The Searchers (59 page)

“He then asked if he had a father”:
JWP, p. 36.

“It evinces a degree of heartlessness”:
Houston, pp. 180–1.

“holding correspondence with suspicious characters”:
Exley, p. 118.

“My time is at hand”:
“Biography of Daniel Parker,” 3G 749 (Daniel Parker Papers).

“lamented that thear was many”:
Exley, pp. 123–5.

“I wish to make this public”:
JWP letter,
Texas National Register
, June 26, 1845, p. 231.

“we believe the church has bin … unjustly implecated”:
Records, p. 156.

Williams sought to purchase her:
Hacker, p. 30.

“she continued to weep incessantly”:
Exley, p. 134.

“she is unwilling to leave the people”:
“Texas Indians—Report of Butler and Lewis,” p. 8.

The birth process was a communal event:
Wallace and Hoebel, pp. 142–4.

“She shook her head in a sorrowful negative”:
James T. DeShields,
Cynthia Ann Parker
, p. 32.

“She seemed to be separated”:
Rupert N. Richardson, “The Death of Nocona,” p. 15.

The cavalry, stretched thin:
Ranald S. MacKenzie's Official Correspondence Relating to Texas, 1871–75
, p. 4.

Ford joined forces with Shapley Prince Ross:
Exley, p. 139.

“with both eyes shot out”:
Recollections of B. F. Gholson, p. 9, 2Q 519 (Briscoe).

the worst moment came that November:
See account in Paul H. Carlson and Tom Crum,
Myth, Memory and Massacre
, pp. 22–3. Carlson and Crum offer the most painstaking and definitive account to date of the Pease River massacre and myth, and I rely on them for my own.

“an Indian scalp thoroughly salted”:
J. Evetts Haley,
Charles Goodnight
, pp. 50–1.

“a fine horseman and a good shot
”: This and other descriptions of Ross: Judith Ann Benner,
Sul Ross: Soldier, Statesman, Educator
, pp. 45–50.

“killed every one of them”:
Haley, p. 55.

“Sul ran up to him”:
Gholson, p. 29.

“They had to force her away”:
Felix Williams interview with Frank Gholson, August 26, 1931, p. 20 2Q 519 (Briscoe).

the woman “was so dirty you could hardly tell”:
Recollections of H. B. Rogers, p. 2, Ibid.

“I'm greatly distressed about my boys”:
Gholson interview, p. 12 (Briscoe).

“We rode right over her dead companions”:
Haley, p. 56.

the volunteers found only four dead bodies:
Dallas News
, November 28, 1937; see also Carlson and Crum, p. 5.

killing a chief named Mohee:
Carlson and Crum offer the most thorough account on pp. 70–8.

“this Pease River fight … made Sul Ross governor”:
Walter C. Cochran,
Reminiscences
, p. 11.

“The fruits of this important victory”:
E. E. White,
Experiences of a Special Indian Agent
, p. 263; also pp. 271–2.

the child never cried:
Susan Parker St. John Notebook, p. 4, 2F 260 (Taulman).

“would be a waste of the materials”:
Selden p. 176.

she looked and smelled like a savage:
Gholson, p. 40.

“It was a race”:
Gholson interview, p. 18.

she was a wild Indian:
Marion T. Brown, Letters from Fort Sill, p. 78.

Over the years he had honored the memory:
Selden, p. 117.

“Make them plenty big, Nancy”:
Ibid., p. 179.

“After the lapse of a few moments”:
Galveston Civilian
, February 5, 1861, quoted in Hacker, p. 28.

“Me Cynthia Ann”:
Ibid.

she pleaded with Horace Jones:
Brown, p. 78.

They finally arrived in Birdville:
Selden, p. 182.

Her “long night of suffering”:
Hacker offers various press accounts on pp. 30, 33, and 40.

“people came from near and far”
I. D. Parker to DeShields, ca. 1895 (SMU).

“She looked like a squaw”
Exley, pp. 170–1.

“I was told of the many futile efforts”:
St. John, p. 5.

