Robert J Samples Loc: Round Rock, Texas

The story I am about to relate is true. The time was 1941 or ’42nd I had just started school. The Bulcher school and out in the country went up through the 9th or 10th grade. Now being issued books, dressing up, having lunch at school, in fact, all the fun things you get to do at school with new school friends.

After school, we walked home. On the way, some of us would stop at the local store/gas station and if we had any money would buy candy or soda. We would also play around for a bit.

Before doing this, we would have to put our books down somewhere in a safe place in front. This was either on the ground, on a bench, or on a large square, above-ground kerosene tank.

We would probably stay 30 minutes or so, before walking on home. Now here was my problem, I would have done the same thing as all the other kids, but with different results.

Sometimes, during one of the reporting periods, we were given our report cards to take home for our parents signature. For some unknown reason, I never got home with my report card. It had disappeared.

There followed an exchange of notes between my parents and my teacher. She had assured them I had been given a completed report card. So, it all fell back on Little Bobby Joe!

I didn’t know what to do, say, or anything! I never did find out why, or how my report cards kept disappearing. Either the wind blew my book open, or some other kid had taken the report card I was to take home.

Anyway, none of the lost cards ever did resurface, nor could I find them after a diligent search around the outside of the store.

There was another event that was much more embarrassing and even humiliating even to this six-year-old kid. A skunk of a man who we will call Jack had married one of my mother’s older sisters. He regularly got drunk and often beat her up in a rage.
One time when we kids had just reached the store, he and his buddy arrive there as well. They were quite well smashed and were having an argument that escalated to a fight.

Now, this wasn’t as two grown men might exchange blows! No, it was picking up rocks and chasing one another around the store throwing rocks.

The chaser would then run and the other would chase him tossing rocks. It was absolutely amazing and even as only a nephew, I was much embarrassed by his childish actions.

While I was telling this story once, many years later about my lost report cards, my granddaughter, Lilly said, “Granddad, why didn’t you just put your report card in your backpack?” I had to explain that when I was in the first grade, the idea of a backpack hadn’t occurred. Oh, there were book satchels, but I didn’t have one”. Just Sayin…RJS

DC Loc: Washington state

and did your parents believe you that your report cards were stolen? it must have been some dumb kid who wanted to bring home a straight A report card who stole yours

Robert J Samples Loc: Round Rock, Texas

DC: I wasn't a straight-A student. More A & B student. They did not know what to think, neither did I. Just Sayin...RJS

Namvet69 Loc: Ohio

RJ. On a different subject: what do you know about an Indian named Quana Parker. He used to raid in Mexico and was in Texas. If my memory serves me fright, I once knew a woman who said his group would pass by her mother’s house, stop and she would feed them. Anything?? It may have been her grandmother’s house, not sure.

Robert J Samples Loc: Round Rock, Texas

Yes, Quanah Parker was the son of Peta Nocona, chief of the Comanches, and Cynthia Ann Parker. She was kidnapped from her family's fort and lived with Comanches. She had two children, Quanah and Prairie Flower

Cynthia Ann and daughter were re-captured and returned to their white family by the Texas Rangers. Neither could adjust and died within a few years after being returned.

The Comanches wintered in the Palo Dura Canyon and the U.S. Army, Texas Rangers made a surprise attack, and this broke the back of the tribe that Quanah was chief. The U.S. Cavalry officer ordered all their horses killed except a few saved to the Army.

The Comanches had to walk to Fort Sill and surrender and live from then on at the reservation. Quanah recognized their time was over and learned how to be white rancher. He had several wives and there was an annual family reunion of both Comanche and White Parkers.

Before they were defeated the Comanches raided Mexico every summer during August when the moonlight allowed them to travel at night and hid during the day.

If your family had contact with the Comanches, it was after they had given up their former lives and were living and working like whites.
Just Sayin...RJS

Namvet69 Loc: Ohio

Quite interesting. I couldn’t tell you who told me about him. I do recall them saying that he’d stop at their relatives home occasionally and would eat there. What he was doing or what part of his life this was, I couldn’t tell you. Figured you being in Texas and sharing historical events, you’d know about him. Thanks for sharing.

