The Searchers (60 page)

“I shall let them down as easily”:
Pierce,
The Most Promising Young Officer
, p. 168.

“They fed us like we were lions”:
Nye,
Carbine and Lance
, p. 229.

the Comanche population had been decimated:
James M. Haworth,
Reports of Agents in Indian Territory
, 1878, pp. 58–9 (KCA).

Quanah volunteered:
Pierce,
Most Promising Officer
, p. 169.

“I understand the heads are now preserved”:
Haworth,
Reports
, p. 274.

Quanah insisted that they not be shipped off:
William T. Hagan,
Quanah Parker
, pp. 24–5.

“The plains were literally alive”:
Hermann Lehmann,
9 Years Among the Indians
, pp. 167–8.

a lone buffalo man named Marshall Sewell:
See Scott Zesch,
The Captured: A True Story of Abduction by Indians on the Texas Frontier
, pp. 215–6.

He “told us that it was useless”:
Lehmann, pp. 186–7.

Quanah used a pair of army field glasses:
Zesch, p. 220.

“the emergency is pressing”:
Nye, p. 250.

The letter was published:
Dallas Weekly Herald
, June 5, 1875.

“After an Indian custom”:
Mackenzie to Isaac Parker, undated (Fort Sill).

“I do not listen to any foolish talks”:
Hagan,
QP
, p. 40.

“all acts … had been considered void”:
L. H. Miller to Philemon Hunt, June 4, 1881 (KCA).

The buffalo would emerge again:
The Mount Scott buffalo legend is recounted in a display at the Fort Sill Museum.

But the supplies came erratically:
Theft and profiteering on the reservation is from Hagan,
QP
, pp. 18–24.

“The steers were penned in”:
“Reminiscence of an Indian Trader,”
Chronicles of Oklahoma
14:2, June 1936.

“The herd rushes out”:
Dodge,
Our Wild Indians
, p. 536.

“the place of putrid meat”:
Noyes, p. 86.

By the time Quanah and his hunting party arrived:
For QP's first meeting with Goodnight, see Haley,
Charles Goodnight
, pp. 306–12.

“I got one good friend, Burk Burnett”:
Neeley,
The Last Comanche Chief
, p. 231.

cattlemen went to work cultivating … Indian leaders such as Quanah:
Hagan,
QP
, pp. 28–38.

“He was a fine specimen”:
Susan Parker St. John Notebook.

“Quanah Parker started the fight”:
Neeley, p. 196.

There were many conflicts of interest:
Hagan,
QP
, p. 39.

“they will have a bully good time”:
Burk Burnett to QP, October 24, 1908 (Fort Sill).

a large, swarthy, well-dressed man:
Fort Worth Gazette
, December 23, 1883.

“He certainly was a wonderful friend”:
Interview with Knox Beal, April 15, 1938, Neeley Archives (PPHM).

Quanah first proposed the idea:
The building of the Star House is in Hagan,
QP
, pp. 43–4.

“I did not deem it wise”:
Thomas J. Morgan to Charles E. Adams, December 18, 1890, Parker Family File (Museum of the Great Plains).

“Geronimo dipped in”:
Neda Parker Birdsong as told to Gillett Griswold, Fort Sill Museum Librarian (Fort Sill).

“Comanches on the War-Path”:
St. Louis Globe Democrat
, March 27, 1886.

“Me and my people have quit fighting”:
Quanah to James Hall, April 7, 1887 (OKHS).

A woman … heard the shots:
Byron H. Price, “The Great Panhandle Indian Scare of 1891,” pp. 128–29.

Quanah and his moderate … ally, Apiatin:
James Mooney,
The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890
, pp. 171–73.

The same kind of panic:
Author's interview with Towana Spivey, Fort Sill archivist, June 11, 2009.

“a savage and filthy practice”:
Thomas J. Morgan to U.S. Indian agents, July 21, 1890, Neeley Archive (PPHM).

He even banned Indian participation:
See “Thomas Jefferson Morgan” in
The Commissioners of Indian Affairs, 1824–1977
, p. 200.

