THE FOLLOWING IS A LETTER FROM JIM YARBROUGH, A RESEARCHER AT THE QUANAH PARKER HISTORICAL SOCIETY, CORRECTING INFORMATION THAT WAS PRESENTED IN THE NOV. 19 PAGE ABOUT QUANAH PARKER. SCCPSS IS GRATEFUL FOR MR. YARBROUGH'S CONTRIBUTION IN MAKING OUR REPORT AS ACCURATE AS POSSIBLE.
Sir:
Regarding your statement contained in your online material about Quanah Parker: "In 1860, however, Peta Nocona was killed defending an encampment on the Pease River against Texas Rangers under Lawrence Sullivan Ross."
It is the position of the Quanah Parker Historical Preservation Society that the above is not true. Quanah Parker disputed it in a speech made at the Dallas Texas State Fair in 1909. The following is an excerpt from a 1910 Carlisle Indian School newspaper article:
AN HISTORICAL ERROR CORRECTED
At the Texas State Fair at Dallas, Texas, recently, when “Quanah Route Day” was being celebrated, Chief Quanah Parker, one of the most prominent Indian chiefs in the country and a leading citizen of Oklahoma, was present with his family, and made an address.
Chief Parker availed himself of this opportunity to correct what he considered an error ‘concerning the historical records of his people. His address is reported as being delivered in remarkably good English, and with much eloquence; it showed a high order of intelligence and was convincing. He told of the real death of his father, Nacona, who was reported to have been killed in the battle of Montieto, or Medicine Bluff, between Hardeman and Cottle Counties. Parker related that Nacona was not killed at this place, nor at this time, but that it was Nacona’s brother. Nacona died several years later. Chief Parker is now an old man, who, for many years, has been a consistent friend of the white man and of civilization. He is paymaster for the United States at Cache, Oklahoma.
January 1910 INDIAN CRAFTSMAN
http://home.epix.net/~landis/quanah.html
Thank you for your kind attention,
Jim Yarbrough
Member/Researcher, Quanah Parker Historical Society
