson, The Comanche Barrier to South Plains Settlement (Glendale, California: Clark, 1933; rpt., Millwood, New York: Kraus, 1973). Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin (Quanah Parker). Robert H. Williams, "The Case for Peta Nocona," Texana 10 (1972).

This section of Outlaw Women provides information about Women in the West. Under Texts you will find examples of primary texts, such as women's diaries and literary works, or secondary texts, such as critical essays or historical studies. Under Resources , you will find biographies of Western women as well as other resources, such as bibliographies and teaching and study materials. Under Links to Other Sites , you will find a collection of links to sites dealing with various issues in women's history, such as women's art and health. Finally, under Images , you will find both general collections which include some images of Western women's history and direct links to pictures available online.

  Women's Texts Western Women's History Resources Links to Other Sites Women's Images
Women's Texts Primary Texts Secondary Texts
Primary Texts Life History Manuscripts From the Folklore Project, WPA Federal Writer's Project.
Mary Austin: The Pot of Gold || The Walking Woman || Spring o' the Year || The Hoodoo of the Minnietta || The Wooing of the Seorita || The Little Coyote || The Return of Mr. Wills || The Land of Little Rain || The White Hour || Frustrate || A Pipe Of Oaten Straw || "The Gods of the Saxon" || The Basket Maker || Medicine Songs || The Song-Makers || The Little Town of the Grape Vines || Medicine Song: To Be Sung in Time of Evil Fortune || Inyo || Jimville: A Bret Harte Town || A Shepherd of the Sierras || The Last Antelope || The Search for Jean Baptiste || The Song of the Hills: Being the Song of a Man and a Woman Who Might Have Loved || Mahala Joe || The Conversion of Ah Lew Sing || Agua Dulce || The Mother of Felipe || The Song of the Friend || The Woman at Eighteen-Mile
Amelia E. Barr, Remember the Alamo
Martha Cannary Burke, The Autobiography of Calamity Jane .
Willa Cather (1873-1947): Alexander's Bridge || My ntonia || The Professor's House || Youth and the Bright Medusa .
The Letters of Julia Louisa Lovejoy (1856-58).
Amy Lowell, Songs of the Pueblo Indians .
Catherine Sager, Across the Plains in 1844 .
Leslie Marmon Silko: "Fences Against Freedom" and "In the Combat Zone," from Hungry Mind Review.
Elinore Pruitt Stewart (1878-1933), Letters of a Woman Homesteader .
Journals of Narcissa Whitman (1836).
Luzena Stanley Wilson, Memoirs of the Gold Rush .
Zitkala-Sa [aka Gertrude Simmons Bonnin] (1876-1938): Old Indian Legends || Impressions of an Indian Childhood || An Indian Teacher Among Indians || The School Days of an Indian Girl || Why I Am a Pagan || The Soft-Hearted Sioux || The Trial Path Secondary Texts Nettie Garmer Barker, Kansas Women in Literature
Christine Dominguez, Daughters of Aztlan: A Socio-Historical Survey of Chicanas in the United States .
Catherland , created by The Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation, focuses on Willa Cather's writing.
Western Women's History Resources Teaching Resources Study Resources Bibliographical Resources Biographies of Western Women
Teaching Resources U.S. West Since 1848 , Dorothee Kocks, University of Utah.
This course focuses on the experiences of a Utah family, beginning with Diana Jeanne Chew Lane and branching out into her family.
Western Women's History , Catherine Lavender, College of Staten Island of CUNY.
This course focuses on reading a multicultural history of women in the American West, drawing on a mixture of secondary readings and women's autobiographical writings.
Willa Cather's My Antonia , Adele Birnbaum, Willamette University.
This is a literary criticism course focusing on Willa Cather and her works.
Some Online Materials for Western Women's History , Catherine Lavender, College of Staten Island of CUNY.
A collection of resources--images and discussion questions--on Western women's history themes.
Study Resources Carnegie Mellon's feminism site .
Feminism and Women's Resources .
Women's Studies Resources
Feminist/Women's Studies Resources on WWW

