1 00:00:07,024 --> 00:00:14,662 Late one night in 1871, a group of riders descended on a sleeping army camp. 2 00:00:14,662 --> 00:00:17,402 In minutes they stirred the camp into a panic, 3 00:00:17,402 --> 00:00:21,232 stole about seventy horses, and disappeared. 4 00:00:21,232 --> 00:00:24,542 Led by a young chief named Quanah Parker, 5 00:00:24,542 --> 00:00:28,052 the raid was the latest in a long series of altercations 6 00:00:28,052 --> 00:00:32,906 along the Texas frontier between the indigenous people known as the Numunu, 7 00:00:32,906 --> 00:00:34,346 or Comanches, 8 00:00:34,346 --> 00:00:40,431 and the United States forces sent to steal Comanche lands for white settlers. 9 00:00:40,431 --> 00:00:42,841 Though the conflict was decades old, 10 00:00:42,841 --> 00:00:46,601 U.S. Colonel Ranald MacKenzie led the latest iteration. 11 00:00:46,601 --> 00:00:49,641 From summer to winter, he tracked Quanah. 12 00:00:49,641 --> 00:00:55,361 But Quanah was also tracking him, and each time the colonel drew near his targets, 13 00:00:55,361 --> 00:00:59,482 they disappeared without a trace into the vast plains. 14 00:00:59,482 --> 00:01:03,867 The Comanches had controlled this territory for nearly two hundred years, 15 00:01:03,867 --> 00:01:08,314 hunting buffalo and moving whole villages around the plains. 16 00:01:08,314 --> 00:01:11,844 They suppressed Spanish and Mexican attacks from the south, 17 00:01:11,844 --> 00:01:15,284 attempts to settle the land by the United States from the east, 18 00:01:15,284 --> 00:01:19,461 and numerous other indigenous peoples’ bids for power. 19 00:01:19,461 --> 00:01:23,830 The Comanche Empire was not one unified group under central control, 20 00:01:23,830 --> 00:01:28,280 but rather a number of bands, each with its own leaders. 21 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:32,635 What all of these bands had in common was their prowess as riders— 22 00:01:32,635 --> 00:01:36,635 every man, woman, and child was adept on horseback. 23 00:01:36,635 --> 00:01:38,615 Their combat skills on horseback 24 00:01:38,615 --> 00:01:43,368 far surpassed those of both other indigenous peoples and colonists, 25 00:01:43,368 --> 00:01:48,271 allowing them to control an enormous area with relatively few people— 26 00:01:48,271 --> 00:01:50,951 probably about 40,000 at their peak 27 00:01:50,951 --> 00:01:57,291 and only about 4-5,000 by the time Quanah Parker and Ranald Mackenzie faced off. 28 00:01:57,291 --> 00:02:02,953 Born around 1848, Quanah was the eldest child of Peta Nocona, 29 00:02:02,953 --> 00:02:06,953 a leader of the Nokoni band, and Cynthia Ann Parker, 30 00:02:06,953 --> 00:02:10,713 a kidnapped white settler who assimilated with the Comanches 31 00:02:10,713 --> 00:02:13,103 and took the name Naduah. 32 00:02:13,103 --> 00:02:15,173 When Quanah was a preteen, 33 00:02:15,173 --> 00:02:20,412 US forces ambushed his village, capturing his mother and sister. 34 00:02:20,412 --> 00:02:24,826 Quanah and his younger brother sought refuge with a different Comanche band, 35 00:02:24,826 --> 00:02:26,456 the Quahada. 36 00:02:26,456 --> 00:02:31,885 In the years that followed, Quanah proved himself as a warrior and leader. 37 00:02:31,885 --> 00:02:36,529 In his early twenties, he and a young woman named Weakeah eloped, 38 00:02:36,529 --> 00:02:40,590 enraging her powerful father and several other leaders. 39 00:02:40,590 --> 00:02:42,820 They stayed on the run for a year, 40 00:02:42,820 --> 00:02:47,768 attracting followers and establishing Quanah as a paraibo, or chief, 41 00:02:47,768 --> 00:02:50,358 at an exceptionally young age. 42 00:02:50,358 --> 00:02:55,060 Under his leadership the Quahada band was able to elude the U.S. military 43 00:02:55,060 --> 00:02:57,050 and continue their way of life. 44 00:02:57,050 --> 00:03:02,631 But in the early 1870s, the East Coast market for buffalo hides became lucrative, 45 00:03:02,631 --> 00:03:07,196 and hunters slaughtered millions of buffalo in just a few years. 