The Last Comanche Chief: Life & Times of Quanah Parker

[Music] [Applause] asked about a year ago if we would  do a program on Quantum Parker   I got on the internet and there are a number of  books but this one book came out loud and clear it was first of all the only book that I knew  of or could find that was endorsed by Quanah   Parker's grandson and I've seen the letter  to prove it and that sent me a loud message the second reason this book was endorsed by one  of the most eminent historians in America today   Robert Utley that sent another loud message and I  wondered if it's possible that we could possibly   get Bill Neely here tonight and we have he drove  four hours he teaches at Columbia College at   Fort Sill and I have a letter that his Dean has  written and I'd like to read it to our friends   at the Allen Public Library greetings from the  Fort Sill Oklahoma Community we are so happy to   share bill with you and as we know that you  will find his presentation both informative   and interesting Fort Sill and Comanche country  are so rich in the history and culture of many   Native American tribes but quanta Parker has a  special place in our hearts on behalf of Fort   Sill I welcome you to all to visit Fort Sill  and see the wonderful historic buildings and   museums that we have I hope that Bill's talk will  encourage you to learn more about our community when I was a young lad my grandmother was  from the panhandle of Texas and she came   from a family of six kids they all lived in the  Panhandle so each Thanksgiving each Christmas   we would truck up to the Panhandle there  was no Interstate 35 we went the long way   and invariably at each Thanksgiving and Christmas  meal the subject of Quanah Parker was raised and   as a young lad I didn't pay close attention  uh but I wish I had and each one of them had   a quanta Parker story I don't know whether they  were true or not true but every one of them did   but it tells me as an adult how important the  Quanah Parker was to all over the Panhandle   then in junior high I was in the Boy Scouts and I  went down to Fort Parker down to Groesbeck Texas   where the fort has been reconstructed and  we heard the story about cynthian Parker   and as an adult I realized that except  for possibly the Alamo and San Jacinto   this is unquestionably the most  insensational and important Native   American and Texas history story  the story of Cynthia and Parker   and Corner Parker now tonight's program is being  videotaped for future broadcast on Channel 16.   I'm the only thing that ever makes me mad in life  is when we're giving a Scholastic presentation   in this and the cell phones go off please turn  them off because it will interrupt the videotape   we have a very special guest tonight before I  introduce Bill Neely uh I for many years have   listened to the program on knon called Beyond  bows and arrows and I realized last Monday   after talking to this gentleman that he was one of  the producers or writers or DJs for that program he's also represents the  Native American Arts Council but one reason that we consider his  attendance such a great honor tonight   he is the great great grandson of Quanah Parker back to books is about education and it's about  entertainment but it's also about building bridges   and tonight we hope a bridge is built Juana Parker is probably one of his greatest  legacies is what he taught us about the great   spirit and Bill Neely tonight is going to  tell us about Quanah Parker and his legacy thank you Tom uh as you can see our team is Bill  tonight um decided not to wear a suit and you know   just I'm just me and uh we're going to talk about  the great Corner Parker and I'm so glad that his   flesh and blood is with us tonight and uh among  the Comanches uh it's not good to mention the   name of those who have gone to the spirit world  but I think one is spirit will forgive us tonight   if we talk if we use his name uh I'm a  native Texan I live in Lawton Oklahoma   I pretty much adopted Southwestern  Oklahoma Lawton is in Comanche County   uh Lawton came to life in 1901 out of what  had been the Comanche Kawa Apache reservation   when they broke that reservation up uh  Lawton became a town and I have lived   there uh before I was a director of education at  two different museums in Southwestern Oklahoma   and uh I came back to Texas to teach Spanish  for a couple of years in the Fort Worth area   and uh I am a multicultural person I know a little  bit of Arabic having lived in Saudi Arabia for   three years I taught English over there so I  want to talk to you about cultures and cultures   and collision and Tom who has done a marvelous job  in putting this program together talked about the   Bridge Building and that's how I see myself as an  author and as a speaker uh we have to write about   the conflicts because they happened we can't  rewrite the history we have to acknowledge the   way it really was if we can figure that out uh but  we also don't pass judgment on the people who did   things that we might not approve of because they  were living in their own time period so therefore   they have to be accepted as the way they were  not the way we would like for them to have been   so I think history for me is the story  of what happened and why it happened let   me rephrase that what did the people do why  did they do it and what were the consequences so tonight I want to talk about a great man  who was caught in the middle of a horrible   cultural conflict that became violent  and that was of course the great chief   and uh I too have been down to grossbeck to the  restored Parker's Fort and it's not that far from   here and if you haven't been there you should see  it um it is the scene of uh the capture of Cynthia   Ann Parker in 1836 by some Comanches and Allied  bands um they they were there not to be mean   uh because they wanted to be mean uh they were  there to run the Invaders out of their country   they were very wise people they knew that the  more the non-indians came into their territory   the the the better bigger the foothold they  got the harder it would be to get rid of them   and they didn't want them because uh wherever  these settlers came the Buffalo disappeared   and never returned and remember the Buffalo was  the very basis of the comanche's material lives   the reverse spiritual as well and continue to  be and we are in a public place and and I hope   that you will say a private prayer because in  Indian country no meeting begins without a prayer   so let's all have a prayer in our heart  that God will uh direct our thoughts   and will help me to speak with a straight time um I am a native Texan as I said  I'm from the Texas Panhandle   um I'm from the farm uh I'm a rural person and  that's another reason I like Walton because I've   got the Wildlife Refuge there and I can go see  the baby buffalo calves or the baby longhorn   calves and I can get away from uh you know  people if if I need to sometimes I need to   get away from myself you know and there's a place  out there I go to pray I call it my Garden of Eden   but let's look at this incredible um War Bonnet  and this is not a piece on