Bibliographical Resources Bibliography about Gender in the West.
National Library of Canada/Bibliothque nationale du Canada selective bibliography of Canadian Women's History .
Women in Alaska's History

  Biographies of Western Women "White Devil of the Yellowstone," Calamity Jane .
Willa Cather Homepage .
Spy Pauline Cushman .
Pilot Amelia Earhart .
Singer Dale Evans .
Dianne Feinstein , California Anglo politician.
Cowgirl singers, The Girls of the Golden West (Dolly Good and Millie Good.)
Bulldogger Fox Hastings .
Readings by and about Dolores Huerta .
Edna Jaques , Saskatchewan poet and writer.
Cowgirl singer Rose Maddox .
Singer Patsy Montana (Rubye Blevins).
Trick shooter Annie Oakley (Phoebe Mosey).
Nebraska writer Mari Sandoz .
Catherine Schubert , a British Columbia Overlander.
Mary Fielding Smith , Mormon pioneer and mother of Joseph Smith.
Sylvia Stark , an African-American British Columbian pioneer.
Lucille Mulhall , roper and cowgirl.
Images and Biographies of Chicanas/Latinas .
Canadian artist and writer Emily Carr .
Links to Other Sites General Women's History Links Western Women's History Links
General Women's History Links The Sexuality and Gender homepage.
Canadian Women's Studies .
Women in Canadian History .
Frontier Nursing Service in Kentucky .
Middle Tennessee State University's Women's History Page .
WMST-L's Women's Studies Resources
Bowling Green State University's Women's Studies Department's Feminist/Women's Studies Resources on WWW
Feminist Websites
Feminism and Women's Studies
Une Exposition Herstory An Exhibition
National Library of Canada's Celebrating Women's Achievements in Canadian history includes British Columbian composer Barbara Pentland.


Western Women's History Links An amazing site which addresses women's artistic reactions to the West is Susan Ressler's Women Artists of the American West--Past and Present site, an online course and interdisciplinary resource at Purdue University.
T.V. Reed's "Women & The West" section from his American West : Multicultural Perspectives
Fort Worth's National Cowgirl Hall of Fame
CLNet's Chicana Studies Homepage
UCLA's Latina Web
Susan Merritt's Women in Canadian History .
Oregon State University's On-Line Exhibit about Oregon women in the Women's Land Army .
Chicana/Chicano Art , at Stanford University.
Susana Gallardos's Chicana Feminism page and her Chicanas Chingonas page.
South Asian Women's Net
Women of the West Museum feature.
"Her Daily Concern" : Women's Health Issues in 19th-Century Indiana.
Edith Frost's Cowgal's Home on the Web .





  Cynthia Ann Parker




Cynthia Ann Parker, The Life and the Legend by Margaret Schmidt Hacker

Although Cynthia Ann Parker never recounted her experiences as a captive of the Comanches (1836-60), her story is probably the most familiar of all the pioneer women captured by Indians in the Southwest. Margaret Hacker's five years of research have produced a balanced and dependable account of this tragic story.

"With excellent documentation and bibliography, this compact volume earns a place on the bookshelf of anyone who is interested in probing deeper the settlement of the American frontier." (True West)

"Margaret Schmidt Hacker's slim volume 'Cynthia Ann Parker: The Life and the Legend' is a must if you want to cut through the froth, misinformation and polemics that Parker's life inspired." (The Houston Post)

"...Hacker sought accuracy in an impressive array of published sources, manuscripts, newspapers, census records, and oral histories. As a result, 'Cynthia Ann Parker: The Life and The Legend' is a well-researched and interesting account of an intriguing woman in southwestern history." (New Mexico Historical Review)

Southwestern Studies No. 92
ISBN 0-87404-187-2, paper, $12.50
6X9, 68 pg., photos, biblio.

  Quanah's Page.



Quanah Parker

Sometime around 1850, in a Comanche Tipi in a place called Laguna Sabinas (Cedar Lake), Quanah Parker was Born. He was the son of Peta Nocona ( He who travels alone and returns), Chief of the Noconi (Wanderer) band of Comanches, and Cynthia Ann Parker, her Comanche name was Naudah (Someone Found) , a white captive taken from Parkers Fort Tx in 1836.

