His mother Cynthia Ann, a captive girl was she;
His father Peta Nocona, a hunter, a warrior, a true Comanche.

Not much is known about Quanah's life before 1875,
But as history tells us now, his goals were to see his people survive.

Quanah's Comanches were known as the Lords of the South Plains;

They escaped the threats from the cavalry time and time again.

Quanah led his people through winter's cold and summer's sweltering heat,

Chasing after the buffalo herds, that provided them with meat.

High up on a mountainside or in the valley far below,

When Quanah raised his hand, his people were ready to go.

The Quahada band of Comanches was led by our Grandfather's hand;

They controlled Komancheria, a Spanish name given to the land.

Anyone daring to enter there was met with a fierce attack.

At first the aim was not to kill, but merely drive them back.

Quanah had gathered some warriors, even some from another tribe;

He asked for their help to stop some buffalo hunters if with him they would ride.

To a Texas panhandle town they would go, a place called Adobe Walls;

It was here that Quanah's horse would be shot, causing him to stumble and fall.

It was June the twenty - seventh in eighteen seventy - four,

And Quanah led the warriors out like so many times before.

At Adobe Walls the buffalo hunters really ranted and raved

About the thousands of buffalo they killed, not caring if even one was saved.

While traveling to Adobe Walls, a memorial song was sung

Because they knew for some of the warriors the bells of heaven would be rung.

As they charged the walls at dawn that day, the battle was not very long,

But as Quanah rode his horse in circles, all the warriors sang his medicine song.

Quanah took cover behind the horse as on the ground he lay;

Rescued by a comrade, he will live another day.

Carried by Comanche ponies that were always swift in flight,

Again the warriors of Quanah's band escaped into the night.

Eschiti, the medicine man, assured them his war paint was bullet proof,

But early in battle several Indians were killed, rendering the paint to be a spoof.

The Medicine man's explanation was! someone had killed a skunk for meat;

He said that act rendered the paint useless and led to the Indians' defeat.

The ride back to the village was long and tiresome with many a heavy heart.

The range and accuracy of the buffalo rifles had them beaten from the very start.

This time the memorial song held sadness, but still was sung with honor and pride,

The sorrow was not for a lost battle, but for the brothers who bled and died.

Many of the settlers who came said they were only passing through,

But a short time later the U.S. Government sent the cavalry dressed in blue.

Their orders were to take the Comanches any way they can;

And take them to Oklahoma to live on reservation land.

Many times they tried and many times they failed;

They found themselves hungry, cold and tired, as again they lost Quanah's trail.

Another time Quanah showed them, he was a quite smart old scamp;

He stampeded a herd of buffalo through the middle of Mackenzie's camp.

A severe drought from June to September kept the Quahada ponies poor.

At last Colonel Mackenzie's scouts found the Palo Duro's door.

Most of the Indians' ponies were killed, over one thousand in all;

But Quanah and the Comanches escaped on foot up the canyon wall.

 After escaping the Palo Duro with very few horses to ride,

The people were suffering badly form the bitter cold outside.

No way to run the buffalo down, which provided them with meat;

To save his people now, it was surrender or suffer defeat.

Being the kind of man he was? Quanah prayed and asked for help;

He looked up and saw a circling bird, then heard the eagle's squeal.

The sound he heard was the eagle's voice, loud and clear and shrill;

This was the sign he was looking for; take the people and go to Ft. Sill

After he came to the reservation, the Government quickly learned,

That Quanah had many Comanche traits that had not yet been spurned.

Standing tall against Indian agents, Quanah just could not be moved;

Until at last demands for his people, the agents finally approved.

"Too many wives," the agents said. "That's one thing you've done."

Quanah simply said. "That's fine; Now you go tell 'em which ones."

History does not tell us what action the agents took,

But I'll wager that they had second thoughts after seeing Quanah's look.

The Government asked Quanah to convince his people to walk the white man's road.

They assured him if he would just do that they would help him carry the load,

So Quanah traded buckskins for a watch with gold chain a suit and felt hat of black,

But his hair was still braided and the two long braids were worn down the center of his back.

Quanah lived his life with one foot on the white man's road and the other on the old Comanche trail.

He continued this way, even to the end, as a sickness made his body grow frail.

He served as a judge in Indian courts, and to his Comanche people as a Chief;

Either way he could still help his people when they were stricken with trouble and grief.

As a businessman Quanah took the horse by the reins.

He made investments in horses, cattle, land and trains.

But even with the success and some failures too, he didn't let his life get grim.

He still had his goals set on helping others, who might have been less fortunate than him.

Quanah became a great leader of religion in the Native American Church.

The Government tried to ban the peyote but it always disappeared during the search.

Quanah spoke to the white preachers and told them, "You need to take another look,

Because the things we get from our meeting in the tee-pee are the same as you get from your book."

In a long hard search to locate his mother's remains,

He found them buried down in East Texas, a long way from the plains.

With very little help from most folks around,

Quanah finally obtained permission to have them removed from the ground.

Cynthia Ann's remains and those of Prairie Flower

Were re-interred in Oklahoma where they remain this very hour.

Quanah lived a remarkable life, from the plains to the reservation,

From a half Ä breed boy orphaned before his teens to the chief of the Comanche Nation.

While death took his mother and father, his brother and sister too,

When burdened with heartaches that life had dealt ham it was his faith that helped him pull through.

Now, so many years ago, the days have passed us by;

Each year we gather at their monument and look up towards the sky.

We sing, we talk, then we bow our heads and pray;

We ask for strength and guidance that we might join them there one day.

Our Grandfather's spirit watches over us down here upon the land.

He waits for us to join him as he holds to Jesus' hand.

In February of 1911 Quanah was laid to rest.

All the Comanche Nation knew that he had given his very best.

And today you can stand in front of Star House, the building that was Quanah's home.

From the things you see and the feelings you'll get,

you will know that His Spirit Lives On
 

"Quanah Parker, His Spirit Lives On"

Scared Coyote

Comanche

Paul Davis

February 6, 1999

@Copyright