Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History (60 page)
Authors: S. C. Gwynne
Tags: #State & Local, #Kings and Rulers, #Native American, #Social Science, #Native American Studies, #Native Americans, #West (AK; CA; CO; HI; ID; MT; NV; UT; WY), #Wars, #Frontier and Pioneer Life, #General, #United States, #Ethnic Studies, #19th Century, #Southwest (AZ; NM; OK; TX), #Biography & Autobiography, #Comanche Indians, #West (U.S.), #Discrimination & Race Relations, #Biography, #History
6
. Ibid., p. 20.
7
. Ibid., p. 9.
8
. Ibid.
9
. Ibid., endnotes, p. 51.
10
. The number of Indians varies according to who is giving the account. A citizen of Victoria, John Linn, who witnessed the attack, estimated six hundred warriors in the raiding party. Ranger Ben McCulloch estimated a thousand Indians. An account in a local newspaper estimated two hundred. I am inclined to believe both McCulloch and Linn, meaning that there were in fact six hundred warriors and the rest were women, boys, and older men. McCulloch, one of the best trackers ever to come out of Texas, cut their trail and would have been quite accurate in assessing the number of horses and riders.
11
. John Holmes Jenkins III, ed.,
Recollections of Early Texas: The Memoirs of John Holland Jenkins
(Austin, University of Texas Press, 1958), p. 62.
12
. John J. Linn,
Reminiscences of Fifty Years in Texas,
p. 340.
13
. Donaly E. Brice,
Great Comanche Raid,
p. 30.
14
. John Henry Brown,
Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas,
p. 80.
15
. Jenkins, p. 68.
16
. Ibid., p. 80.
17
. Linn, pp. 341–42.
18
. Mike Cox,
The Texas Rangers,
p. 76.
19
. Jenkins, p. 64.
20
. Brown, p. 81.
21
. Mary Maverick,
Memoirs of Mary Maverick,
p. 29.
22
. Linn, p. 347.
23
. Victor M. Rose,
The Life and Services of General Ben McCulloch,
p. 64 (citing verbatim account of John Henry Brown).
24
. Walter Prescott Webb,
The Texas Rangers: A Century of Frontier Defense,
p. 62.
25
. Jenkins, p. 68.
26
. Linn, p. 343.
27
. Schilz and Schilz, p. 23.
28
. Brazos,
Life of Robert Hall,
pp. 52–53.
29
. Schilz and Schilz, p. 24.
30
. J. W. Wilbarger,
Indian Depredations in Texas,
p. 185.
Eight
WHITE SQUAW
1
. Eugene E. White,
Experiences of a Special Indian Agent,
p. 262.
2
. James T. DeShields,
Cynthia Ann Parker: The Story of Her Capture,
pp. 23–24.
3
.
Clarksville Northern Standard,
May 25, 1846.
4
. Daniel J. Gielo and Scott Zesch, eds., “Every day Seemed to Be a Holiday: The Captivity of Bianca Babb,”
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
107 (July 2003): 36.
5
. T. A. Babb,
In the Bosom of the Comanches,
p. 34.
6
. Scott Zesch,
The Captured,
p. 45.
7
. Babb, p. 22.
8
. Gielo and Zesch, p. 56.
9
. Ibid.
10
. Ibid., p. 57.
11
. Zesch, p. 75.
12
. Ibid.
13
. Ibid., p. 81.
14
. Ibid.
15
. Ibid., p. 85.
16
. Babb, p. 58.
17
. Rupert N. Richardson,
The Comanche Barrier to South Plains Settlement,
p. 61; and Thomas Kavanaugh,
The Comanches,
p. 296. Note that Buffalo Hump, Little Wolf, and Santa Anna were all powerful chiefs, and some considered them more powerful than Old Owl or Pah-hah-yuco. My research has shown that, assuming the Wallace/Hoebel model of social organization is right, they would fall more into the traditional category of “war chiefs.”
18
. Kavanaugh, p. 266.
19
. Ibid., p. 297.
20
.
Clarksville Northern Standard,
May 25, 1846.
21
. Ibid.
22
. Letter: P. M. Butler and M. G. Lewis to the Hon. W. Medill, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, August 8, 1848, House Executive Documents No. 1, 30th Congress, Second Session, p. 578.
23
. DeShields,
The Story of Her Capture,
p. 30.
24
. Butler, and Lewis, p. 578.
25
. Joyde Lynne Dickson Schilz and Thomas F. Schilz,
Buffalo Hump and the Penateka
Comanches,
p. 24, and Dorman H. Winfrey and James M. Day, eds.,
Indian Papers of Texas and the Southwest, 1816–1925,
vol. 1, p. 266.
26
. Richardson,
The Comanche Barrier to South Plains Settlement,
p. 57.
27
. Ibid., p. 72.
28
. DeShields, p. 28.
29
. T. R. Fehrenbach,
The Comanches,
p. 349.
30
. David La Vere,
Contrary Neighbors,
p. 120.
31
. Ernest Wallace and E. Adamson Hoebel,
The Comanches,
pp. 169–70.
32
. Ramon Powers and James N. Leiker, “Cholera Among the Plains Indians,”
Western Historical Quarterly
29 (Fall 1998): 319.
33
. Ibid., p. 321.
34
. Ibid., pp. 322–23.