Cynthia Ann Parker & TotsiyaaCynthia Ann (Naudah) & Prairie Flower (Totsiyaa)

Quanah after many great war honors became the Chief or Pariboo of the Quohada band of Comanches. During the time of his youth the Comanches were at war with the United States Army, and Mexico.

When he was yet still a young warrior his mother Naudah was re-captured by white soldiers and Tonkawa braves acting as scouts against the Comanche, with the U.S. Army and the Texas Rangers. She was taken from a small war party camp, with her infant daughter Totsiyaa (Prairie Flower). She was forced to leave her family, husband Peta Nocona and her two sons, Quanah and Pecos. This was about 1860, she was returned to her uncle Isaac Parker and his family. Naudah made numerous attempts to escape to return to her people, even once almost escaping on back of a mule, she was then locked in her bedroom to prevent further attempts on escape. At one point was tied down upon her arrival at her uncles home. In 1864 her daughter Totsiyaa became ill, and died. Overcome with grief, and the loss of her family, Cynthia died of a broken heart, she would take no food or water.

Quanah and his father Nocona searched all over the frontier to find Naudah to no avail, she had been taken at least 400 miles from where she was captured, a few short years later Peta Nocona died from an old war wound at Plum Creek, with Quanah by his side. The grief of loosing his wife and child took it's toll on Nocona, it is said after they were taken, he lost his war like fervor and that he cried many tears.

During the Civil War the Comanche pushed back the Texas frontier over 100 miles to where they thought it should be. As time passed more and more people started invading Comancheria, this is the name given to the land where the Comanche prospered. Over 250,000 square miles of land, this included parts of Colorado, New Mexico,Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. It is said in the height of their power they ranged all the way from 1000 miles inside the Mexico border, and north as far as Saskatchewan. This indeed earned them the name The Lords of the Plains.

Buffalo hunters appeared on the Plains, slaughtering untold millions of buffalo, as a way to stop the indian from living free, as the buffalo were the sustance of the plains tribes. The Comanches did not take this lightly, and therefore the war known as The Buffalo War or Red River War had begun.

Buffalo hunters became the targets of raids. To the Comanche, the senseless killing of buffalo for just their hides was considered as an abomination, and sought to kill all the buffalo hunters they could find.

During this war many tribes made alliances with each other to stop the slaughter and regain the land. Many tribes came together to fight a common enemy, even those tribes that had long been waring with each other. The Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne, Arapaho were among those who participated in combined raids all over the Plains in an effort to stop the invasion to the land, and the slaughter of the buffalo. It is said within a 10 year period in the late 1800's that over 15 million buffalo were killed, bringing the number to roughly about 1500.

Quanah emerged from this as a great war chief, in which many tribes and great leaders gave him respect, and charge over their warriors, he was a capable and trustworthy leader, and most any warrior would have been proud to go to war with him.

The Quohada Comanche waged a war in the plains unlike any war the U.S. had ever seen. Three U.S. Calvary units and the Texas Rangers were ordered to subdue the Comanche to no avail. These brave warriors fought with unprecedented skill and ability, they proved themselves time and time again in battle to be far superior in war than their enemies. Even with repeating weapons, and cannons and massive more manpower, the Comanche could not be defeated. In one instance alone during a heated battle the kill ratio measured was 3 Comanche to 600 soldiers. The Comanche style of warfare is studied by military heads all over the globe. This is a tribute to the strength of the Comanche People.