it this is the War   Bonnet Juan award this headdress in the Battle  of Blanco Canyon that I write about in my book   in 1871. he wore this history is when he  led the Char the attack on Adobe walls in   1874. Adobe walls was an outpost in the Texas  Panhandle just outside of where Borger is today the buff it was to supply the Buffalo Hunters  that were killing the buffalo in huge numbers   soquana after Consulting with the spirits and with  his friend essattai decided that he was going to   lead an attack on the Buffalo Hunters now what  would we do if we had Invaders in our country now   they were trying to destroy our way  of life I know what we do so do you   all right so esetai and we will see his picture  later he was a Comanche medicine man and his real   his name in Comanche is rear end of a wolf that  was his name uh he was also known as white eagle   and uh he was a very very powerful medicine  man he was quantum's friend and sometimes   rival and they both belonged to the quahadi  band so Essentia said you know let's have a   spiritual get-together and uh let's have a council  and uh we're gonna go up there and kill those   Buffalo Hunters so he told all of them that the  Buffalo Hunters would be killed in their sleep but   warned them not to eat a skunk on the way remember  that's important all right this is a drawing a   High drawing of quanta killing um one of the uh  Buffalo Hunters that's quanta with the big Idris   all right now the headdress that we just saw  those feathers had to be taken from live Eagles   okay live Eagles okay so let's remember  that all right the battle didn't go too   well though Quanto was very this is sesatized  the successful to have a very powerful person   and I'm very careful in Comanche country uh  that uh what I say about him because even   though he tried to take over the leadership  of the Comanches from Quantum later on   uh he ultimately was quantum's friend uh and he  was a tragic member too of that situation where he   knew that the people had to depend on the Buffalo  and buffalo were being killed kind of what's   happening to our dollar right now sort of maybe  in into our gas prices and we're feeling a little   anxiety about our way of life as well okay so  on the way some cheyennes killed and ate a skunk   now in our culture we're thinking what were they  thinking couldn't they find any rabbits or you   know anything else but evidently the cheyenne-like  skunk but that's a part of the story they get to   Adobe walls and um the one Hunter leaves early  to go down to the river to get his horses   and he sees this line of uh as just as the  sun is coming up this long line strung out   and of course in my book I write the eyewitness  account from this from this fella right now I'm   not eloquent enough to to describe it to you  except that it wouldn't it must have been   one of the most terrifying things that ever  happened in this young man's life Billy Dixon   uh he later won the Congressional Medal of  Honor for his bravery in the Indian Wars   so he alerts everybody well before that allegedly  a Lodgepole had broken in hanrahan's Saloon   uh I think that he shot a pistol off because  somebody had alerted him to this uh attack   you know when you have 300 Warriors and they have  been in a council on the reservation in which Fort   Sill was set up for you know to keep an eye on the  Indians and bring them back into the reservation   but when you've got that many  people you can't keep a secret   and so there was an Army Scout from one of the  uh Army posts in Oklahoma that showed up at Adobe   walls and alerted hanraham saloon keeper that's a  good name isn't it for a saloon keeper and rahan   okay so here these guys were there was no  Telegraph there was nothing there were no   railroads they were in the middle it might they  might as well still have been in the middle of   darkest Africa and here came the natives but  Kawana and isetai did not know that the Buffalo   Hunters had even a more terrible new weapon the  50 caliber Sharps rifle so not only that they   had walls to stand to hide behind but the Indians  were very brave Quantum backed his horse up to uh   the saloon door and tried to have the horse to  kick it in he got up on top of the saloon they   were shooting bullets up you know through the roof  he was shooting down and it was just it was really   a terrible fight and uh 13 Indians were killed and  Juana was wounded and if he hadn't had a canteen   um you know the slung over his shoulder he would  have been killed but the bullet hit it and and he   did receive a flesh from a shoulder wound well he  was the leader and uh and all of a sudden you know   they began to lose their resolve well bravery can  only go so far and as Tom pointed out while ago   in his reading of the book this is quanta later  on uh he he was a very handsome man and uh he uh   liked getting his picture taken you know Crazy  Horse never would let him take his picture but   you know the Native American tribes are not all  the same and and people within the tribe are   not all the same and we're all tribal here every  person here has been I'm from a Scotch Irish tribe   and I'm sure they were very very Savage when they  got mad don't you imagine and a lot of us all of   us are tribal people this is how we all started  but we're all not the same within those tribes   so the Comanches and their allies lost the  battle of w walls but they lost more because   they realized that it was hopeless that they  could not defeat the Army the Buffalo Hunters   the they realize that their way of life is coming  to an end and what a heartbreaking thing that   must have been all right this is uh Quanah  and uh at the County Fair in Lawton Oklahoma   early after it was established I can only imagine  what he was thinking now that's his ceremonial   headdress that was not the War Bonnet is in  the University of California at Berkeley in   a museum there this Bonnet is in the Panhandle  Plains Museum in Canyon where I wrote the book   uh I was living in Amarillo and uh I had a  study Carol at the Panhandle Plains Museum   and I donated all my research materials there uh  quantum probably wanted to kill some of those guys   wouldn't you if they had come and taken your land   and yet we're talking about bridge building  aren't we aren't we he realized that he had no   choice but to adapt and he did become friends  with some white people and I'll tell you more   about that in a minute all right this is another  striking picture see this is a military saddle   uh when Quanah finally did have to go into  surrender in 1875 he was never defeated in battle   but uh the women and children were hungry and  the soldiers were in the country looking for them   so he went to Blanco Canyon between just uh east  of public and he went up on a a Butte in a member   of the families on who related this story to me  and uh he prayed for guidance because he could   have you know gone down in a blaze of glory and  not had to deal with all the heartache and the   transition period but he knew that the people  needed him so he chose not to die in battle   but he saw an eagle flying toward him in the  eagle