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Quanah Parker
Comanche Chief
In May 1836, a large war party of Comanche Indians attacked a small for in Texas, abducting blond, blue-eyed Cynthia Ann Parker, who was nine years old at the time. Adopted into the tribe, for more than twenty years Cynthia Ann, renamed Naudah by her captors, lived the life of a Comanche. She eventually married and gave birth to a son. This son, named Quanah for the flower-filled valley of his birth, was destined to become one of the greatest Comanche chiefs ever to have lived. As the call for expansion reached its height during the nineteenth century and America rapidly began moving westward, the American Indians became threatened as their food supply, the huge buffalo herds that roamed the plains, was slaughtered almost to extinction. As a chief, Quanah watched as other tribes were forced to take refuge on reservations set up by the United States government, and he vowed to his people that they would never leave their land without a fight. Eventually, however, Quanah's trive succumbed to the overwhelming new hardships of existence on the plains, and Quanah brought them to the reservation, the last Indian chief to surrender. This is the story of the legendary Quanah Parker-- part white, but thoroughly Comanche. Brave warrior, respected leader, and dedicated lobbyist in the fight for Indian rights, he remained a liaison between his people and the white man while acting to preserve the Comanche heritage on the reservation.
136 pp ~ illustrated — ©1991
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