On September 29, 1874 General Mackenzie with his Tonkawa scouts attacked a sleeping Comanche village in Palo Duro Canyon. In an attempt to further cripple the Comanches he massacred women and children, burned their lodges, and captured the horses of the people. The order was given by Mackenzie to shoot all the horses that his Tonkawa scouts did not keep for themselves. There was about 1,500 ponies, and the greatest slaughter of horses ever recorded, took place in Palo Duro Canyon. The bones of the horses were piled up, and remained there for over 50 years. General Mackenzie reported back to his superiors that only 4 or 5 Comanche had been killed, but one of his own captains sent in a conflicting report that there were Comanche women and children dead all over the bottom of the canyon. This massacre did great damage to the Comanche, as their horses, winter supply of food, and lodges were all destroyed. Some of the dead were pillaged and thier heads cut off and sent to Washington for future scientific study. In all, 5 villages were destroyed including those of visiting Cheyenne & Kiowa.

Between the fall of 1874 and spring of 1875 the U.S. Army under the leadership of Generals Miles, Buell, Davidson and Mackenzie tried to capture the Quohada, and as a result of this campaign no less than 16 battles were fought between the Quohada Comanche and the Army. After being humiliated by Quanah and the Quohada, the Army left the plains and went back to the forts for further orders from the government. In all of these battles the army failed to capture and subdue the Comanche, Quanah and the Quohada were still free.

Quanah realized that there was no other choice but to go to the reservation, after he had heard word from General Mackenzie who was in charge of the 4th calvary, that all Comanche that did not submit to the reservation would be exterminated, this is no embelishment on words, this was an official order issued. This was most likely due to the fact that the Comanche were not beaten in war, there was only one other choice for the Army, and that was Genocide.

In June 1875 Quanah chose to take the remaining Comanche people to the reservation. The land stolen, the wildlife disappearing because of white encroachment on the lands, and continual warfare with the U.S. Army, were factors in his decision to take the people to Oklahoma. Women, Elders, and Children were of great concern to him as they were non-combatants in these wars. The Quohada were the last free indians on the southern plains.

Upon arrival at the reservation the people were locked in an icehouse, that had no roof, and were fed by soldiers throwing raw meat over the walls to the people. They were fed like lions trapped in a cage.

From the time that Quanah arrived on the reservation, he fought fervently as he did for peace for his people as he did as a war chief. Unfortunatly out of the 3 million acres promised to the Comanche, the tribe retained less then 4,500 acres, less than 10 percent of the treaty agreement, this treaty and others may be viewed on the treaty page.

As time passed on the reservation, Quanah not only as chief of the Comanches, became a sheriff, and a tribal court judge. He was well liked and befriended by President Teddy Roosevelt and the President would often times go hunting with Quanah. Quanah made several trips to Washington DC to parly for the peoples land, but the government decided to open the reservation to settlers, and many tribes were affected by this Great Land Rush, as it has become known.

Quanah&Wives

In 1884, less than a decade after Quanah's final battle with the white man, the town of Quanah Texas was named after him. Quanah gave the town his blessing with these words:

"It is well, you have done a good thing in honor of a man who has tried to do right both to the people of his tribe and to his pale faced friends. May God bless the town of Quanah. May the sun shine and the rain fall upon the fields and the granaries be filled. May the lightning and the tempest shun the homes of her people, and may they increase and dwell forever. God bless Quanah.
Subetu Ma! I have spoken."

Quanah also had a railroad named after him called the Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway. It ran from Quanah to Floydada Texas north of Canyon Blanco. It ran right through the land that the Quohada and the military had fought on in numerous battles.

After a difficult search for his mother and her people, it was told to him that the grave of his mother had been found. On December 4, 1910 Quanah reburied his mothers remains at Post Oak Cemetery on Comanche Land. At her funeral he said:

"Forty years ago my mother died. She captured by Comanches, nine years old. Love indian and free life so well no want to go back to white folks. All same people anyway God say. I love my mother, I like white people. Got great heart."


Two of Quanah's Daughters.

Quanah had seven wives and twenty five children, there are many people who are widespread that are decendants of Quanah Parker. He has many relations on both sides of his heritage. Comanche and White. Quanah was truly a great man, warrior, chief, peacemaker. All these things can be said of Quanah Parker.

Quanah Parker died in 1911, as a result, there has been no recognized chief of the Comanches since Quanah, The government would not allow the Comanche to have any more chiefs, so it was decided that the leaders should be named Chairman. This is the reason he is called The Last Chief of the Comanche.

