I've just finished reading "The last Comanche Chief - The life and times of Quanah Parker" By Bill Neeley.
I enjoyed the read and found it very interesting.
Quanah's mother was Cynthia Ann Parker (Naduah) captured at age nine by Quahada warriors and recaptured by Texas Rangers at age 34. Fully a comanche, she didn't adapt, tried to escape several times and after her third child caught influenza in 1863, and died of pneunomia, she stopped eating and died in 1870.
Peta Nocona was Quanah's father - he led the Noconis band of the Comanches. Quanah was born in 1850.
Quanah grew up as a free comanche , by his teens he was leading raiding parties. In the 1870's the plains tribes were losing the battle against the enroachment upon their lands. In 1875, the last tribe of the Staked Plains, under Quanah's leadership came in. Quanah, in his late 20's now, accepted that the old ways were gone and endeavoured to create opportunities for his people. Quanah embraced much of western culture but not monogamy or christianity. He had five wives and twenty five children and founded the Native American Church which practices the Peyote religion. He also had a town named after him, met presidents and continually applied for more resources for his people. They say that the times produce the people and Quantah had the qualities needed at the time.
It is impossible to understand their situation from our perspective. To have grown up free and to see your world and everything that you cared about lost and changed, into something alien and disturbing - the shock must have been great. To actually survive that is a miracle.
Our tupuna also went through the same process. From the brilliant "The Welcome of Strangers", Atholl Anderson
"In two decades from 1844-64, Ngai Tahu were left with one acre out of every thousand acres they had once owned."
It just doesn't seem that long ago. Different indigenous peoples met the wall of colonisation in different ways. All tried to survive and make the best situation for themselves and their people. We all have a lot in common.
We must look to today, whilst holding our past and future close. We must look to the people - all of the answers are there. The challenges we all face are not just for our 'leaders' to shoulder. We need more people power. We need it within our iwi and we need it within our country.
I've just finished “Comanches The History of a People by T.R. Fehrenbach. It has affected me in ways I never imagined it would. Yes, the book is sad – it's a book about destruction but it also relevant to today's world where similar tensions exist between peoples and between development and protection.
”Authoritative and immediate, this is the classic account of the most powerful of the American Indian tribes. T.R. Fehrenbach traces the Comanches' rise to power, from their prehistoric origins to their domination of the high plains for more than a century until their demise in the face of Anglo-American expansion.”
That is accurate and understated because this book really does cover a lot of ground and it is written in a very readable style. I did struggle with a sense of unease at some of the uncompromising descriptions and judgements.
“History is brutal... The story of the People is a brutal story, and it's judgements must be brutal. These judgements may offend those who would have man be a different kind of being, and the world a different kind of place.”
I am one of those, yet when you look around the world today and see the brutality of people to other people – well, perhaps understanding the brutal nature on people is a very worthwhile endeavour.
”As Dee Brown states, “For a complete history of the Comanches, this book probably has no equal”
and that fits with my view; a slightly qualified endorsement. But as a qualifier it is small and didn't detach from my pleasure in reading the story of the People.. I recommend the book even though as stated,
“Any history of the People, no matter who writes it, must suffer from the fact that records were kept only by the People's enemies.”
They called themselves Nermernuh or the People and were known as Comanche
“The few thousand Nermernuh or People, who lived and died on the plains and were destroyed as an independent people, shaped the continent in ways that few modern Americans have seen or understood.”
“... they destroyed the ancient dream of Spanish empire in North America; they shredded the Mexican frontier; they blocked the French advance into the South-west; and they delayed the advance of the Anglo-American conquest of the continent for almost sixty years.”
I am embarassed to admit that I, like many people, when I think of Native Americans – the image of the Plains indian comes to mind. Hunting the buffalo, living in tipi, counting coup and so on. Hollywood has a lot to answer for because that image of Native Americans is a small sample of all of the Native American peoples. All of the peoples had their own beliefs and ways of living. Just as here in this country it is fair to say that although all are maori, there are differences between Ngai Tahu and Nga Puhi. Native American peoples, with their vast continent are also different to each other, yet are still all Native Americans.
The Comanche were people of the plains. Of course nowdays there are no plains or buffalo. The descriptions of the destruction of the People and their lives, including inconcievable destruction of the plains and the buffalo are heart-breaking, especially when you consider it was all done for the ignoble purpose of making money.
“...40,000 hides left Dodge by rail in a single day” “...during 1872-74, 1.5 million hides went out of Dodge alone” “ ... the records show that between 1868 and 1881 the bones of thirty-one million animals were sold for fertilizer in the state of Kansas. After 1881 there were no records, for there were neither bones or buffalo.”
The attitude that drove the destructions is still here today. It is here in this country and we have to resist it – for the benefit of everyone and everything.
I cannot get the final pages out of my head. They describe how 3 years after the last wild Comanches were brought into the agency, the military finally agreed, in 1878, that the tribe could go on a hunt. They were filled with joy, the older men and women described the wonders of the hunt to the young people. They talked of the great richness of sucking the marrow from the bones and satisfaction of riding the Plains and chasing the buffalo. They danced and prepared their horses and arrows. They rode out, under military escort, and they rode for miles and miles, for days and days. All they found were bones. The buffalo were gone.