“The Indians are destined to be absorbed”:
Morgan to Indian agents, December 10, 1889, Neeley Archive.

“kill the Indian and save the man”:
Richard White,
It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own
, p. 113.

“Me no like Indian school”:
See “Chief Fought for Progress,” undated (PPHM).

“Like slaves on a plantation”:
Hagan,
QP
, p. 53.

Each wife had a specific set of household duties:
David La Vere,
Life Among the Texas Indians: The WPA Narratives
, pp. 223–24.

“I cannot … ask you to turn him loose”:
QP to S. M. McCowan, January 14, 1907, OKHS files.

he met clandestinely:
For the fleeing-with-Tonarcy story, see
Comanche Ethnography
, p. 34. Also, Lena R. Banks Interview, May 5, 1938, WPA 10644, affirmed by Parker family and Towana Spivey in the author's interviews.

“Now it's time to kill that white man”:
Comanche Ethnography
, p. 342.

“one of the finest Indian women in America”:
Daily Oklahoman
, May 15, 1895, p. 3.

The peyote plant is a small, spineless cactus:
Garrett Epps,
To an Unknown God: Religious Freedom on Trial
, p. 60.

Peyote worship was a direct result:
See Epps and Omer Call Stewart,
Peyote Religion: A History.

“The white man goes into his church house”:
Hagan,
QP
, p. 57.

“It is a drug habit”:
J. J. Methvin,
Reminiscences of Life Among the Indians
, p. 177.

“My Indians use what they call pectus”:
Hagan,
QP
, p. 75.

The reporter was clearly fixated:
Daily Oklahoman
, June 25, 1902, p. 5.

“I am not a bad man”:
Quanah Tribune,
July 9, 1896 (Fort Sill).

Brown … asked to introduce Isaac:
Selden, p. 210.

Ross had killed a warrior named Mohee:
John Henry Brown,
Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas
, p. 42.

“narrative of plain, unvarnished facts”:
James T. DeShields,
Cynthia Ann Parker: The Story of Her Capture
, p. v. Other quotes in this section are from the book.

DeShields's account became enshrined:
“Parker Fort Massacre,” in J. W. Wilbarger,
Indian Depredations in Texas
, pp. 302–20.

“maudlin, sentimental writers”:
Wilbarger, pp. 6–7.

“a popular and trustworthy chief”:
Brown, p. 43.

“I sent you plenty of paper”:
J. H. Brown to Marion Brown, undated, J. H. Brown Papers, 2 E5 (Briscoe).

“I can scarcely understand anything he says”:
Marion T. Brown,
Letters from Fort Sill, 1886–1887
, p. 33.

The two men sat out in the yard:
Ibid., p. 79.

“What will Sul Ross say about Puttack Nocona?”:
Ibid., p. 65.

Her father … made no attempt:
For discrepancies in J. H. Brown's book, see pp. 42 and 317.

“No like to come this way”:
Marion Brown, p. 63–64.

“Out of respect to the family of General Ross”:
See “Cynthia Ann Parker,” an account by QP's daughter, Neda Birdsong, as told to Paul Wellman, in
Barb Wire Times
, October 1968.

“The Indian does not want to work”:
William T. Hagan,
Taking Indian Lands
, pp. 42–43.

Commissioner Morgan designated February 8:
Hagan,
United States-Comanche Relations
, p. 166. My account of the Jerome Commission is largely from Hagan and QP's testimony, September 27, 1892 (KCA).

He felt he had gotten the best deal:
Indian Journal
, March 15, 1894, p. 4.

“Quanah jumped up in a great rage”:
Hugh L. Scott,
Some Memories of a Soldier,
p. 200.

Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock
:
Kracht, Benjamin R., “Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Opening.”

Tent cities of 10,000 people each sprang up:
Details of the scene of the opening of Oklahoma Tribal lands are from Charles Moreau Harger, “The Government's Gift of Homes,”
Outlook
, pp. 907–10.