On his tombstone it is written:

Resting Here Until Day Breaks
And Shadows Fall and Darkness
Disappears is
Quanah Parker Last Chief of the Comanches
Born - 1852
Died Feb. 23, 1911

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow
I am the diamond glint in snow
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you wake in the morning hush.
I am the swift uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.
Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
Ai!

We Love You Quanah! Lord's Prayer/Numunu




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Cynthia Ann Parker shown nursing
her infant daughter Prairie Flower.
This is the only know photograph
of Cynthia Ann.

-Courtesy Western History Collections,
University of Oklahoma Library

Cynthia Ann Parker

Researched by Dana Stubbs
Originally published in "The Navarro County Scroll",
Vol. XXI 1987
Reprinted with permission of
the Navarro County Historical Society

Spring, 1833, saw nine wagons winding a trail from Illinois to Texas, which was then Indian country. The occupants were seeking a new home in this rough, new land. There was Elder John Parker and his wife, with their sons James, Benjamin and Isaac and all of their families. Others aboard the wagon train included the Bates, the Kelloggs, the Plummers and the Frosts.

Together, these people lived and worked to build a Fort which they named Fort Parker, after one of the daring adventurers. It was hard work and each person had a job to do. The stockade, the two story blockhouse and two rows of log cabins were completed by March, 1834, and all of the families moved in. Fear of the Indians kept them alert to the necessity of tight security. Gates were kept locked at all times, and opened only to let people in or out of the Fort, then locked again.

May 19, 1836, was a pretty day and most of the men were out working in the fields. Texas had just recently won its' independence from Mexico and Indians had not been seen in months, so the pioneers had become relaxed and had left the fort gates open. Suddenly, hundreds of Indians were everywhere. Benjamin was killed and Indians were inside the Fort.

There was an an outburst of flying arrows, gunfire, Indian yells and terrifying screams of women and children. Then there was silence. Dead was Silas Parker, Elder John Parker, Benjamin Parker, Mr. Frost and his son. Taken by the Indians were Cynthia Ann Parker, 9; her brother, John, 6; Elizabeth Kellogg, Rachel Plummer, with child, and her son, James.

They rode miles and miles at night before making camp, dancing and torturing their captives. For many days they rode through country that, in 1846, was called Navarro County.

Elizabeth and Rachel were in their teens and were sold to other tribes for slaves. General Sam Houston paid a ransom of $150.00 for Elizabeth. Two years later Rachel was found half-crazed from the loss of her little boy, James, and she had seen the killing of her new born baby by the Indians for crying too much. She died not long after returning home. John Parker grew up with a band of Kiowas, raiding in Mexico. He fell in love with a Mexican captive, married her, and lived on a ranch in Mexico.

Cynthia Ann was taken to live with a band of Comanches called People. They dressed her after their fashion, fed her and considered her as someone's child. She did not know whether her family was alive or dead, but she prayed each night that someone would find her and take her back to her own people. The Comanches named her Naduah - meaning "keeps warm with us". She played with the Indian children, learning their ways, and as the years passed, the ways of her blood kin faded into a dream. At the age of 14 she began learning the ways of the Indian women. She soaked bark to tan leather, cooked, helped make tents and embroidered clothing with beads.

One day a white trader came from the east. He stared at her blue eyes as she lowered them. He wanted to trade for her, but a brave, Peta Nocona, told the trader that he would never trade anything for her, as she did not want to leave. She had grown to love the People, the land, these new ways, and she loved Peta Nacona (Wanderer), and he loved her.

Nocona became a War Chief. His band was called Nawkonnee, (Wanderers), and they raided the settlers in the east. When he came back from a big raid, he brought a string of many horses to Naduah's tent. He wanted her for his wife.

Naduah (Cynthia Ann) went on raids with her husband. She rode by his side on hunting trips. She carried his lance and shield very proudly, and soon she carried his child.

They named their first-born Quanah (Fragrance) after their land of flowers. She prayed that some day he would be a great Chief of the People.

