Peta Nocona

Peta Nocona, also known as Puhtocnocony, or Tah-con-ne-ah-pe-ah (c. 1820 – 1864), the son of Puhihwikwasu'u, or Iron Jacket, was a chief of the Comanche Quahadi (also known as Kwahado, Quahada) band.

[1] Despite Sul Ross's claim that Peta Nocona was killed at Pease River, his son Quanah insisted he was not present at the site of that battle, and died several years later.

With substantial militia forces focused on guarding the Texans during the Great Scrape, all of the frontier settlements were woefully unprepared and undermanned for the invasion.

On May 19, 1836, a huge force of Nokoni Comanche warriors (at the time the head chief of the Nokoni band was Huupi-pahati, to English-speaking people "Tall Tree"), about 500 strong, accompanied by Kiowa and Kichai allies, who had also been promised by the Mexicans rich booty and hundreds of white females and slaves, made a raid against Limestone County, and a war group attacked the fort in force, killing most of the men.

[3] Following the defeat of Mexico in the Texas War of Independence, the new government shifted its attention toward recovering the thousands of children and women captured during the invasion.

Peta Nocona married Cynthia Ann Parker (Naduah), a white captive who had been adopted by the Nokoni Comanche (her foster father was Tabby-nocca).

However, at the subsequent negotiations, the Comanches' aggressive posture and known behavior of quickly attacking anyone led to a series of confrontations during the meeting and full-scale violence.

Peta Nocona's wife and daughter were captured and his band scattered on December 18, 1860, by Captain Lawrence Sullivan Ross and his Texas Rangers and militia at the Pease River fight.

In early 1860, Peta Nocona led his band in a raid through Parker County, Texas, which had been named in honor of his wife's family after their massacre.

After the raid, he returned with his band to what he believed was a safe retreat under the sandstone bluffs of the Pease River near where Mule Creek flowed into the stream.

The site was long a favorite of the Comanche, providing both cover from the fierce "blue northers" that hit the plains, and ample forage for their ponies, with easy buffalo hunting from the nearby herds.

With an oncoming blue norther blotting out sign, Ross moved close to the location of Peta Nocona's Kwahadi on the Mule Creek head bank.

Here they met with a warm reception, and finding themselves completely encompassed, everyone fled his own way, and was hotly pursued and hard pressed.Two distinct versions of Peta Nocona's death are given.

"[7] Certainly, Quanah Parker told both friend and foe that his father had survived the massacre of his band, and died 3–4 years later of complications from old war wounds suffered against the Apache.

In this account, strongly supported by the oral history of the Comanche people, Peta Nocona was away from the camp and hunting with Quanah Parker and a few other men when the attack occurred.

Nye claimed that he encountered men who saw Peta Nocona alive several years after Pease River when he was ill with an infected war wound.