Robert J Samples Loc: Round Rock, Texas

On the reservation
Quanah Parker and Samuel Burk Burnett
Marriage and family
Founder of the Native American Church Movement
Performing
Death
Criticism
Family reunion
Memorials and honors
In popular culture
Notes
Further reading
External links
Quanah Parker

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Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker c1890.png
Quanah Parker, c. 1890
Comanche Nation
United States Chief of the Comanches
In office
1890–1911
Preceded by Position established
Succeeded by Position abolished
Personal details
Born 1845 or (probably, Pecos' birth) 1852
Elk Valley, Wichita Mountains, Comancheria (Oklahoma)
Died February 23, 1911
Quanah Parker Star House
Cache, Oklahoma, U.S.
Cause of death Heart failure
Resting place Fort Sill Post Cemetery
Fort Sill, Oklahoma
34.669529°N 98.395336°W
Spouse(s) Weakeah, Chony, Mah-Chetta-Wookey, Ah-Uh-Wuth-Takum, Coby, Toe-Pay, Tonarcy
Relations Po-bish-e-quasho "Iron Jacket", John Parker, James W. Parker, Daniel Parker, John Richard Parker
Parents
Peta Nocona
Cynthia Ann Parker
Known for
Comanche leader to bring the Kwahadi people into Fort Sill
Founder of the Native American Church
The last Comanche chief
Quanah Parker (Comanche kwana, "smell, odor") (c. 1845 – February 23, 1911) was a war leader of the Kwahadi ("Antelope") band of the Comanche Nation. He was likely born into the Nokoni ("Wanderers") band of Tabby-nocca and grew up among the Kwahadis, the son of Kwahadi Comanche chief Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, an Anglo-American who had been abducted as a nine-year-old child and assimilated into the Nokoni tribe. Following the apprehension of several Kiowa chiefs in 1871, Quanah Parker emerged as a dominant figure in the Red River War, clashing repeatedly with Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie. With European-Americans hunting American bison, the Comanches' primary sustenance, into near extinction, Quanah Parker eventually surrendered and peaceably led the Kwahadi to the reservation at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Quanah Parker was never elected chief by his people but was appointed by the federal government as principal chief of the entire Comanche Nation. He became a primary emissary of southwest indigenous Americans to the United States legislature. In civilian life, he gained wealth as a rancher, settling near Cache, Oklahoma. Though he encouraged Christianization of Comanche people, he also advocated the syncretic Native American Church alternative, and fought for the legal use of peyote in the movement's religious practices. He was elected deputy sheriff of Lawton in 1902. After his death in 1911, the leadership title of Chief was replaced with chairman; Quanah Parker is thereby described as the "Last Chief of the Comanche," a term also applied to Horseback.

He is buried at Chief's Knoll on Fort Sill. Many cities and highway systems in southwest Oklahoma and north Texas, once southern Comancheria, bear reference to his name.

Early life

Cynthia Ann Parker and her daughter, Topʉsana (Prairie Flower), in 1861
Quanah Parker's mother, Cynthia Ann Parker (born c. 1827), was a member of the large Parker frontier family that settled in east Texas in the 1830s. She was captured in 1836 (c. age nine) by Comanches during the raid of Fort Parker near present-day Groesbeck, Texas. Given the Comanche name Nadua (Foundling), she was adopted into the Nokoni band of Comanches, as foster daughter of Tabby-nocca.[1] Assimilated into the Comanche, Cynthia Ann Parker married the Kwahadi warrior chief Peta Nocona, also known as Puhtocnocony, Noconie, Tah-con-ne-ah-pe-ah, or Nocona ("Lone Wanderer").[1]

Quanah Parker's paternal grandfather was the renowned Kwahadi chief Iron Jacket (Puhihwikwasu'u), a warrior of the earlier Comanche-American Wars, famous among his people for wearing a Spanish coat of mail.

Cynthia Ann Parker and Nocona's first child was Quanah Parker, born in the Wichita Mountains of southwestern Oklahoma. In a letter to rancher Charles Goodnight, Quanah Parker writes, "From the best information I have, I was born about 1850 on Elk Creek just below the Wichita Mountains."[2] Alternative sources cite his birthplace as Laguna Sabinas/Cedar Lake in Gaines County, Texas.[3]

Cynthia Ann Parker and Nocona also had another son, Pecos (Pecan), and a daughter, Topsana (Prairie Flower). In December 1860, Cynthia Ann Parker and Topsana were captured in the Battle of Pease River. American forces were led by Sgt. John Spangler, who commanded Company H of the U.S. 2nd Cavalry, and Texas Rangers under Sul Ross would claim that at the end of the battle, he wounded Peta Nocona, who was thereafter killed by Spangler's Mexican servant but this was disputed by eyewitnesses among the Texas Rangers and by Quanah Parker. It was believed that Quanah Parker and his brother Pecos were the only two to have escaped on horseback, and were tracked by Ranger Charles Goodnight but escaped to rendezvous with other Nokoni. Some, including Quanah Parker himself, claim this story is false and that he, his brother, and his father Peta Nocona were not at the battle, that they were at the larger camp miles away, and that Peta Nocona died years later of illness caused by wounds from battles with Apache.