46 00:03:07,196 --> 00:03:10,576 Meanwhile, U.S. forces led a surprise attack, 47 00:03:10,576 --> 00:03:16,092 killing nearly all the Quahada band’s 1400 horses and stealing the rest. 48 00:03:16,092 --> 00:03:21,412 Though he had vowed to never surrender, Quanah knew that without bison or horses, 49 00:03:21,412 --> 00:03:24,812 the Comanches faced certain starvation in winter. 50 00:03:24,812 --> 00:03:29,115 So in 1875 Quanah and the Quahada band 51 00:03:29,115 --> 00:03:33,382 moved to the Fort Sill reservation in Oklahoma. 52 00:03:33,382 --> 00:03:36,782 As hunter-gatherers, they could not transition easily 53 00:03:36,782 --> 00:03:40,102 to an agricultural way of life on the reservation. 54 00:03:40,102 --> 00:03:43,372 The US government had promised rations and supplies, 55 00:03:43,372 --> 00:03:46,982 but what they provided was wildly insufficient. 56 00:03:46,982 --> 00:03:51,102 Quanah, meanwhile, was suddenly in a weak political position: 57 00:03:51,102 --> 00:03:52,932 he had no wealth or power 58 00:03:52,932 --> 00:03:56,132 compared to others who had been on the reservation longer. 59 00:03:56,132 --> 00:03:58,782 Still, he saw an opportunity. 60 00:03:58,782 --> 00:04:01,662 The reservation included ample grasslands— 61 00:04:01,662 --> 00:04:07,015 useless to the Comanches but perfect for cattle ranchers to graze their herds. 62 00:04:07,015 --> 00:04:11,015 He began a profitable arrangement leasing the land to cattle ranchers, 63 00:04:11,015 --> 00:04:12,615 quietly at first. 64 00:04:12,615 --> 00:04:16,605 Eventually, he negotiated leasing rights with the US government, 65 00:04:16,605 --> 00:04:21,786 which ensured a steady source of income for the Comanches on the reservation. 66 00:04:21,786 --> 00:04:24,366 As Quanah’s status on the reservation 67 00:04:24,366 --> 00:04:27,336 and recognition from government officials grew, 68 00:04:27,336 --> 00:04:32,312 he secured better rations, advocated for the construction of schools and houses, 69 00:04:32,312 --> 00:04:36,366 and became one of three tribal judges on the reservation court. 70 00:04:36,366 --> 00:04:38,956 Tired of speaking with multiple leaders, 71 00:04:38,956 --> 00:04:43,084 the U.S. Government wanted to appoint one chief of all Comanches— 72 00:04:43,084 --> 00:04:47,224 a role that hadn’t existed outside the reservation. 73 00:04:47,224 --> 00:04:51,224 Still, many Comanches supported Quanah for this role, 74 00:04:51,224 --> 00:04:53,484 just as several older leaders had supported him 75 00:04:53,484 --> 00:04:56,264 to lead them against the US armed forces. 76 00:04:56,264 --> 00:05:01,928 Even Quanah’s former adversary, Ranald MacKenzie, advocated for his appointment. 77 00:05:01,928 --> 00:05:06,359 Quanah acted in Hollywood movies and befriended American politicians, 78 00:05:06,359 --> 00:05:09,389 riding in Theodore Roosevelt’s inauguration parade. 79 00:05:09,389 --> 00:05:14,039 Still, he never cut his long braids and advocated for the Native American Church 80 00:05:14,039 --> 00:05:15,779 and the use of peyote. 81 00:05:15,779 --> 00:05:20,523 He began to go by Quanah Parker, adopting his mother’s surname, 82 00:05:20,523 --> 00:05:23,803 and tried to track down his mother and sister, 83 00:05:23,803 --> 00:05:28,778 eventually learning they had both died shortly after their capture. 84 00:05:28,778 --> 00:05:34,027 Quanah adapted again and again— to different worlds, different roles, 85 00:05:34,027 --> 00:05:37,387 and circumstances that would seem insurmountable to most. 86 00:05:37,387 --> 00:05:40,857 Though he wasn’t without critics, after Quanah’s passing, 87 00:05:40,857 --> 00:05:43,437 Comanches began using the term “chairman” 88 00:05:43,437 --> 00:05:46,687 to designate the top elected official in the tribe, 89 00:05:46,687 --> 00:05:50,187 recognizing him as the last chief of the Comanches 90 00:05:50,187 --> 00:05:53,887 and a model of cultural survival and adaptation. 91 00:05:53,887 --> 00:05:58,158 In that spirit, today’s Comanche Nation looks towards the future, 92 00:05:58,158 --> 00:06:02,498 with over 16,000 enrolled citizens and countless descendants.