Quanah's Parents : A True Native Indian Love Story

Quanah Parker was a warrior in his youth, a rancher in his maturity. The two photographs here show that he worked hard to accommodate both worlds.  Some of his flexibility may have been due to his parents—and thereby hangs a love story.

His mother was Cynthia Ann Parker, the daughter of a prominent Texas family.  In 1836 she was captured by Comanche during a raid and adopted with the name of Nadua.   After a time she married Peta Nacona, and they had three children: Quanah, Pecos, and a daughter Topsana.

In 1860 the Texas Rangers raided their viliage and killed almost everyone.  Nadua was recognized as “white,” however, and she was returned to the Parker family with her two young children.  Peta Nacona and the young Quanah returned home from hunting to find most of their people killed.  None of the survivors knew what had happened to Nadua and the two children.

Nadua refused to settle back into life as “Cynthia Ann.”  She begged ceaselessly to be returned to her husband and the Comanche people.  When her little Topsana died Nadua despaired.  She starved herself to death and was buried beside her daughter in the cemetery at Fort Sill Texas.

Her husband did not fare better.  Not long after the Rangers’ raid Peta Nacona was wounded in a battle with Texans.   Shortly after that he was wounded again, this time fatally. Before he died he called Quanah to him and told his son what he learned about the fate of his wife and the two young children.  The Comanche do not go much in for love stories, but it is obvious that the loss of Nadua had been a great loss to Peta Nacona.

That is the story.  Unlikemany mixed marriages it was happy, and its ending very sad.  In later years Quanah, too intelligent to harbor bitterness, turned up at the Parker ranch and became acquainted with his white relatives.  It was there that he learned ranching. 

Though he was buried at Fort Sill beside his mother and sister, throughout his life he remained thoroughly traditional.  He lived to be the senior chief of the Comanche and one of the founders of the Native American Church.

Tags: Alexas IllusiveDesires, story, love story, Native Indian, true, real

Varied Poems To Digest

Just a few poems for you to digest, explore and hopefully enjoy. Use your imagination
to invision , all by an artist friend of mine, William Burns Jr...Hugs,Alexa


 
An Empty Shirt in the Moonlight

A lurid moon
A languish of stars
A milky night sky
Occasionally troubled by clouds

An empty shirt on the clothes line
Somehow transmuted
Ghostly pale
Iridescent
Luminescent
Dancing with the wind
In the moonlight
Lift
  shifting
Left .  .  .
Then Right .  .  .
Pausing only for an instant at the apex






Impressionist Moment

A beautiful
Amber-autumn afternoon
Flows through the curtains
Curls around the sofa
  the table
Enfolding me
Flaxen and beautiful
Illusions creep along the wall

Glistening motes
  ghost angels
Feather fingers touching everything
  brushing
  soft as shadows

I move quietly
From room to room
From one moment to the next
Each second another bead on the string of Time





 Real Human Horrors

Boogy men and vampires
They don't scare me
You wanna know
What really Frightens me?

The kids had become . . .
You know
a liability
So she parked them in the lake
Staying long enough to be sure
  the car went under
Long enough to hear .  .  .
And blamed a black man
  any black man would do

Another story
She leaves the dance floor
Walks into the bathroom
Still hearing the music
  drops the fetus into the trash

Now that
Really scares me




 Savoring the Senses

The Flavor of your mouth
Your smell
    rich and raw
The way you stroke my hair
Your quick
    electric movements

The whispers
Your murmur in the moment
Mists coalesce around us . . .

Two as one




Drowsy Repose

Let me bask in clean flannel sheets
Delicious
warm pleasures
On rainy dark nights

Sleep
Blessed sleep
Take me in your strong arms
Fuzz my eyes
Zephyr
my breath
Dance with me

He greets me
gently poised
Encouraging my heavy eyes
to fade into watercolor vistas
Effortlessly
sanguine and enticing
He draws me into his secluded milieu
Into his open arms with my demure smile
Into our spiritual embrace
We dance to the music
of metamystical intimacy






Elegy

Is it Ok for me to dance
Now that you're dead?
Do my feet betray you
in lightness?
Do my eyes betray you
in smiling?
Does my heart betray you
in song?

