Following the apprehension of several Kiowa chiefs in 1871, Quanah Parker emerged as a dominant figure in the Red River War, clashing repeatedly with Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie.

With European-Americans hunting American bison, the Comanches' primary sustenance, into near extinction, Quanah Parker eventually surrendered and peaceably led the Kwahadi to the reservation at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Though he encouraged Christianization of Comanche people, he also advocated the syncretic Native American Church alternative, and fought for the legal use of peyote in the movement's religious practices.

Many cities and highway systems in southwest Oklahoma and north Texas, once southern Comancheria, bear reference to his name.

[1] Quanah Parker's paternal grandfather was the Kwahadi chief Iron Jacket (Puhihwikwasu'u), a warrior of the earlier Comanche-American Wars, famous among his people for wearing a Spanish coat of mail.

In a letter to rancher Charles Goodnight, Quanah Parker writes, "From the best information I have, I was born about 1850 on Elk Creek just below the Wichita Mountains.

Quanah Parker surrendered to Mackenzie and was taken to Fort Sill, Indian Territory where he led the Comanches successfully for a number of years on the reservation.

The U.S. government appointed him principal chief of the entire nation once the people had gathered on the reservation and later introduced general elections.

In October 1867, when Quanah Parker was only a young man, he had come along with the Comanche chiefs as an observer at treaty negotiations at Medicine Lodge, Kansas.

Other Comanche chiefs, notably Isa-Rosa ("White Wolf") and Tabananika ("Sound of the Sunrise") of the Yamparika, and Big Red Meat of the Nokoni band, identified the buffalo hide merchants as the real threat to their way of life.

Quanah Parker and his band were unable to penetrate the two-foot thick sod walls and were repelled by the hide merchants' long-range .50 caliber Sharps rifles.

The historical record mentions little of Quanah Parker until his presence in the attack on the buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls on June 27, 1874.

The Apache dress, bag and staff in the exhibit may be a remnant of this time in Quanah Parker's early adult life.

With the buffalo nearly exterminated and having suffered heavy loss of horses and lodges at the hands of the US military, Quanah Parker was one of the leaders to bring the Kwahadi (Antelope) band of Comanches into Fort Sill during late May and early June 1875.

Burnett and other ranchers met with Comanche and Kiowa tribes to lease land on their reservation—nearly 1 million acres (400,000 ha) just north of the Red River in Oklahoma.

Quanah Parker, like many of his contemporaries, was originally opposed to the opening of tribal lands for grazing by Anglo ranching interests.

Quanah Parker changed his position and forged close relationships with a number of Texas cattlemen, such as Charles Goodnight and the Burnett family.

[6] In 1884, due largely to Quanah Parker's efforts, the tribes received their first "grass" payments for grazing rights on Comanche, Kiowa and Apache lands.

Quanah Parker earned the respect of US governmental leaders as he adapted to the white man's life and became a prosperous rancher in Oklahoma.

Burnett helped by contributing money for the construction of Star House, Quanah Parker's large frame home.

Burnett asked for (and received) Quanah Parker's participation in a parade with a large group of warriors at the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show and other public events.

After years of searching, Quanah Parker had their remains moved from Texas and reinterred in 1910 in Oklahoma on the Comanche reservation at Fort Sill.

According to his daughter "Wanada" Page Parker, her father helped celebrate President Theodore Roosevelt's 1905 inauguration by appearing in the parade.

Quanah Parker wanted the tribe to retain ownership of 400,000 acres (1,600 km2) that the government planned to sell off to homesteaders, an argument he eventually lost.

Quanah Parker asked for help combating unemployment among his people and later received a letter from the President stating his own concern about the issue.

After a year of marriage and a visit of Mescalero Apache in the Quohada camps, Ta-ho-yea asked to return home, citing as her reason her inability to learn the Comanche language.

Thereafter, Quanah Parker became involved with peyote, which contains hordenine, mescaline or phenylethylamine alkaloids, and tyramine which act as natural antibiotics when taken in a combined form.

The "cross" ceremony later evolved in Oklahoma because of Caddo influences introduced by John Wilson, a Caddo-Delaware religious leader who traveled extensively around the same time as Parker during the early days of the Native American Church movement.

This religion developed in the nineteenth century, inspired by events of the time being east and west of the Mississippi River, Quanah Parker's leadership, and influences from Native Americans of Mexico and other southern tribes.

[1] The inscription on his tombstone reads: Resting Here Until Day Breaks And Shadows Fall and Darkness Disappears is Quanah Parker Last Chief of the Comanches Born 1852 Died Feb. 23, 1911 Biographer Bill Neeley wrote: "Not only did Quanah pass within the span of a single lifetime from a Stone Age warrior to a statesman in the age of the Industrial Revolution, but he never lost a battle to the white man and he also accepted the challenge and responsibility of leading the whole Comanche tribe on the difficult road toward their new existence.