Battle of Pease River - Cynthia Ann Parker

Cynthia Ann Parker

Cynthia Ann Parker was a woman of European descent who had been kidnapped as a child by the Comanche in the Fort Parker massacre in 1836. The nine year old Parker had grown up among the Comanche, who called her “Nadua”. She had married war chief Peta Nocona and borne him 3 children. Nonetheless, the Rangers and her family had never given up hope of regaining her, though it is doubtful they realized until her recapture how thoroughly she had become Comanche. Her uncle, James Parker, had spent most of his adult life, and his fortune, in a fruitless search for her.

Her presence and recapture at Pease River was a matter of national importance, probably because, as Ross was quoted as saying in the book Indian Depredations, by J.W. Wilbarger, "Most families on the frontier had lost someone to the Indians. Cynthia Ann's recovery would be looked at as almost a miracle by those folks." The famous picture of her with her daughter Topsanah at her breast was carried in almost every paper in the country.