I mean no disrespect
But the sun was out today
And my mind slipped
just for a moment
Only a moment .  .  .

Is it Ok for me to dance
Now that you're dead?

Tags: AlexaIllusiveDesires, poetry, varied poems, varied subjects

How's That Working For You

How’s That Working For You

© 2008

 

 

 

Before winter began to set in

You were advised again, and again

On how to keep your trailer safe and warm

You shrugged off everyone’s words with scorn

 

 

 

You wouldn’t move out from under the pine trees

To a winterized site to be safe from winters freeze

Refused to insulate the trailer bottom all around

Or insulate the water pipes, or sewer hose in the ground

 

 

 

You used electric heaters instead of propane to heat

Killed a couple deer, filling your freezers up with meat

We shook our heads with worry and concern for a while

Your arrogant attitude gave way to jokes, laughter and smiles

 

 

 

Well, the snows did come, as did the freezing rains
The winds some nights blew through like a rumbling train

Other nights they sounded like a howling wolf

Ice filled branches, ice covered ground, ice hung from the roofs

 

 

 

Water pipes froze and cracked through out the trailer floor

Holding tank froze without a heat blanket, it can’t be used any more

Electricity went out, there went your heat, but it won’t hurt the meat

What happened next just can’t be beat

 

 

 

The heavy ice on the pine tree branches all around and up high

Fell like big boulders falling down from the sky

Broke out a bedroom window with one side swept blow

Another one fell through the roof making a big gaping hole

 

 

 

For an ex Marine you didn’t know squat and your attitude was crap

It amuses me to know a cub scout would have known better then that

I really am wondering now about your giant attitude

How is that arrogant attitude working out for you

 

 

 

 

Foot Note: Yes, Dennis and girlfriend are ok for the mean time. There’s

many more stories from here, that make you scratch your head and down

right laugh out loud, and pause with wonder and amusement….

Tags: Alexa'sIllusiveDesires, poetry, stories, real life, now, attitude, help, marine, rv resort, camping, arrogant

Poem/ Words Unsaid

WORDS UNSAID

© 2008

CreativeVibes

 

 

I’d like to send you a moonbeam

Or a colored rainbow bright

Then again, maybe just fluffy clouds

Soft and warm to lay upon

Through out your darkest night

 

I’d like to take all the darkness

Out of every storm

Send you a beaming ray of sun

Just to wrap you in to keep you warm

 

These are thoughts I think

All just wishes I can not make come true

I’ll simply hope in time you do

You’ll understand, all that is left unsaid

Tags: Alexa'sIllusiveDesires, poetry, words, love, forget, thoughts, wishes

Poetry/ That Old Place

 

 

That Old Place

© 2008

CreativeVibes

 

 

It was never much to look at

Battered walls and creaking floors

Worn out carpet, no inside plumbing

Problems by the scores

 

No money or time to fix the repairs

A shelter from the cold and sun

That old place was always full of love

When in it, always a place of fun

 

I remember the long wooden table

Gramp made it with his own hands

He made your rocking chair and tons of toys

We could wind up with rubber bands

 

The old place was never much to look at

But, you made it a wonderful retreat

That table covered with your simple cooking

The cakes, apple pies baked fresh from the tree

 

I remember the Irish songs and stories

Oh Danny Boy and Wild Irish Rose

But, Bell Bottom Trousers Coat of Navy Blue

You’d sing and chase away any blues

 

Though it belongs to others now

And the house and grounds look new

That old place had you and Gramps

When I drive by, I still see Gramps and You

Tags: Alexa'sIllusiveDesires, poetry, old, house, grandparents, love, memories