Cynthia Ann Parker

Cynthia Ann Parker, Naduah, Narua, or Preloch (, , ; October 28, 1827

On May 19, 1836, a force of from 100 to 600 Native American warriors, composed of Comanche and Kiowa and Kichai allies, attacked the community. John Parker and his men were unprepared for the assault and quickly found themselves overrun, forcing them to retreat into the fort with their families. The Native Americans attacked the fort and quickly overpowered the outnumbered defenders. The Comanche took Cynthia Ann Parker, a young girl, and five other captives with them back to Comanche territory after slaughtering all remaining men, women, and children in the fort. The Texans quickly mounted a rescue force. During the Texans' pursuit of the Native Americans, a teenage girl escaped. Over a period of years, the Comanche released other captives as their families paid ransoms but Parker was adopted by a Comanche family and became thoroughly assimilated. She is estimated to have been 8 years old when taken.

Marriage to Peta Nocona

Parker became assimilated into the tribe. She was adopted by a Tenowish Comanche couple, who raised her as their own daughter. She became Comanche in every sense. She married Peta Nocona, a chief. They enjoyed a happy marriage. They had three children: sons Quanah, who became the last free Comanche chief, and Pecos (Pecan), and a daughter Topsannah (Prairie Flower). The men did not shoot, but instead surrounded and stopped her. Ross ordered Lieutenant Tom Keliheir to stay with the woman and her child. He took her to his home near Birdville.

Parker's return to her birth family captured the country's imagination. In 1861, the Texas legislature granted her a square league of land (about 4,400 acres or ) and an annual pension of $100 (~$ in ) for the next five years. They appointed her cousins, Isaac Duke Parker and Benjamin F. Parker, as her legal guardians.

However, Parker never adjusted to her new surroundings. Although white and physically part of the community, she was uncomfortable with the attention she received. Her brother, Silas Jr., was appointed her guardian in 1862, and took her to his home in Van Zandt County. When he entered the Confederate Army, she went to live with her sister, Orlena Parker O'Quinn. Some said that she missed her husband and her sons and worried about them.

There is some confusion about Parker's birth and death dates. Different sources place her birth from 1825 to 1827 in Coles, Clark, or Crawford counties of Illinois, and her death from 1864 to 1871 in Anderson County. The only record of her death, given as March 1871, is found in the unpublished notebook of Susan Parker St. John. The only known document from the period supports the March 1871 date; an 1870 census for Anderson County lists her as a member of the O'Quinn household, born about 1825, and age forty-five. Her tombstone marks her year of death as 1870.

In 1910, Parker's son, Quanah, moved her remains and had them reinterred in Post Oak Mission Cemetery near Cache, Oklahoma. When he died in February 1911, he was buried next to her.

Their bodies were moved in 1957 to the Fort Sill Post Cemetery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In 1965 the state of Texas had Topsannah's body moved from her grave in Edom, Van Zandt County, Texas, to be reinterred near her mother and brother.

Legacy The city of Crowell, Texas, has held a Cynthia Ann Parker Festival to honor her memory. The town of Groesbeck holds an annual Christmas Festival at the site of old Fort Parker every December. It has been rebuilt on the original site to historic specifications.

Film portrayal Author and screenwriter Michael Blake said that the character of Stands with a Fist in the 1990 film Dances With Wolves, was actually based upon Parker.

Representation in other media Cynthia Parker is a one-act opera composed by Julia Smith. The movie The Searchers (1956) was based on Alan Le May's novel of the same name. It was directed by John Ford and starred John Wayne as a frontiersman searching for years for his kidnapped niece. In The Hanging Tree (1957), a collection of short stories by Western writer Dorothy M. Johnson, the story "Lost Sister" is a fictional account of Parker's forced return to and difficulties in European-American society. The graphic novel Comanche Moon (1979) by Jaxon depicts Parker's story from her adoption by the Comanche through the life of her son Quanah. Ride the Wind (1982) by Lucia St. Clair Robson is an historical novel of Parker's capture and life among the Comanche. Run (2025) a song by Tophouse the Band is inspired by the life of Parker.