Editor’s Note: Jack Becker, Librarian Emeritus, TTU Libraries is the editor of Caprock Chronicles. He can be reached at jack.becker@ttu.edu. Today’s essay is the second in Tina Siemens' three-part series on Quanah Parker, the Comanche Nation and the Mission. She is also the author of “ Post Oak: Quanah Parker, the Comanche, and the Mission.”

Cynthia Ann Parker was just nine when, sitting in front of her captor, she made the hard ride across the Llano Estacado deep into Comancheria. Separated from Aunt Rachel, she eventually landed in Colorado with a new Comanche father and mother. Practically overnight, her parents were dead and their killers would now raise her.

Unlike Rachel, Cynthia Ann was not ransomed. Her Comanche parents loved her too much to let her return to the whites. As a res

See Full Page