Cynthia Ann Parker

I think I might be the only girl in the world who would buy an Indian history book and a People magazine at the same time...the checkout clerk at Barnes and Noble looked at me like I was crazy. Quite possibly I am.

My destiny as a nerdy history major began long ago when I was a little girl and first heard the story of Cynthia Ann Parker. She was a white girl kidnapped at the age of nine by the Comanches in 1836. She grew up with the Comanches, fell in love with their chief as an adult, and became the mother of the last (and most famous) Comanche war chief, Quanah Parker. She was tragically recaptured by the white people 24 years after her initial kidnapping, and forced against her will to return to white society. Her two year old daughter, Prairie Flower, died of influenza at the age of six and a few years later Cynthia Ann died as well (some say of a broken heart), having never seen her two sons again.

I've always found her tragic story fascinating, particularly because it's long been family legend that we are distantly related to her on my mother's side. Though we certainly have Parker blood my mother's genealogy research in the 1990's was never able to establish a clear connection to Cynthia Ann. She was able to establish a definite connection (by marriage) to Rachel Parker Plummer, who was also kidnapped by the Comanches along with Cynthia Ann.

Rachel's story is much darker than Cynthia Ann's: she was 17 at the time and had a two year old son with her. Rachel was also four months pregnant. She spent 13 brutal months in captivity as a slave, terribly mistreated, and her toddler son was taken away (he was later ransomed, but she never saw him again). The baby she later bore was brutally murdered by the Indians. Rachel was eventually ransomed and returned to her husband, who by all accounts had not done much to look for her and was not all that thrilled at her return. Rachel died in childbirth less than a year later at the age of 21.

I've long been fascinated with the Parker story and with Texas history in general. My college senior thesis was on the subject of female captivity by various Indian tribes, particularly the fearsome Comanches. By the grace of genetics and my mother's research I am a proven descendant of one of the first families to settle in Texas with Stephen F. Austin, and a member of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Though I consider it a glorious heritage it is not without its dark moments in history.

Recently I heard the author of the new book Empire of the Summer Moon speaking on NPR and I couldn't wait to read the book! I'm about a hundred pages in and it's enthralling. Grim, but absorbing. I highly recommend it.

Oh, and the People magazine was good, too. :)