“As savage-like and dark of complexion”:
Taulman, Notebook No. 8, pp. 44–5, 2F 258 (Taulman)

she often sacrificed herself:
Slotkin,
Gunfighter Nation
, pp. 14–5.

“Theirs must have been a hard … life”
Taulman Notebook No. 8, p. 4.

“When the fire was started”:
Parker letter to DeShields.

she bolted for the door:
DeShields, “Indian Wars of Texas,” p. 42.

A. F. Corning's photographic studio:
This account is from Araminta Taulman's interviews with Mrs. R. H. King, July 5 and September 13, 1926; and with Mrs. Turnbill, September 24, 1926 2F 263 (Taulman).

“she took out the kidneys and liver”:
I. D. Parker to DeShields.

She interviewed William and Mattie:
Details of Susan Parker St. John's account are from her unpublished notebook, pp. 8–11, 2F 260 (Taulman).

“My heart is crying all the time”.
Coho Smith,
Cohographs,
p. 71.

“She had a wild expression”:
Exley, p. 178.

As for James Parker … there is no record:
Selden, pp. 282–3.

I.D. Parker … claimed that mother and daughter both died:
Parker to DeShields.

Another legend:
“Mystery of Prairie Flower, Daughter of Chief, Solved,”
Wichita Falls Times,
May 3, 1959; also Frank X. Tolbert, “More on Mystery of Topsannah,”
Dallas News
, October 17, 1960.

An 1870 census:
1870 United States Federal Census in the County of Anderson, State of Texas, Page No. 212 (National Archives Fort Worth).

“Cynthia Ann had united with the Methodist church”:
St. John Notebook, pp. 19–20.

“A Romance of the Border”:
San Francisco Bulletin
, October 26, 1885; also “A Border Romance,”
St. Louis Globe-Democrat
, June 20, 1884; “Cynthia Ann Parker,”
Dallas News
, March 4, 1928.

“Strong as buffalo hide”:
Jan Reid, “The Warrior's Bride,”
Texas Monthly
, February 2003.

“the most unhappy person [he] ever saw”:
Araminta Taulman interview with Mrs. J. J. Nunally, 1926, 2F 263 (Taulman).

Tseeta … became Quanah … and Pecos became Pee-nah:
Aubrey Birdsong, “Reminiscences of Quanah Parker,” 1965 (Fort Sill).

his father became “very morose”:
Quanah Parker to Charles Goodnight, n.d. (PPHM).

Quanah was truly on his own:
See William T. Hagan,
Quanah Parker: Comanche Chief
, p. 11. Also Exley, p. 183.

“so vast that I did not find their limit”:
Francisco Coronado letter to the king of Spain, October 20, 1541.

“The land is too much”:
Timothy Egan,
The Worst Hard Time
, p. 1.

A young Comanche male without standing:
James F. Brooks,
Captives & Cousins
, pp. 177–8.

Weckeah elopement tale:
Parker family oral history; also White,
Experiences of a Special Indian Agent,
pp. 278–88.

“stealing white women is … more lucrative”:
Rister,
Border Captives
, p. 134.

Sand Creek Massacre … sexual mutilation:
J. P. Dunn,
Massacres of the Mountains
, p. 152.

“Sometimes a Comanche man dreams”:
QP Interview with Hugh Scott (Fort Sill).

Putting his skepticism aside:
QP to Scott, p. 23.

The “Grand Council” met in a clearing:
Stanley Noyes and Daniel J. Gelo,
Comanches in the New West, 1895–1908
, p. 1.

Behind them was Ten Bears:
This account of the Medicine Lodge Treaty comes largely from Henry M. Stanley,
My Early Travels and Adventures in America
, pp. 261–6.

“The Comanches are not weak and blind”:
from
Indian Oratory: Famous Speeches by Noted Indian Chieftains.
W. C. Vanderwerth, pp. 132–3.

The Indian “must change the road”:
Stanley, pp. 271–2.

“I went and heard it”:
QP to Scott, p. 23.

the Civil War's ruthless apostle:
The description of Sherman's life and role is from John F. Marszalek,
Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order
, pp. 378–9, 390.