turned and flew to her to Fort Sill   and a wolf howled in the canyon and looked up  at him and turned and trotted toward Fort Sill   so he knew that that's what he was supposed to  do spiritual uh some people ask me well are you   Native American no then why did you write  this book well I felt led to spiritually   spiritually led to and uh I believe that James  Cox uh Juana's grandson that wrote the forage   of my book would not have helped me if I hadn't  if he hadn't felt something spiritual there and   deep respect for the Comanches um he didn't want  to talk to me but uh you know we're not we white   people are not supposed to be too aggressive  but you know we are anyway and then you have   a writer who wants to tell a story and Mr  Cox had never given an interview to anyone   so I kept on calling and he was pretty rude uh  on the phone and um and then one time I called   and his wife Marine was on the other line  and she says now James why don't you just   let him come by and stay for five minutes and  if you don't like him well then he can leave   this is all all right so they lived in Midwest  City which is a suburb of Oklahoma City so I went   up there and uh he was very rude for about the  first five minutes and then he suddenly changed   and we became friends at that moment  and were until his his untimely dead   um Mr Cox realized that the Comanches needed  a travel headquarters and so Juana's grandson   chairman of the tribe he gets the land  and bills the complex there's a beautiful   complex north of Lawton and uh Mr Cox yeah  insisted that I speak of the dedication   of the corner Parker Trailway between  Lawton and Altus so I did speak there and   and Mrs Cox was sitting next to me and I felt her  elbow and she pointed up there was an eagle flying   well I freaked out all the white people  that were not used to the Indian country   I said in my speech I said quanta is flying  above us now you can look up and see him   well the the journalist for the Wichita  Falls paper was just couldn't believe   it and so he writes this thing some of  them said they saw a quanta up in the sky now if you're if you're around Indian people then  the spiritual part is very real to them it's very   real to me I'll tell you something that you might  not believe but it happened it took me three years   to write the book I was living with my mother in  Amarillo she needed me with her she was a widow   and I was scraping enough dimes together to  go to Norman or to Lawton to study and then   I could always go down um the hill to Canyon  to study in the museum of course I went to law   book and I went to Austin and National Archives  and Library of Congress and everywhere but uh   the I forgotten what I was going to  say but you know it's senior moment   senior moment right there oh it was so difficult  I just said I just I just I just can't do this   I mean this is hard enough to ride I don't have  enough money to do all the research I need to do   and so I was riding around in my battered blue  pickup out in the country one day and I had   my yellow pads that I wrote on I hand wrote the  novel I mean the biography and uh this yellow pad   levitated about a third off the seat and then it  dropped back down and I says okay I'll finish it   all right so I'm serious that's what happened all  right this is Quanah and Tom Burnett uh after uh   before Lawton became a town in 1901 the Comanches  had their uh reservation uh three million acres   and they ran their own cattle and horses on it but  you know the enterprising Texans were not far away   just across the river so they thought you know  that grass is so good and we've got so many cattle   why don't we get with quanta and see if we can  get it at least that grassland they did and he   got the cow was to agree to it so this is uh the  son of one of the cattle Barons Burke Burnett   uh of the four sixes and of course we know uh  Bert uh later on you know lived in Fort Worth   uh all those old cattle Barons were  generous people um and uh Burke would buy   um lunches for the school kids and and then  Tom became uh wealthy too a wealthy Cattleman   and uh he lived in Iowa Park the last few  years of his life just outside Wichita Falls   every Christmas Eve all the dry goods stores  stayed open in Iowa Park and poor people got   what they wanted in the stores charge it to  Mr burden all right so this is Quanah and Tom   and so one of the I heard the story from Tom's  Banker who was 96 when I interviewed in 1984.   so uh this man um told me uh Thomas maker  said you know Burke took Tom to West Point   because he wanted to be educated but  before Bert got back to Texas on the train   Tom was already back and uh he was home when Burke  arrived Burke was not a happy camper so he took   time over to kiwanas now meanwhile they had the  LA the grassley's thing had gone through and they   had built quantities magnificent home that I'm  going to show you in a moment the Cattleman did   he and his wives have been living in tp's down  by Cache Creek which was no problem that was   their way of life um but so Bert takes Tom over  to quantities says I can't do anything with him   see what you can do with him so Tom  learned to speak fluent Comanche   and he taught quite a lot  of things about Cal business   and uh they were tremendous friends tremendous  friends so kwana and his friends his family   members uh they would come to uh Fort Worth to the  fat Stock Show and in 1910 quanta came to Dallas   to the state fair and made a memorable speech and  he was riding around in an open air automobile   and he had ridden down here on his train the  quantum acting in Pacific uh from uh quanta   Texas I'll show you that slide in just a moment  now are we talking about a remarkable man or not   he was the oldest child of the Union  between the captured and the cap tour his   mother captured at the age of nine became  his mother when she was about 17 or 18. and the father was Chief Nocona Peter Nokona  who captured Cynthia Ann he was quite a lot   older than she was and if you're afraid to  ride the wind it's a romanticized version   which just turns my stone I want history  and we've got enough romance and enough   mythology I'm sure they were in love but she  was not his only wife all right so anyway uh   this is uh Juana and uh Andrew  Jackson Houston son of the Great Sound   so it seems like Quantum was attracted  to it just it seems like great men   wound up and Andrew uh young Houston became  an Okie kind of like I've done and uh I guess   I'm a hybrid because uh I've lived in Texas and  Oklahoma all my life except for two years in Idaho   and three years in Saudi Arabia that was a trip  now one of the reasons I talk about cultures and   collisions because I lived right in the middle  of one I taught Saudi Arabian students English   I drove in that town I went to the market I had  I knew how to get my insurance you had to have   fifteen thousand dollars worth of blood insurance  in case you killed somebody on the street   anyway that's another story except that it it's  consistent with my the way I look at cultures   we don't say that somebody was good or  somebody was bad those