Theodore Roosevelt … ordered bison heads:
Douglas Brinkley,
The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America
, p. 630.

a contest between a superior white race:
See “The Winning of the West” in Slotkin,
Gunfighter Nation
, pp. 29–62.

“war was inevitable
”:
Theodore Roosevelt,
The Winning of the West
, Vol. I, pp. 116–7 and 273–74.

“a race of heroes”:
Slotkin, p. 54.

the Comanche chief was “never forgetful”:
Hagan,
QP
, p. 113.

“Roosevelt's own Buffalo Bill production”:
Brinkley, p. 583.

“fully equipped with Indian clothing”:
W. A. Mercer to James F. Randlett, January 18, 1905 (KCA).

“good Indians … most of whom had dipped their hands”:
Carter,
Tragedies of Cañón Blanco
, pp. 79–81.

“Give the red man the same chance”:
Hagan,
QP
, p. 183.

Quanah … wore his six-shooter:
Charles H. Sommer, “Quanah Parker: Last Chief of the Comanches,” p. 10.

serenaded by cardinals and mockingbirds:
Theodore Roosevelt,
Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter
, p. 113.

“It was a thoroughly congenial company”:
Roosevelt, p. 114.

Roosevelt mentioned the idea:
TR's buffalo repopulation plan is from Brinkley, p. 609; on the buffalo arrival, see p. 626.

“My mother's job”:
Bill Neeley interview with Anna Birdsong Dean, March 27, 1985 (PPHM).

“This is to certify that Quanah”:
W. A. Jones to QP, September 23, 1899 (Fort Sill).

“I wish you to go over to Quanah's”:
Hagan,
QP
, pp. 107–109.

an Interior Department bureaucrat rejected the request:
Acting Commissioner to Charles Adams, March 14, 1891, KCA Files; the files contain many similar examples.

“My grandfather never trusted a white man”:
Baldwin Parker Jr., “Quanah Parker Lives,”
Focus
, Autumn 1985, p. 13.

“Painted, brandishing their bows”:
Hagan,
QP
, p. 102.

he had sat down in a train coach:
Susan Parker St. John Notebook.

“The real reason is because he is an Indian”:
Oklahoman
, November 3, 1906.

“You put me in little pen”:
Sommer, p. 10.

Quanah was “a most interesting character”:
Adam Parker to Susan Parker St. John, undated, Box 2F 197 (Taulman).

“Quanah is a man worth looking at”:
“Story by Ex.-Gov. J.P. St. John's Wife,”
Indian School Journal
, October 1909, p. 37.

“Is this the cousin?”:
Susan Parker St. John Notebook and quotes that follow.

“Dear Sir, Congress has set aside money”:
QP to Governor Thomas Campbell, July 22, 1909 (Fort Sill).

“I see your advertisement”:
J. R. O'Quinn to QP, June 19, 1908, Doc 997 (Fort Sill).

“The relatives of Cynthia Ann … did not”:
Interview with Mrs. Ambrosia Miller July 5, 1926 (Taulman).

Quanah dispatched … Aubrey C. Birdsong:
Aubrey Birdsong interview, February 23, 1959 (Fort Sill).

Birdsong decided to put the bones:
Aubrey Birdsong affidavit, September 2, 1956, OKHS.

“I felt that this meant so much to Quanah”:
Birdsong interview.

“Are you sure this is my little white mother?”:
Birdsong interview in
Daily Oklahoman
, August 9, 1964.

“I love my mother”:
“Cynthia Ann Parker Is Buried for Second Time,”
Daily Oklahoman
, December 5, 1910, p. 1.

“as you know there is considerable prejudice”:
Burk Burnett to QP, October 24, 1905 (Fort Sill).

Quanah spoke to the crowd:
Sommer, p. 9, as well as description of the event and other quotes from QP's speech.

“I run to one side and use this knife”:
Ibid. There remains a discrepancy with Carter's version, in which QP kills Gregg with a pistol.

“I am going to bring some old Indians”:
QP to Goodnight, January 7, 1911 (Neeley)