“The only good Indian”:
New York Times
, January 29, 1887;
Southern Workman
, April 21, 1892, p. 63.

“In the end they must be removed”:
Sherman to David French Boyd, August 9, 1867, Marszalek, p. 390.

In a two-and-one-half-year period:
The casualty toll is from Michino,
A Fate Worse than Death
, p. 471.

Kiowas killed “several families”:
Philip McCusker to General W. B. Hazen, December, 22, 1868, Sherman Papers, p. 478.

Kiowas hauled out to the prairie:
W. S. Nye,
Carbine and Lance
, p. 114.

Walkley recovered five white captives:
S. T. Walkley to Hazen, October 10, 1868, Sherman Papers, pp. 348–9 (OKU).

“the mildest remedy”:
Sherman Papers, p. 487.

“If a white man commits murder”:
Hämäläinen,
Comanche Empire
, p. 328.

“the aiders and abettors of savages”:
Sheridan's 1869 report, in
Report of the Secretary of War
, Vol. I, 1869, p. 48.

“Let us have peace”:
Lawrie Tatum,
Our Red Brothers
, pp. 17–18. Tatum's experiences at Anadarko are detailed in his book on pp. ix, 25, 30–6, 42–3, 134, 152, and 182.

Mamanti received a vision:
Bill Neeley,
The Last Comanche Chief
, p. 107.

“The poor victims were stripped”:
Carter,
Tragedies of Cañón Blanco
, pp. 81–2.

Sherman pushed on to Fort Sill:
Marzsalek, p. 395.

The Kiowa chief quickly shifted into servile mode:
Nye,
Carbine and Lance
, pp. 195–6.

“I answered … that it was a cowardly act”:
Stanley F. Hirshson,
The White Tecumseh
, p. 347.

“Tell my people that I am dead”:
See Carter's account of Satank's death, pp. 188–91.

His father had been a naval commander:
For Mackenzie's family tree, see Neeley, p. 105.

“the most promising young officer”:
Michael D. Pierce,
The Most Promising Young Officer: A Life of Ranald Slidell Mackenzie,
pp. 46–7. See also pp. 52, 71–2, and 106.

Mackenzie generously paid off the $500 debt:
Carter, p. 73.

“They trembled and groaned”:
This account of the Cañón Blanco attack is Ibid., pp. 166–97. See also Exley, p. 214.

buffalo hunters were a breed apart:
T. Lindsay Baker and Billy R. Harrison,
Adobe Walls: The History and Archaeology of the 1874 Trading Post
, p. 29. The gist of this account of the Battle of Adobe Walls is from Baker and Harrison.

Born in West Virginia:
The description of Billy Dixon is from Olive K. Dixon,
Life of Billy Dixon
.

destroying “the Indians' commissary”
T. R. Fehrenbach,
Lone Star,
p. 537.

Buffalo were so plentiful:
G. Derek West, “The Battle of Adobe Walls 1874,” p. 2.

“I have seen their bodies so thick”:
The Recollections of W. S. Glenn, Buffalo Hunter
, p. 6 (PPHM).

“The whole country appeared one mass of buffalo”:
Richard Irving Dodge,
Our Wild Indians
, p. 284.

“where there were myriads”:
Tatum, p. 295.

The idea of attacking Adobe Walls:
Quanah's narrative is from “Chief Quanah Parker's Account of the Battle of Adobe Walls” as told to General Hugh L. Scott, 1897 (Fort Sill). I have blended his story with Dixon's firsthand story and with Baker and Harrison's history.

“to act with vindictive earnestness”:
Marszalek, p. 397.

A series of fourteen skirmishes:
Adrian N. Anderson, “The Last Phase of Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie's 1874 Campaign Against the Comanches,” pp. 72–4.

Mackenzie trailed the Comanches:
Pierce,
The Most Promising Young Officer
, pp. 151–4.

he set out from Fort Sill:
Sturm's journey is from “The Journal of Ranald S. Mackenzie's Messenger to the Kwahadi Comanches,” Ernest Wallace, ed.

one of them … took Jones aside:
Selden, pp. 1–3.