Sunday, April 20, 1997

Cynthia Ann Parker Days slated for May 2-4

Many of you have asked me about the annual Cynthia Ann Parker Days, which honors her life.

The celebration is May 2-4, but May 3 is the big day. That Saturday features the huge parade through downtown Crowell beginning at 9 a.m. In addition to Native Americans on their horses in full dress, the 77th Army Band will march in the parade, then present a free concert on the courthouse square.

A historical symposium is 2-5 p.m. that day at the celebration grounds off of State Highway 6 on the south edge of town. Of special interest at the symposium will be Charles Chibitty, one of the two remaining Comanche code talkers who served in the European Theater of Operations during World War II.

The Inter-tribal "Lords of the Plains" Pow Wow is all day and into the night on May 3 as an incredible and colorful event to watch as these dancers in full costume compete so rigorously.

You don't want to miss May Farms Petting Zoo from Abilene at CAP Days. Many of you who attend the West Texas Fair here each fall are real familiar with the May Farms Petting Zoo, always an enormous attraction at the fair.

It would take a book to tell you all of the festivities in conjunction with CAP Days. They include a wild hog cookoff - call (817) 684-1670 for information. Also Texas Cowboy Rodeo Association (TCRA) rodeos May 2 and May 3. Call (817) 684-1919. Various raffles include a Texas Longhorn steer.

Cynthia Ann Parker - as most school children know - was captured by Comanche Indians as a 9-year-old white girl at Fort Parker on May 19, 1836, in what is now Limestone County.

Considering she had no choice in the matter, she made the best of it. She later became the wife of Chief Peta Nocona and they had three children - Quanah, Pecos, and Prairie Flower.

She adapted. After living 24 years with the the Indians - for all practical purposes - she had become one of their own.

Nevertheless, on Dec. 18, 1860, she was "recaptured" by Texas Ranger Capt. Sul Ross and a detachment of the U.S. Cavalry from Camp Cooper. They traveled northward from what is the present-day Matthews Ranch north of Albany along the Lower Clear Fork of the Brazos. They surprised the Indians along what is now Mule Creek in Foard County nine miles northeast of Crowell.

Today, a state historical marker of the Pease River Battlefield is at the site where Cynthia Ann was recaptured.

By then, Cynthia Ann was 33 years old and breast feeding her infant daughter, Prairie Flower. She was taken back to the white man's world.

The trailblazer Charles Goodnight noted it was one of the sadder chapters in Texas or frontier history. Cynthia Ann was taken back to Limestone County to live with relatives. She repeatedly took horses and tried to escape and return to her Indian life.

Prairie Flower died shortly after Cynthia Ann was recaptured. Despite being a physically strong woman, Cynthia Ann also died after just a few years.

Many historians say Cynthia Ann died of a broken heart.

Chief Quanah Parker, the last great Comanche Chief, took his mother's name.

Quanah, along with the late Watt Matthews, Will Rogers, and 10 others, will be honored with a bronze star crafted like marshal's badge as one of 13 initial inductees to the "Texas Trail of Fame" in the Fort Worth Stockyards District in May.