As the years went by, the loving couple had another son and named him Pecos, after the river by which they sometimes camped. Haduah learned the medicine of the People and was so good at healing that her friends would come to her for treatment of their illnesses. But there was no cure for the disease the settlers had brought and she watched her friends die of smallpox.

Soldiers and more settlers continued to invade their beautiful land, so they continued to raid, burn the houses and fields, steal horses and fight desperately against the smallpox and the battle to take their land.

Naduah taught her boys well; telling the truth was an honor; never breaking a promise was law. Making good decisions in later life was to be very important to each of them, and this early teaching stood them in good stead.

When Naduah had her daughter they called her Tehtseeah (Flower), because of her bright eyes. Indian women did not have many children and Naduah had given birth to three, making her a prized woman among the People. She was a happy woman, living with her family in their strange yet poetic and spiritual world on the land of their ancestors. But the end to this world was drawing near and, for Cynthia Ann Parker, history was to repeat itself.

December 18, 1869, was a pretty day and the men and boys were away on a hunting trip. It was the Texas Rangers and soldiers that came riding into the Indian camp. There were screams from the women and children, the sounds of horses and gunfire. Naduah managed to jump on her pony with two year old "Flower" and gallop off to seek Nacona and her two sons, but she was overtaken and then taken to Fort Cooper. At the Fort efforts were made to communicate with her. She told them she was the wife of a Chief and the mother of two sons, and asked to be set free. The interpreter understood some of her words but possibly none of the deep feelings from her heart. She was held captive.

Captain Sul Ross of the Texas Rangers saw her blue eyes and remembered the story of Cynthia Ann Parker. He wrote to the Parker family in East Texas, and several days later Colonel Isaac Parker rode into Fort Cooper seeking the missing child. He talked with her.

"Can it be? Are you the one we looked for for so long? Your mother is dead now, but I can take you to where I live. If you are my niece you will want to see your sister, Arlene, and your brother, Silas, Cynthia Ann."

She looked at him, pointed to herself and replied, "Me Cynthia Ann. Me Cynthia Ann."

Cynthia Ann was taken to East Texas, the pioneer women taking her Indian clothing and dressing her in pioneer style. She and "Flower" were considered Parkers. She did not know whether Nocona would find her, or whether her sons were dead or alive, but she prayed every night that they would come and get her.

Days turned into years and she learned again they ways of her blood kin. She chopped wood, braided whips, spun thread, but she was not happy. She missed her family. In 1863 her daughter, little Prairie Flower, as her white family called her, became very ill. Cynthia could not heal her, as the medicines that she knew were far away, and she could not fight the white man's fever. Her daughter died. This loss, plus the separation from her husband and sons, grieved Cynthia Ann. She must have thought many times: "Are my sons laughing ... riding their ponies ... is Nocona telling them stories of me as only he could tell ... where the land is open as the blue sky and home is as far as anyone can see ... and my people ... all my people ... will ride together ... proud and free."

Cynthia Ann died at her sister's home in East Texas in 1864. Nocona did not die in the Pease River Fight but lived four years after Cynthia Ann's capture. According to his son, Quanah, he died of grief over the loss of his wife and daughter.

Pecos died in his youth of smallpox. Quanah became a great war Chief, but in 1875, when the last of the wandering buffalo had been killed, the Chief of the Kwahadi Comanches, the last of the Great Plains Indians, surrendered. He led his tribe out of Palo Duro Canyon to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and was taken into the reservation, where he was treated with courtesy and respect.

Chief Quanah never signed a treaty. He would not make a promise he could not keep. He had learned the ways of the People and he learned the way of the white man. He made good decisions, and became a rancher, judge, and part-owner of a railroad. Quanah founded the Native American Church in Cache, Oklahoma.

When he learned of his Parker relatives he took the name of Quanah Parker, and sent for his mother's body, which had been buried in Fosterville Cemetery near Poyner, Texas. Cynthia Ann was reburied at Post Oak Mission Cemetery near Cache, Oklahoma, on December 3, 1910. Two months later Quanah was buried next to her. In 1930 a reburial service was held for Prairie Flower, and in 1957 all three were moved to Chief's Knoll, Fort Sill Military Post Cemetery.

