biography
| name: |
Quanah
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| |
known as Parker Quanah
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (?1845–1911)
|
| biography:
| Comanche leader, born at Cedar Lake, Texas, USA. The son of a Comanche chief and Cynthia Ann Parker, a captive white woman (taken back by whites in 1860), he grew up to become a bold warrior and war chief of the Comanche (1867). For the next eight years he led an alliance of various tribes in raids against frontier settlements in Texas. After finally surrendering (1875), he quickly accommodated himself to the white culture by learning Spanish and English, adopting new agricultural methods, and promoting education for his fellow Indians. He prospered as both a farmer and the managing agent for business deals between whites and Indian tribes, and was reputed in later years to be the wealthiest Native American in North America, but he also created wealth for fellow Indians by getting them to lease surplus tribal lands to white cattlemen. A judge of the Court of Indian Affairs (1886), he became principal chief of all Comanche bands (1890), and also a major figure in the peyote religion. He rode beside Geronimo in the inaugural parade of President Theodore Roosevelt (1905). |
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