(WARRIOR’S YOUTH)

Quanah, meaning “fragrant,”
1850 he was born
to become chief of Comanches
in a land that was war-torn

His mother was a white girl
who was captured in a raid
at Parker’s Fort in thirty-six,
but her bloodline would not fade

Miss Cynthia Ann Parker,
a child of only nine,
learned to love her captors,
and forgot her past, in time

She spent her youth with Indians,
twenty-four years were measured,
recaptured at Pease River
from Indian family she then treasured

Cynthia and baby daughter,
Prairie Flower, the child’s name,
would never readjust to whites
for life was not the same

The girl died of pneumonia
in eighteen sixty-four,
her mother starved herself to death,
wanting to live no more

She left three sons and Quanah,
as young teens, with their dad,
Nocona, chief  of Comanches,
and the happy life she’d had

(CHIEF OF QUAHADI COMANCHES)

When Quanah was a young brave,
he became the tribal chief
after Peta Nocona died,
his heart still full of grief

His first great act of serving
the peoples of his band,
was the Medicine Lodge treaty,
he refused while in command

Government in sixty-seven
tried to squash the Red Man’s pride,
putting them on reservations
to make them there abide

But Quanah didn’t trust them,
treaties broken, many lies
had come in years before then,
Whites had let his mother die

He chose to fight the white man,
raided Texas and Mexico,
out maneuver Colonel Mackenzie,
on the warpath where he’d go

The mighty chief led brave men,
every battle they would win,
but the colonel never wearied
and continued to chase them

(WAY OF THE WHITE MAN)

In eighteen eighty-seven,
with braves hungry and nomad,
Quanah surrendered up at Fort Sill
undefeated but quite sad

Mackenzie, his old enemy,
was the first to honor him,
made him chief of all Comanches
for their future did look grim

The older chiefs were angry
for they thought him far too young,
besides, his blood was part white
since his life had first begun

Quanah met responsibility,
the  young chief would prove them wrong,
he took on every challenge,
listening to the Indian throng

He learned to speak good English,
and studied white man ways,
on this road of new existence
he’d  follow all his days

He passed from “Stone Age Warrior”
to statesman of Washington,
and even lobbied Congress
to fight for Native sons

A friend he found in Roosevelt,
Teddy helped him to subscribe
to the laws of all pale-faces
along with Indian tribes

He invested in the railroad,
and sold his grazing rights,
like cattlemen of Texas,
had big money in his sights

Quanah did the white-man’s bidding
followed orders, so it seems,
but he kept his many wives,
and smoked peyote in his dreams

He signed the Jerome Agreement
in the year of ninety-two,
it split the tribe forever
for some took a different view

Many stood by Quanah,
others felt he sold them out,
he tried to do the best for them,
of that there is no doubt

(DEATH OF A GREAT CHIEF)

Quanah died in nineteen, eleven,
and was buried at Fort Sill
next to his mother’s body
for he knew that was her will

She was moved from Anderson, Texas
to her final place of rest,
at the wishes of her chief son
for he felt it would be best

Next to her, he would be buried
at the top of Chieftain’s Knoll
in a military cemetery
for she possessed an Indian soul

He was called a Texas hero
since he had integrity,
Quanah fought a long hard battle
to keep his people free…



Tamara Hillman

©2005