those terms don't apply   we just look at what people did why they  did it and what the consequences were   okay this is quanta's incredible  home built in the mid-1880s   while the white people in that area  were living in half dugouts and Shacks   this is a mansion it even had a telephone  in 1907. I saw a letter in the Fort Sill   Museum your telephone wasn't working when I  tried to call you the other day this was in   the letter that's the only reason I know we had a  telephone okay so um I was at that house yesterday uh for a funeral of a great man his name was  Herbert Wesner and uh in Fort Sill expanded the   artillery range in the mid 50s and they condemned  the land on which Qantas house was sitting   quantity died in 1911 but his one of his daughters  were still living there and I got to interview her   daughter later on but uh so Mr wessner said I'm  not going to let them destroy that beautiful home   so he bought it and moved it to cash  Oklahoma in a little area behind his store   and it's been sitting there ever  since and he passed away recently   and the funeral was at Star house in on the lawn  in front and the Comanche Nation funeral home is   the one that did the funeral their hearse their  ambula their uh well limo for the family members   there were as many Indians there as there were  black people a unifying influence Herbert Wesner   it's so appropriate that that  funeral was held at Juana's house   but it's very touching Mr Wisner gave  me lots of information one of the things   that I if there are any young historians or any  historians and I know there are in this audience   uh please get out of the libraries and talk to  people the oral interviews are very important okay this is quanah's family  uh he uh his oldest daughter uh married Emmett Cox the father of the  man who wrote the forward to my book   and Mr Cox said that his father had  to learn Comanche because his mother   would not allow English in the household so uh so that you're going to find some  Indian faces that look traditional   you're going to find some Indian faces  that show that there's been some very   very refined education like the young ladies  that went to Carlisle you can see who they are um two white son-in-laws   and uh those beautiful children so it but Juana  was still a Comanche always for Comanche totally   his adaptations were to a different culture and no  he did not speak English uh when well he did speak   English but he didn't learn it from his mother  his mother had to forget it because when she was   recaptured after 24 years with the Comanches all  she knew was me Cincy me Cincy that's all she knew and uh but Connor Parker loved his mother  very much and he was 13 when she was captured   recaptured and she did not want to go back  to the white people so see again what are we   talking about culture we're not talking about  rice we're talking about culture Tom asked me   at dinner incidentally he knows I love Thai food  so that's where we were just before we got here   um you know he asked me about the the  language and in this type of thing   uh and why the children didn't want to go back  to their white parents when they were ransomed   well the Comanches never spanked the children  they were spoiled they were cherished   they didn't have to go to school they didn't have  to go to church you know they had lots of fun and   uh so do uh if you ever read my book well you'll  see the regard that these former captives had this um I've met a distinguished gentleman a moment ago  who uh used to be a doctor in Quantum Texas I used   to be in English and Spanish teacher in Quantum  Texas this is the Quantum apnea Pacific detail   that's been restored by the people of Quanah the  town was named after Quantum Parker by the way   and the I've written a screenplay which I'm  trying to get produced my my professors at   the University of Oklahoma a screenwriting  professor and you know I'm probably as old   as just about I'm 72 so if anybody of you still  if you still want to do something in life do it   I'm writing another screenplay now and anyway  my professor polished my screenplay for me   he charged quite a bit but he polished it and  we have um I love the scene that I wrote which   he didn't change it's quanta in Quantum Texas  and he is blessing the town and there's this   engine locomotive with his picture on the front  of it he was an investor in that railroad Now   isn't this an incredible story it's like Tom  said you know there's just not another story   like this and we don't need Fiction with this  story because truth is Stranger Than Fiction   all right this is the greatest I think  of all the frontiersmen Charles Goodnight   I wish I had a different photo I mean another one  when he was younger this man was a Texas Ranger   from from whether from Parker  County nearby Parker County   he was the in the National Cowboy Hall  of Fame they've renamed it in Oklahoma   City his is the first name on the list of  great westerners it deserves to be there   he uh was befriended Quanah and gave Juana some  herd Bulls to start his own cattle herd and he did   a lot of research on kuana's history and I found  this information in the corner Parker I mean the   uh Charles Goodnight papers and the panel plays  Museum a lot of people have ignored Canyon don't   ignore Canyon there's a lot of information in the  museum and uh I found things there that nobody had   ever used I one of the professors at Texas Woman's  has used my Quantum Parker collection up there all   my research papers and uh so a lot of people  are using those and I'm glad but I put them in   Canyon on purpose because the Texas Panhandle is  a part of the State of Texas I want y'all to know   and uh we're uh in Southwestern Oklahoma is  a part of Oklahoma I'd like for the folks in   Oklahoma City to know as well uh they sometimes  act like those places are just Hinterlands but   you know that's all right with me now this is  uh uh Tom is as as I mentioned there there's   been Tom and I have talked a great deal and I just  think he's done a marvelous job as your cultural   uh Point person uh and and for all these  programs but he was talking about Quanah   as a spiritual leader here here you see this  uh this is after uh peyote prayer meeting the I I met one of the leading peyote roadmen that's  what they're called the people that set up for   prayer meetings at the Comanche homecoming  powwow which I attended several times over   the years his name was red cardinal okay so  I would get to talk to him and he might tell   tell me a little bit and then just stop all right  as aggressive as I am I knew better than to push   so I had to wait until the next year and  exclamation for the next conversation   I would have heard a little bit more so  finally I was getting weary of this and I   thought there's got to be a week he's got to  have a weakness and I knew what it was Cedar   with red berries from the Palo Duro Canyon area  so I found out that he lived in Cyril Oklahoma   and I went outside of the canyon and got  some scissors and I got a whole bunch of   procedure with red berries okay so when you  when you when you burn that the