Quanah Parker: The Last War Chief of the Comancheria

Quanah Parker was born between worlds—and became a master of both.

As the last great war chief of the Quahadi Comanche, he led one of the final armed resistances on the Southern Plains, charging into the gunfire at Adobe Walls and fighting an industrial war machine with speed, terrain, and sheer nerve. When military victory became impossible, Quanah launched an equally audacious second act: statesman, cattle baron, political power broker, defender of religious freedom, and tireless advocate for his people.

Ben Thompson is joined by Pushcart Prize–winning writer and professor Daniel Peña, author of How to Look Away: On American Cruelty and the Refusal to Disappear, to explore Quanah’s extraordinary life, the tragedy of his mother Cynthia Ann Parker, and the complicated legacy of a warrior who refused to let his people disappear.

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