At Cynthia Ann's reburial service in 1910, Chief Quanah Parker said: "Forty years ago my mother died. She was captured by Comanches at nine years old. Loved Indian and wild live so well she not want to go back to white folks. All same people anyway, God says. I love my mother. I like white people ... when end comes, then they all be together again."

"Was Quanah Parker's Mother Abducted in Ohio Instead of Texas?" 


Quanah Parker

Quanah Parker was the son of Peta Nacono, a Comanche chief, and Cynthia Ann Parker, who had been abducted by Comanches when she was nine years old. Cynthia was adopted into the tribe, and as a teenager, she married Peta Nacono. From an early age, Quanah distinguished himself as a horseman and warrior. He also learned to hate the white man after Texas Rangers took his mother from him, forcibly returning her to her relatives (she died four years later), and after the death of his father in combat. When Quanah's brother succumbed to a white man's disease, the young warrior joined the most aggressive of Commanche bands, the Kwahadi and, by 1867, was a war chief among them. With the successful conclusion of the Texas War for Independence, the settlers became overconfident and relaxed their security measures. On May 19, 1836, when a war party composed principally of Comanches and Kiowas suddenly appeared in the clearing before the fort, most of the men were working in the fields some distance away. The gate of the fort was open, and the blockhouses unmanned. The warriors first feigned friendship and then quickly overran the defenses. Some of the whites escaped in the confusion, but the Indians scalped & killed three men and left three women wounded, one of them mortally. The dead included Quanah's maternal great-grandparents and grandfather. The war party carried off five women and children, including nine year-old Cynthia Ann Parker and her six-year-old brother John. Although there are other versions of John's fate, it is most likely that he died in captivity, as Cynthia Ann purportedly told one white man. It was common practice for these Indians to seize women and children. Some might be killed if the warriors were hotly persued; often they were traded to other bands or tribes or exchanged for ransom. Cynthia Ann was one of those who remained with her captors, and with the passage of a few years became a Comanche herself. In an interview with Francis E. Leupp the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Quanah told him; "My mother was a white girl taken captive by the tribe in one of its forays. Her name was Cynthia Ann Parker and she lived in Chillicothe, Ohio, or rather, in the then wild region which later furnished a site for the present city. She was about seven years old when a band of Indians found her at play some distance from her father's house and kidnapped her. This was in the latter end of the eighteenth century." The disappearance of Cynthia and an elder sister, who was taken at the same time, aroused great excitement among the settlers in that part of the frontier, but the searching parties sent out at once were unable to find a trace of the children or their captors. What was the high point of Quanah's career as a parade Indian was his part in the inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt in 1905. Together with Geronimo, Hollow Horn Bear and American Horse of the Sioux, and Little Plume, a Blackfoot, Quanah in warbonnet and buckskin rode in the inagural parade. Before leaving Washington the chiefs had an audience with the president. It consisted of their shaking hands with Roosevelt and then "gazing silently at the Great Father, who gave then some wholesome advice." Agents, inspectors, Indian commissioners, and secretaries of the interior had been unable to still Quanah, but in the exuberantly voluble Roosevelt he finally had met his match. A few weeks later Roosevelt remembered Quanah and sought him out when he traveled to Oklahoma to hunt coyotes. It was here that Roosevelt supposedly gave Quanah a pocket watch inscribed: "Quanah Parker, Comanche Chief." Later he had a beaded pouch made for the watch.


Quanah Parker


Cynthia Ann Parker

Hollow Horn Bear


Theodore Roosevelt




Pocket Watch That President TheodoreRoosevelt  Gave Quanah  Parker Inscribed: "Quanah Parker, Comanche Chief." 










































































   "About the only thing we have thus far overlooked taking from the Indian is his right to perform his religious rites with their accompanying dances in his own way."



parkercynthia
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The tall stone on the left is Quanah Parker, the next to the right is his mother and on the far right is his sister
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