smoke becomes   sacred and the eagle feather fans that  smoke and drives all the bad spirits away   besides smells good Okay so I go to his house  and this young lady comes down now my grandpa's   not here I said well tell him that I write him a  whole bunch of Cedar with red berries from Palo   Jerry Canyon I'm gonna go get a Coke I'll be right  back he was on this porch when I was pulling up   he told me everything that time  take me in the back room and   and told me everything about the Peyote religion  uh so I didn't have to wait until the next Powwow it's quite again a very distinguished person  and the Comanche men were very vain okay are   you beginning to get this idea want to look  good okay and the women were wanting them   to look good they were always beating things and  you know sewing beautiful things for them and uh okay this is Quanah and two of his wives and uh   I have changed something from my first book I  didn't have an easy time with any of this I had   to self-publish the first Quantum book I was  totally unknown still I'm relatively unknown   and uh so my hometown newspaper in the Texas  Panhandle published my first Quantic book   and I took a copy of the Dallas Morning News  and miraculously they reviewed it favorably   and my 3 000 copies sold out in 14 months and then  seven years went by and I had given up on getting   a new publisher and I got a call I was teaching  in Guana Texas I got a call from Denver Colorado   this guy said I have a friend in New  York that wants to publish a biography   of quanta and I picked up your book and I  think it's the one sure enough that's what   happened otherwise I wouldn't be here  would I and so I credit my higher power   with the book with the publication of the book  for this wonderful experience in visiting with you oh but the first book had  what I think really happened   uh Quanah was always bringing in these uh orphan  boys and so his cousin Charlie Hart from Texas   I went over to Oklahoma to live with him Charlie  became a very loyal loyal cowboy on the ranch   will Quanah turned up missing and he had  four wives at the Mansion at that time and uh   so they the wives wanted to know they were all  swimming in the creek and Charlie was nearby   and they wanted to know where iguana had gone and  Charlie says uh oh I don't know well too the wives   sneaked up on him grabbed him and threw him in  the creek and were ducking him and they were they   were threatening to drown him if they didn't  tell if he didn't tell because they were mad   now don't you the idea of the harmonious  polygamy I really don't believe you know   because these Comanche women you didn't mess  with them too much if you know what I mean   two of them got mad and left okay right but  anyway I think he had run off with the tenarsi   I've forgotten which one she is uh went  on the left to the right when it was topai   and uh when he got back Quanah had  to give her husband a Winchester   uh two matching horses a carriage a hundred  dollars and everything was okay she was one of   his wives at that point all right but see when the  Cox is read that that story came from Charlie Hart   so Mrs Cox says that's just an old cowboy story  that didn't really happen so I took it out   of the one that's going to be that that is out now   so Mr Cox looked at me he says I can't really  believe that you did that I says well he's   your grandfather of course I didn't believe  I mean I believed what I had already written   but sometimes you just have to make compromises  I took it out they were thrilled out of their   mind that I took it out and so Mr Cox says  would you like for me to Route the forward   that's how that happened but  anyway he did like the ladies okay these are uh some Comanche men   um performing a dance I don't know it doesn't look  like a word dance to me but whoever did the uh   notation on it probably had no idea what it  was but anyway uh Lawton has been in all of   Southwestern Oklahoma uh has been real real  interesting place for for uh Indian dances the   powwow is considered by some Native Americans to  be not a very nice term so I will refer to them   as dances okay because I don't mean any disrespect  but I like to go to the dances I like to hear the   drum I like to see the costumes I just like  to talk to the people it's just wonderful   and it's not that far away exotic Southwestern  Oklahoma it just grabs at my Heartstrings   all right at this point now I don't want  this to be a lecture so I uh let's start   with the questions anybody have any questions  and we'll still see images but any questions yes uh that I don't have that in the book  but certainly I do believe that's true   and when quano was invited to  Teddy Roosevelt's inauguration   uh Geronimo was invited too but he couldn't go  unless someone supervised him and that was quanta   supervised him quite unfortunately  did not have a problem with drink quanta was a very very devout uh peyote um he didn't worship peyote he worshiped God the  same God that all of us worship a single God   the Comanches never that I only had one God  still do and the Peyote is like the sacrament and so quanta was very devout in people that  belong to that church are not supposed to drink   he didn't one time when they were coming from  uh he had he had a train uh with him and his   uh friends and they stopped in uh Henrietta  on the way from Wichita Falls to Fort Worth   and quanta went around and gave all  the bartenders uh money to close   these Indians didn't get any  booze on that on that overnight   deal and uh when uh Teddy Roosevelt was uh  visiting Quanah uh that's quite unto NRC um this is Cynthia Ann but I want to get I'll  show you the picture of the president with   quanta in a moment um Teddy Roosevelt was at  Star house that same house I was at yesterday and um some of the the girls from uh that had  gone back East to school were helping with the   dinner along with the traditional sisters  that had not gone to the white man School   and so uh they they walked in and they  saw Quanah filling goblets full of wine   they said what are you doing he says well when I  was in the White House Teddy gave me a little of   us little bitty glasses of wine and I want to be  generous and give big glasses so they all had a   little laugh out of it and they had to explain to  him that they were supposed to be little glasses   this amazing man had the generals at his  home the reason he painted the stars on   the top of the house was to show his standing  because if the generals had Stars he did too   all right this is the photo taken  of Cynthia and Parker after she was   captured now she was not Cynthia and  Parker at this point she was now the   someone found her Comanche name Mr Cox told me  what her name was and what it meant someone found   okay so this is her little baby and uh the  Texans weight Texans love to just exaggerate   so there's a little marker up there where  she was captured called Battle of Peace River   it's not a battle by a bunch of  men are shooting women in the back it was the massacre feature so uh Cynthia Ann  would have been shot now it would have been   killed but she had a cradle