35
. Richardson,
The Comanche Barrier to South Plains Settlement,
p. 78.
36
. Letter: Horace Capron to Robert Howard, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, September 30, 1852, letters received, M234, Roll 858, Texas Agency (cited in Schilz and Schilz, p. 38).
37
. Richardson,
The Comanche Barrier to South Plains Settlement,
p. 60.
38
. Letter: Robert S. Neighbors to the Hon. W. Medill, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, November 18, 1847, 30th Congress, First Session, Senate Committee Report 171.
39
. Kavanaugh, p. 265.
40
. Chief Baldwin Parker,
The Life of Quanah Parker, Comanche Chief,
through J. Evetts Haley, August 29, 1930, manuscript, Center for American History, University of Texas, p. 9.
41
. Jo Ella Powell Exley,
Frontier Blood,
p. 291 (note).
42
. Ibid., p. 139.
43
. Ibid., p. 138.
44
. DeShields, p. 32.
45
. Bill Neeley,
The Last Comanche Chief: The Life and Times of Quanah Parker,
p. 52; also, Cynthia Ann later picked up another nickname: “Preloch.” It was not uncommon for Indians to have several names.
46
. Randolph Marcy,
Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana in the Year 1852,
p. 37.
Nine
CHASING THE WIND
1
. James W. Parker,
Defence of James W. Parker Against Slanderous Accusations,
p. 4.
2
. Ibid., p. 5.
3
. James W. Parker,
The Rachel Plummer Narrative,
entire.
4
. W. S. Nye,
Carbine and Lance: The Story of Old Fort Sill,
pp. 35–36.
5
. T. R. Fehrenbach,
The Comanches,
p. 224.
6
. J. Evetts Haley, “The Comanchero Trade,”
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
38 (January 1935): 38.
7
. David La Vere,
Contrary Neighbors,
p. 117.
8
. Ibid., p. 123.
9
. Jo Ella Powell Exley,
Frontier Blood,
p. 84.
10
. Ibid., p. 87.
11
. Rachel Plummer,
Narrative of the Capture and Subsequent Sufferings of Rachel Plummer,
pp. 116–17.
12
. James Parker,
The Rachel Plummer Narrative,
p. 27.
13
. Letter: James Parker to M. B. Lamar, March 17, 1839, in Charles Gulick, ed.,
The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar,
vol. 2, p. 494.
14
. Ibid.
15
. Exley, p. 104. Note that Exley is the sole source on the third child, citing a letter from L. T. M. Plummer to “Dear Nephews” from a private collection.
16
. Randolph B. Marcy,
Adventure on Red River,
p. 169.
17
. Amelia W. Williams and Eugene C. Barker,
The Writings of Sam Houston, 1813–1863,
vol. 4, pp. 180–81.
18
. Exley, p. 177 (citing Confederate records).
Ten
DEATH’S INNOCENT FACE
1
. Walter Prescott Webb,
The Texas Rangers,
p. 78.
2
. This idea is mentioned in Webb’s
The Texas Rangers,
but it appeared originally in
J. W. Wilbarger’s
Indian Depredations in Texas,
originally published in 1889.
3
. Walter Prescott, Webb,
The Great Plains,
p. 167.
4
. Ibid.
5
. Colonel Richard Irving Dodge,
Our Wild Indians,
pp. 418–20.
6
. Ibid.
7
. Evan Connell,
Son of the Morning Star,
p. 57.
8
. Colonel Dodge,
Our Wild Indians,
p. 421.
9
. Panhandle Plains Historical Museum exhibit.
10
. Colonel Dodge,
Our Wild Indians,
p. 421.
11
. David La Vere,
Contrary Neighbors,
p. 35.
12
. Ibid.
13
. T. R. Fehrenbach,
The Comanches,
p. 298.
14
. Ernest Wallace and E. Adamson Hoebel,
The Comanches,
p. 257.
15
. Fehrenbach,
The Comanches,
p. 146.
16
. Herman Lehmann,
Nine Years Among the Indians,
pp. 47–50.
17
. Clinton L. Smith,
The Boy Captives,
pp. 52–53.
18
. Mike Cox,
The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821–1900,
p. 42.
19
. Jo Ella Powell Exley,
Frontier Blood,
p. 46.
20
. Fehrenbach,
The Comanches,
p. 300.
21
. Z. N. Morrell,
Flowers and Fruits in the Wilderness,
p. 86.
22
. Mary Maverick,
Memoirs of Mary Maverick,
p. 29.
23
. Major John Caperton,
Sketch of Colonel John C. Hays, The Texas Rangers, Incidents in Mexico,
p. 11.
24
. Ibid., p. 32.
25
. Wallace and Hoebel, p. 258.
26
. Captain Nathan Brookshire, Report in
Journals of the Fourth Congress of the Republic of Texas,
vol. 3, pp. 110–11.
27
. J. W. Wilbarger,
Indian Depredations in Texas,
pp. 368ff.
28
. Colonel Dodge,
Our Wild Indians,
p. 522.
29
. James Kimmins Greer,
Colonel Jack Hays: Frontier Leader and California Builder,
p. 35.
30
. Wilbarger, p. 74.
31
. The photo referred to is in Greer’s biography of Hays.
32
. Webb,
The Texas Rangers,
p. 67.
33
. Caperton, p. 5.