Cynthia Ann Parker, along with her infant daughter Topsana, were taken by the Texas Rangers against her will to Cynthia Ann Parker's brother's home. After 24 years with the Comanche, Cynthia Ann Parker refused re-assimilation. Topsana died of an illness in 1863. Cynthia Ann Parker committed suicide by voluntary starvation in March 1871.

In the Comanche language, kwana means "an odor" or "a smell". Comanche warriors often took on more active, masculine names in maturity, but Quanah Parker retained the name his mother gave him, initially in tribute to her after her recapture.

Career

Quanah Parker on horseback wearing eagle feather headdress and holding a lance bottom-up.
After Peta Nocona's death (c. 1864), being now Parra-o-coom ("Bull Bear") the head chief of the Kwahadi people, Horseback, the head chief of the Nokoni people, took young Quanah Parker and his brother Pecos under his wing. After Peta Nocona and Iron Jacket, Horseback taught them the ways of the Comanche warrior, and Quanah Parker grew to considerable standing as a warrior. He left and rejoined the Kwahadi band with warriors from another band. Quanah Parker surrendered to Mackenzie and was taken to Fort Sill, Indian Territory where he led the Comanches successfully for a number of years on the reservation. Quanah Parker was never elected principal chief of the Comanche by the tribe. The U.S. government appointed him principal chief of the entire nation once the people had gathered on the reservation and later introduced general elections.

In October 1867, when Quanah Parker was only a young man, he had come along with the Comanche chiefs as an observer at treaty negotiations at Medicine Lodge, Kansas. Horseback made a statement about Quanah Parker's refusal to sign the treaty. In the early 1870s, the Plains Indians were losing the battle for their land with the United States government. Following the capture of the Kiowa chiefs Sitting Bear, Big Tree, and Satanta, the last two paroled in 1873 after two years thanks to the firm and stubborn behaviour of Guipago, the Kiowa, Comanche, and Southern Cheyenne tribes joined forces in several battles. Colonel Ranald Mackenzie led U.S. Army forces in rounding up or killing the remaining Indians who had not settled on reservations.

In 1873, Isatai'i, a Comanche claiming to be a medicine man, called for all the Comanche bands to gather together for a Sun Dance, even though that ritual was Kiowa, and had never been a Comanche practice. The bands gathered in May on the Red River, near present-day Texola, Oklahoma. At that gathering, Isatai'i and Quanah Parker recruited warriors for raids into Texas to avenge slain relatives. Other Comanche chiefs, notably Isa-Rosa ("White Wolf") and Tabananika ("Sound of the Sunrise") of the Yamparika, and Big Red Meat of the Nokoni band, identified the buffalo hide merchants as the real threat to their way of life. They suggested that if Quanah Parker were to attack anybody, he should attack the merchants. A war party of around 250 warriors, composed mainly of Comanches and Cheyennes, who were impressed by Isatai'i's claim of protective medicine to protect them from their enemies' bullets, headed into Texas towards the trading post of Adobe Walls. The raid should have been a slaughter, but the saloonkeeper had heard about the coming raid and kept his customers from going to bed by offering free drinks. Around 4 am, the raiders drove down into the valley. Quanah Parker and his band were unable to penetrate the two-foot thick sod walls and were repelled by the hide merchants' long-range .50 caliber Sharps rifles. As they retreated, Quanah Parker's horse was shot out from under him at five hundred yards. He hid behind a buffalo carcass, and was hit by a bullet that ricocheted off a powder horn around his neck and lodged between his shoulder blade and his neck. The wound was not serious, and Quanah Parker was rescued and brought back out of the range of the buffalo guns. [4] The attack on Adobe Walls caused a reversal of policy in Washington. It led to the Red River War, which culminated in a decisive Army victory in the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon. On September 28, 1874, Mackenzie and his Tonkawa scouts razed the Comanche village at Palo Duro Canyon and killed nearly 1,500 Comanche horses, the main form of the Comanche wealth and power.

On the reservation

Parker in December 1889 wearing European-American business attire
With their food source depleted, and under constant pressure from the army, the Kwahadi Comanche finally surrendered in 1875. With Colonel Mackenzie and Indian Agent James M. Hayworth, Parker helped settle the Comanche on the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation in southwestern Indian Territory.[1]

Quanah Parker's home in Cache, Oklahoma[1] was called the Star House.[5]

Parker went on hunting trips with President Theodore Roosevelt, who often visited him.[1] Nevertheless, he rejected both monogamy and traditional Protestant Christianity in favor of the Native American Church Movement, of which he was a founder.