board on her back and  Captain Ross restrained from the sergeant that   was going to shoot her and the baby all right so  you're thinking oh but Bill that's just a horrible   story well let me tell you what created that story  some Comanches had gone down into Parker County   and had tortured and killed a pregnant woman   in Charles good night and some of the guy  the neighbors found out about it and they   began to follow the Comanches and they found  This Woman's Bible Mrs Sherman near where   the Indian women see this is what  happens in war the Innocents are victims   so the Texans were hot for Revenge now I think at  first they didn't know that these were women that   were packing up the their horses with a buffalo  meat ready to go back to Camp I don't think they   knew it at first but they knew after a while  that these were women they killed him anyway   so again without without being judgmental one  act leads to another act that leads to another   act and it just keeps on accelerating until  you have this ugly ugly horrible 40-year war   between the Comanches and the Texans and it  was really really bad of course the Comanches   had to deal with disease and uh just wave  after wave of epidemics smallpox cholera   there are numbers just dwindle from about  thirty thousand In 1832 to about twenty five   hundred when Guana came in in 1875. and most  of those people were not victims of gunshots   it was disease this is quanta with dummy his  driver I met too Aquinas granddaughters that lived   in Lawton and they told me many stories one of  them was a retired teacher the other one had been   I a um a professional singer uh like she sang Once  with a Saint Louis Symphony we're talking about an   extraordinary family the quantum Parker family  okay so their two granddaughters tell me about   this man driving the stagecoach he was he couldn't  speak and he couldn't hear but good-natured and   good-hearted quanta gives him a job driving  quanta Stagecoach so this is Cash Oklahoma   and that's uh in that same town is where his house  now is and where I went to the funeral yesterday okay this is the wolf hunt I think they  were coats but whatever they were Quantum   was trying to delay losing all of their land they  had won piece of land left called the big pasture   so this is 19.5 and Quantas trying to get  the president to delay breaking that up   so here they are and the great burkburn  it's there burn it I'm sorry uh I have to   try to say it pronounce it correctly and  uh there's a general or two in there and   and then in my book I talk about  at the end of the wolf hunt   uh they're riding back to Frederick to get on  the train and Frederick has become a farmer's   town and that was one of those places where the  farmers and the ranchers really did almost come to   serious gun play so Wagoner Dan Wagoner  that the ranch hit by Vernon is named after   uh he says you know what why don't we just ride  through town one last time like a bunch of cowboys   held meant for leather so they did they roared  through the streets of Frederick and people were   jumping onto the boardwalks and one one woman says  my God that's the president of the United States so they just loved you know boys will be  boys even after they grow up so they had   a lot of fun and Quantum was around famous  people all the time this is uh Cynthia Ann's um headstone at the time it was Iguana's Ranch  actually Quanah had given the Post Oak mission   some land for a mission and they had a cemetery  there and so uh after quanta spoke in 1910 at   the State Fair of Texas he goes back and he  contacts good night and he says you know I've   got only one more thing left to do in my life  and that's to bring my mother's true veins back   see she she uh she died only um five  years before he came into surrender   and he inquired about her and found out that she  had passed away actually starved herself to death   because her white family would not let her  go back to the Indians and as I explained   to Tom over dinner you know we can't criticize  the white Parkers for not letting her go back   the Comanches had killed her dad her grandfather  her uncle and some other members of their Church   and they hated the community use as they  were not about to let her go back and she   she did not like them she tried to escape all  the time again we're not talking about race are   we we're talking about culture Okay so he did  finally get her back and uh two weeks later he   was in his own grave right next to hers and  right now their bodies are in a beautiful   their interred in a very  beautiful Cemetery at Fort Steele   geronimo's grave was just outside of Fort Sill  well actually on Fort Sill property and uh the   Quanah star houses at Cash which is 12 miles west  of Hawaii does anybody have any questions because   I'm an old teacher and I know that uh people get  tired after a while so do you have any questions pardon uh they're uh he's buried a bit Antelope  Hills on the Canadian river somewhere   and he did not uh so Ross did not kill him uh when  kwana's mother was recaptured he lived another two   or three years he was seen at Fort Sill and at  Fort Gibson but uh nobody will ever know where   his remains are are his our quanah's grandfather  iron jacket it was also a great War leader yes that was quanta's grandfather so  you can see that he came from on the   Comanche side very strong leaders and then  on his mother's side these were pioneers   that uh we're very very brave and uh they  furnished some of the leaders in Early Texas   uh Daniel Parker was uh became a member of  the Texas uh government uh there were many   several ministers in the family and so it's a  it's a distinguished family and on both sides   of the family he he was uh you know they  were great leaders and intelligent people they will begin it start as soon as the weather is  beginning to warm up now and you can contact the   Lawton Chamber of Commerce are the Comanche Nation  and they will give you those information that   information it is really something and of course  we have the Museum of the Great Plains is there   the uh museum at Fort Sill and the old buildings  that were built in the early 1870s are there   and uh it's just a beautiful military installation  I've only been there back for two months   um I saw an ad in the Fort Worth paper for  academic advisor at Columbia College in Fort   Worth and I went over for the interview and  they hired somebody already on staff and the   lady said well we're opening a new campus  at Fort Sill so I got my foot in the door   so I'm academic advisor and administrative  assistant for Columbia College in Missouri   we have 32 campuses and 16 of our own  military installations so um I do bring   you greetings from all the other colleges  at the Truman education center at Fort Sill   we're in the process of educating our soldiers  and many of them online some of my students right   now are any Rock in Africa and so even today  when I look at Fort Sill today it is still   uh you know the soldiers are still there  just like they were during quantum's time   became very good friends with a lot of the  generals and the leaders