On my drive out to California last October, I started learning about the Comanche tribe. OBC readers may recall, I had seen a sign at a rest stop in New Mexico, which alerted me to the fact of their existence on that land.
Once I began learning about the Comanche, I was amazed. They were an incredibly powerful, formidable tribe, in command of a vast territory covering most, if not all, of what is now Texas, parts of Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Mexico itself, spreading north into Kansas and Colorado… a vast, vast territory, well known to all Americans during the Civil War era as Comancheria.
And yet somehow, I had never been taught about in school, nor even heard of Comancheria. I knew next to nothing about the Comanche Nation, its fierce warriors, way of life, and ultimately conquered people. Only the name “Comanche” was familiar to me. Similar to the name of the Apache, whom I gather were rival frenemies. Why was their history hidden?
These People were the buffalo hunters of the Great Plains. Horse riders, and raiders, par excellence. Fearsome and brutal by all accounts. And yet, the kidnapped white woman, Cynthia Ann Parker, who was married to a Comanche chief and became the mother of Quana Parker (subject of the book pictured at the top of this post), chose not to leave when given the chance. Again, why might that be?
Maybe I will be able to answer these questions after I’ve read a bit more. Today I am only on page nine of Empire of the Summer Moon, but I am looking forward to delving deeper as I drive through Comanche country in just a few days. OBC 🌵🦉🌿
One Bold Crone 
I should note that Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped as a nine year-old girl. Only later was she married to the Comanche warrior chief, bearing him three children, the first of whom was Quanah. Also want to add that this book is incredibly well written—a real page turner! Exciting and suspenseful, despite being steeped in heartache. The lost tribes, and the decimated buffalo…such tragedies to mark the forging of our nation. Seems almost unforgivable. But here we are.