The last chief of the Comanches and the fall of an empire - Dustin Tahmahkera

Late one night in 1871, a group of riders
descended on a sleeping army camp.

In minutes they stirred the camp into a
panic,

stole about seventy horses,
and disappeared.

Led by a young chief named Quanah
Parker,

the raid was the latest in a long series
of altercations

along the Texas frontier between
the indigenous people known as the Numunu,

or Comanches,

and the United States forces sent to
steal Comanche lands for white settlers.

Though the conflict was decades old,

U.S. Colonel Ranald MacKenzie
led the latest iteration.

From summer to winter, he tracked Quanah.

But Quanah was also tracking him, and each
time the colonel drew near his targets,

they disappeared without a
trace into the vast plains.

The Comanches had controlled this
territory for nearly two hundred years,

hunting buffalo and moving whole villages
around the plains.

They suppressed Spanish and Mexican
attacks from the south,

attempts to settle the land by the United
States from the east,

and numerous other indigenous peoples’
bids for power.

The Comanche Empire was not one
unified group under central control,

but rather a number of bands, each with
its own leaders.

What all of these bands had in common
was their prowess as riders—

every man, woman, and child was adept
on horseback.

Their combat skills on horseback

far surpassed those of both other
indigenous peoples and colonists,

allowing them to control an enormous
area with relatively few people—

probably about 40,000 at their peak

and only about 4-5,000 by the time Quanah
Parker and Ranald Mackenzie faced off.

Born around 1848, Quanah was the eldest
child of Peta Nocona,

a leader of the Nokoni band,
and Cynthia Ann Parker,

a kidnapped white settler who assimilated
with the Comanches

and took the name Naduah.

When Quanah was a preteen,

US forces ambushed his village,
capturing his mother and sister.

Quanah and his younger brother sought
refuge with a different Comanche band,

the Quahada.

In the years that followed, Quanah proved
himself as a warrior and leader.

In his early twenties, he and a young
woman named Weakeah eloped,

enraging her powerful father and several
other leaders.

They stayed on the run for a year,

attracting followers and establishing
Quanah as a paraibo, or chief,

at an exceptionally young age.

Under his leadership the Quahada band
was able to elude the U.S. military

and continue their way of life.

But in the early 1870s, the East Coast
market for buffalo hides became lucrative,

and hunters slaughtered millions of
buffalo in just a few years.

Meanwhile, U.S. forces led
a surprise attack,

killing nearly all the Quahada band’s 1400
horses and stealing the rest.

Though he had vowed to never surrender,
Quanah knew that without bison or horses,

the Comanches faced certain
starvation in winter.

So in 1875 Quanah and
the Quahada band

moved to the Fort Sill
reservation in Oklahoma.

As hunter-gatherers,
they could not transition easily

to an agricultural way of life
on the reservation.

The US government had promised
rations and supplies,

but what they provided was
wildly insufficient.

Quanah, meanwhile, was suddenly in a
weak political position:

he had no wealth or power

compared to others who had been
on the reservation longer.

Still, he saw an opportunity.

The reservation included ample grasslands—

useless to the Comanches but perfect for
cattle ranchers to graze their herds.

He began a profitable arrangement leasing
the land to cattle ranchers,

quietly at first.

Eventually, he negotiated leasing rights
with the US government,

which ensured a steady source of income
for the Comanches on the reservation.

As Quanah’s status on the reservation

and recognition from government
officials grew,

he secured better rations, advocated for
the construction of schools and houses,

and became one of three tribal judges
on the reservation court.

Tired of speaking with multiple leaders,

the U.S. Government wanted to appoint
one chief of all Comanches—

a role that hadn’t existed
outside the reservation.

Still, many Comanches supported Quanah
for this role,

just as several older leaders had
supported him

to lead them against the US armed forces.

Even Quanah’s former adversary, Ranald
MacKenzie, advocated for his appointment.

Quanah acted in Hollywood movies and
befriended American politicians,

riding in Theodore Roosevelt’s
inauguration parade.

Still, he never cut his long braids and
advocated for the Native American Church

and the use of peyote.

He began to go by Quanah Parker, adopting
his mother’s surname,

and tried to track down his mother
and sister,

eventually learning they had both
died shortly after their capture.

Quanah adapted again and again—
to different worlds, different roles,

and circumstances that would seem
insurmountable to most.

Though he wasn’t without critics,
after Quanah’s passing,

Comanches began using the term “chairman”

to designate the top elected
official in the tribe,

recognizing him as the last chief of the
Comanches

and a model of cultural
survival and adaptation.

In that spirit, today’s Comanche Nation
looks towards the future,

with over 16,000 enrolled citizens
and countless descendants.