there for sale the star house is uh crumbling and it needs to  be restored and Mr Wesner would not let anyone   do anything to it and I suspect now that the  Oklahoma Historical Society will probably   get a hold of it move it to a museum area  where people can see it hopefully in Lawton   I'm willing to help them do that now but  people I'm a friend I was a friend of Mr   Wesner and people approached me one time  and said well why don't we try to force it   I said you better go talk to somebody else I said  he's my friend and I'm not going to do anything uh the Comanche Nation might decide  to buy the we don't know because they   were very prominent at the funeral so they could well let's be honest about this uh  not all the Comanches like quantum   because some of them are jealous frankly the  Quanah Parker family is very interested in quanta   and some of the other Comanches are and some of  them are not because uh that's just the way it is   and I will be speaking in Lawton soon and I  have to be very sensitive to that and if I   have any antiquana Comanches in the audience  I won't argue with them I'll just let them   I'll say you're entitled to your opinion and  I'll go on if they try to argue with me I'll   have security take them out I'm not putting  up with people who hate Quanah he's my hero any other questions we are history how how was uh Quan Parker  known what was he called in his early years   his early years it was Quanah and then  when he became a teenager he exhibited   tremendous skill uh as a Horseman and  as a hunter as a warrior so his daddy   um set up the eagle dance and  uh his his adult name was Engel so when did he become known as Quanah  Parker uh oh excellent question okay   so he goes in 1875 and he meets Colonel  McKenzie who's the commander at Fort Sill   and so they talked to each other and Quanah  had learned English from a captive that he   chose not to torture he was smart enough  to get this guy to teach him English   and so then uh McKenzie founds out that quanta's  mother had been captured he does some research   finds out that she's dead but but what her  family name was sequana didn't know what   what that was so McKenzie calls quanta in  and says I found out that your mother's   family name is Parker Juana says okay that  will be my name too I am Quanah Parker it's a good question I didn't  get it the first time around any other questions uh why didn't he take his father's name I'm  repeating the question I should have been   doing that all along uh the the there  was no family name with the Comanches   Peter Nocona means he who leaves alone and  returns so there was no way he could do that the uh the jealousy between some of the Comanches  and Quanah uh does that go back to the fact that   not all the Comanches were wanting to lease land  to the Texas Cattlemen after they went to the   reservation most of the Comanches were for it a  lot of the Cabas were against it uh there was a   lot of prosperity brought to the command she's by  the grass Leasing uh every six months they got a   payment in labor if those were very good years for  the Comanches that's why I quite a hated to see it   now the part of the main part came that at the uh  when he came into the reservation the white people   in charge did not realize that the Comanches  were not a unified tribe and never had been   it was a series of bands and band leaders uh  Loosely have sort of Allied Federal Confederation   and they wanted a single chief like the choctaws  had or the chickasaws and the Comanches were not   culturally ready for that and uh they put  quanta in as the top Chief because he could   speak English and he was sharp and I think  also because his mother was white frankly   and I think that a lot of the Comanches living  at that time really resented it although a lot   of them were for it a lot of them were  against it and they're descendants just   kept on maintaining the same attitude and there's  one other thing that is his mother was a captive   in my screenplay I have quanta taking horses  to the father of wekia who was his first wife   and this is a true story and I just put  it in the screenplay more dramatically   the father rejects him because he's the son  of a counterative so they just do Lope they   run off they go down by San Angelo that area that  there was nothing there then except Buffalo and   quanta and some of his friends about  his age they formed their own band and   the father-in-law found out later you know that  he was still mad but he rode down to sequana and   they smoked Peace Pipe and went on a raid probably  down toward Parker County or Palo Pinto County   and got a bunch of cattle and horses  and they were friends after that there's nothing like a raid to put things back  on top especially when that's your culture and   you know that's how you get honor you know and  we don't know how many people quite a scout but   I'm sure there was quite a few quite a few and  you know after all why not he was fighting for   his own country the 14 year old Junior High kid  in Oklahoma City whose mother did housekeeping   for the Cox's he got a hold of the book and  he goes to his school and he does a report   and he tells the teacher well these people weren't  Savages they were just fighting for their country   14 year old could see that that's what it was  that's exactly what it was but see if you've   got people coming in that want that country  they're not going to say they're human beings   call them sandwiches it's easier to take it  away from them that way call them heathens   right now I'm writing a book on what happened to  the native Spanish speaking people in the Texas   Revolution I'm writing a biography of once again  I couldn't wait to get those tejanos off that land   whatever they had to do to get them off  kill them assassinate the family leaders   these things happened in our history it's a very  violent and ugly history in many ways and when we   see someone beautiful like wanna emerged  from it when we see someone who can make   the adjustment and become a bridge builder and  see that was his legacy history at the funeral   it's appropriate that that funeral was at his  house because that was a mixed group of people   people and you're going to find  that in Southwestern Oklahoma a lot that's why one of the reasons I like being  there I feel culturally comfortable I miss   my all my Spanish TV stations when I lived in  Fort Worth I had seven or eight I've got one   and I it's just I just missed the  Hispanic part of me that just craves Texas   and the Indian part of me Graves  Oklahoma so I can't have both of them was the uh Colonel McKenzie the one that  discovered uh kuanas the last his family   name is that the same Colonel McKenzie that  slaughtered all the horses in Palo Duro indeed yes   and the reason that I I found the letter from  McKenzie to his superiors in the National Archives   and he gives the reason for killing  the horses in an earlier battle   see they had the talkawa scouts the tacos  were cannibals the Comanches hated them   so one of the worst things that the  whites ever did to any Indian tribe   was to get the enemy Indians to