Quanah Parker and Samuel Burk Burnett
The story of the unique friendship that grew between Quanah Parker and the Burnett family is addressed in the exhibition of cultural artifacts that were given to the Burnett family from the Parker family. The presentation of a cultural relic as significant as Quanah Parker's war lance was not done lightly. It is a clear indication of the high esteem to which the Burnett family was regarded by the Parkers.[citation needed] The correspondence between Quanah Parker and Samuel Burk Burnett, Sr. (1849–1922) and his son Thomas Loyd Burnett (1871–1938), expressed mutual admiration and respect. The historical record mentions little of Quanah Parker until his presence in the attack on the buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls on June 27, 1874. Fragmented information exists indicating Quanah Parker had interactions with the Apache at about this time.

This association may have related to his taking up the Native American Church, or peyote religion. Quanah Parker was said to have taken an Apache wife, but their union was short-lived. The Apache dress, bag and staff in the exhibit may be a remnant of this time in Quanah Parker's early adult life. With the buffalo nearly exterminated and having suffered heavy loss of horses and lodges at the hands of the US military, Quanah Parker was one of the leaders to bring the Kwahadi (Antelope) band of Comanches into Fort Sill during late May and early June 1875. This brought an end to their nomadic life on the southern plains and the beginning of an adjustment to more sedentary life. Burk Burnett began moving cattle from South Texas in 1874 to near present-day Wichita Falls, Texas. There he established his ranch headquarters in 1881.[6] Changing weather patterns and severe drought caused grasslands to wither and die in Texas. Burnett and other ranchers met with Comanche and Kiowa tribes to lease land on their reservation—nearly 1 million acres (400,000 ha) just north of the Red River in Oklahoma.

Originally, Quanah Parker, like many of his contemporaries, was opposed to the opening of tribal lands for grazing by Anglo ranching interests. But, Quanah Parker changed his position and forged close relationships with a number of Texas cattlemen, such as Charles Goodnight and the Burnett family. As early as 1880, Quanah Parker was working with these new associates in building his own herds.[6] In 1884, due largely to Quanah Parker's efforts, the tribes received their first "grass" payments for grazing rights on Comanche, Kiowa and Apache lands. It is during this period that the bonds between Quanah Parker and the Burnett family grew strong.

Burnett ran 10,000 cattle until the end of the lease in 1902.[6] The cattle baron had a strong feeling for Native American rights, and his respect for them was genuine. Where other cattle kings fought natives and the harsh land to build empires, Burnett learned Comanche ways, passing both the love of the land and his friendship with the natives to his family. As a sign of their regard for Burnett, the Comanches gave him a name in their own language: Mas-sa-suta, meaning "Big Boss". Quanah Parker earned the respect of US governmental leaders as he adapted to the white man's life and became a prosperous rancher in Oklahoma. His spacious, two-story Star House had a bedroom for each of his seven wives and their children. He had his own private quarters, which were rather plain. Beside his bed were photographs of his mother Cynthia Ann Parker and younger sister Topʉsana. Quanah Parker extended hospitality to many influential people, both Native American and European American. Among the latter were the Texas surveyor W. D. Twichell and the cattleman Charles Goodnight.[citation needed]

During the next 27 years, Quanah Parker and the Burnetts shared many experiences. Burnett helped by contributing money for the construction of Star House, Quanah Parker's large frame home. Burnett asked for (and received) Quanah Parker's participation in a parade with a large group of warriors at the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show and other public events. The "Parade" lance depicted in the exhibit was usually carried by Quanah Parker at such public gatherings. Just Sayin....RJS

Namvet69 Loc: Ohio

Thank you RJ. That’s a lot of good information. Thanks again for sharing your insight and knowledge.

Robert J Samples Loc: Round Rock, Texas

Well, Eureka! I think I've finally figured out my "lost REPORT Card problem.

Well, after giving this more thought, I believe i have finally discovered the reason and the person responsible for my lost report cards. I knew Harold was dishonest, I just never thought he would steal my rport card.
First, they were not lost at the store, but earlier by someone taking them from the books I intended to take home. Searching around the store was useless!

There was another student who was always in my desk, or taking things that weren't his, and made himself a pest.

The reason the cards were not lost at the store was Johnny lived in the opposite direction and took advantage of grabbing my report card before we ever left the classroom. Up until now I never suspected him, but did know he wasn't to be trusted.

By about the fifth grade, Johnny dropped out of school. More than once i caught him taking something from my desk. I don't know whether it was his lack of mental ability, or he was just lazy and indifferent to learning.

By the time he was in his early teens, he was finished with school and was instead working in the oilfield with his older brother, Johnny. Just Saying...RJS