track  them and fight against them but anyway the uh I got sidetracked other horses so um a bunch of horses have been captured in a battle  and the takawa scouts were supposed to guard them   the next morning the takawa Scouts went into camp  with a burrow with a bunch of saddles piled on   top of it Comanche sit still in every single  horse in the night right from under the top uh   the tonkawa's noses and so McKenzie knew  when these soldiers these horses were   captured there was no way the Comanches  were the top horse thieves in history   that's he didn't want to do it  but he did that's why he did it as a follow-up didn't they give  some of those Scouts the horses   oh yeah the taco was got the best  horses later on the Comanches got   even with the tonkawas there was a  big Massacre up in Oklahoma foreign I'm going to ask one last question but before  I do I wanted to say that we have a limited   number of hardback copies of his book that we're  going to be selling in the meeting room the list   price of the book is 24.95 plus tax our price our  suggested donation is twenty dollars with no tax   every penny of the profit goes to help Finance  these programs and before we uh asked I asked   my last question I want to introduce Marianne  Smith Marianne Smith is with the Adult Services   and she's building our local history and genealogy  collection and she has gathered together books on   Native Americans they're available to check out  where we will have the book signing if we run out   of books which I hope we do we can order some  more and get him to sign them at a later time   um one reason you should buy this book there's  materials in the book that are in no other book   because the Quanah Parker family gave him some  access to letters and diaries that gave no one   else right here is where you see it my last  question what if the council house Massacre   had been a council house peace conference  what impact would that have had   on Anglo Native American relations in 1840 in  San Antonio some Comanche Chiefs and women rode   into San Antonio to meet with the Texans uh  to discuss getting prisoners back the command   she said captured some women and children  so they get to the council house and uh   so the whites are upset the Texans are because  they didn't bring any captains with them except   for one this one little girl her face her  the tip of her nose had been burned off   she had been disfigured and tortured terribly  and she was only like 12 or 13. so this was   an electric moment for the Texans who you know  didn't really need to me too much of a electric   moment to fight because that's what they did  so um one of the Texans asked the chief Maguire   uh where are you know the others and he made some  smart reply and said how do you like that answer   well so then the text and started shooting  and the Comanche started shooting and it was   a horrible situation uh the Bayer County Sheriff  was killed outside in the street by Comanche boy there's no way that the command that the  council house Massacre would not have happened   you have two cultures in  Collision two Warrior cultures   that were not going to talk to each other  there was only one Texan that would or could   talk to them that was Sam Houston uh the  uh the Spanish had a man that could do that   but they were they were rare very very rare  because most of the Texans that came out here   just wanted the land I mean they weren't Texans  to start with they were mainly from the Mid-South   but the we have to and then they use the term  manifest destiny to try to bring God in on it   God is not in on these aggressive things I mean  I don't think so not from what I can tell in   the Bible so they made up oh it's our Manifest  Destiny to control this whole continent well I   don't think so the God I know probably didn't  like that too much it's a nice word for greed   and one of my friends in Oklahoma who is she's  been on the board of the Oklahoma Historical   Society she said you never use the word greed  any at one time in the book and talking about   what the whites did to get the comanche's land  I said no I didn't use the word I just showed it   good writing shows it and uh so I've got to say   one last thing I was in Oklahoma I was  in Lawton for Lawton's 100th birthday   and I'd set up a group of of meetings like  this one speaker meetings for the whole year   and then I had a panel discussion on what  happened to the Indians after allotment   because if the allotment hadn't happened Lawton  couldn't exist so I had a representative of the   planes of patches the Cowboys and Comanches and I  was the moderator there were eight white people in   the audience the rest of the audience was Indians  we had a nice program and then I go to the Lawton   Constitution and I say aren't you going to do any  journalism any uh investigative reporting on what   happened to the Indians so that Lawton could be  you know no they they were not going to do that   that's wrong because what people  did a hundred years ago is one thing   but for us ignoring the plight of these people  and not even being curious about what happened   to them so what I told the editor was I could  write letters to your paper but y'all would just   edit out the things you don't like I'm going to  try to make a movie and I'm going to make you so   the re the viewers so interested in what happens  to the Comanche is that they will feel for them   if they would then they will understand on an  emotional level that there this was a really   really bad thing to do but anyway uh it's the  council house thing was just it was inevitable any of the last questions one last question I have a comment I really want to thank  you for your attentiveness I'm very honored   that you asked me to come and talk  uh I have never given a speech in   the Dallas Fort Worth area this is my  first time the book came out in 95 so   I really appreciate you for being the Pioneers  in this area and and asking me to speak and   um I certainly wish you well and I look forward to  seeing some of you after a while Mr Daly uh it's   kind of interesting that the anglo-colonists  didn't Texans could not get along with the   Comanches you got the German Colonists came down  and pretty much had a good relationship one other   point though was that the Comanches had been very  successful in intimidating the New Mexicans and   striking deals with the Pueblos that they thought  also they could intimidate the Texans the same way   foreign yes exactly and the reason the Germans got  along is the Germans did not see them as Savages   the Germans saw them as human beings the  Germans were educated and they came from Europe   they were not slave holders their whole attitude  about race was different they did make peace   for the most part there were a few little  flare-ups but their whole concept of life   frankly if you'll excuse me  for saying so was on a higher point and my own ancestors were in Texas  in the 1840s so uh and I'm not German thank you [Applause] [Music]

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Length: 81min 4sec (4864 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 18 2023