Cynthia Ann Parker
A member of a prominent pioneer family, Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped during a Comanche raid in which several of her relatives were brutally killed. From age 9, she was raised as a beloved captive, essentially adopted by the Comanche. She took to her new life with a good will, becoming fluent in the Comanche language and forgetting the English she learned earlier in life.
As an adult, Cynthia Ann Parker married a Comanche war chief by the name of Peta Nocona. She had three children. The youngest, a daughter named Prairie Flower, was with her when she was recaptured by the US Army. Her sons, Quanah and Grassnut, escaped.
Despite trying to escape and rejoin the Comanche people repeatedly, Cynthia Ann Parker was held for the rest of her life in captivity, as the property of her uncle Isaac Parker. She was treated as a freak and an oddity by the people around her, and had no desire whatsoever to integrate with ordinary American people.
Young Prairie Flower died in 1684 of influenza and pneumonia. After that point Cynthia Ann lost the will to live and eventually died of influenza complicated by starvation.
Quanah Parker
The eldest son of Cynthia Ann and Peta Nocona, Quanah Parker became a feared war chief in his own right. Unusually tall and strong by Comanche standards, Quanah was an extroverted natural leader with outstanding skills in horsemanship, strategy, and negotiation. An avid dancer and womanizer, Quanah had a total of eight wives (up to six at once time) and multiple children by the time of his death.
When Cynthia Ann was captured at the Battle of Pease River, twelve-year-old Quanah and his brother Peanuts (possibly also translated as "Grassnut") escaped on horseback. They were tracked by Charles Goodnight and twelve scouts, but evaded their pursuers. Although he later rose to a position of leadership, Quanah never saw his mother or younger sister again. He was raised for a while by his father's second wife (polygamy was customary in his tribe) although she and Peanuts dies about a year later of unknown causes. Orphaned, Quanah was treated more harshly than most Comanche orphans due to his "white blood", however he survived.
Quanah became a full Comanche warrior at age fifteen. He grew to a height of about six feet, which was a full head taller than the average Comanche man. He participated in multiple raids intended to roll back the wave of settlers advancing beyond the Comanche border. When the war chief Bear's Ear fell in battle, Quanah rallied the raiders, led an audacious attack, and was elected leader of the war party by his peers. He later eloped with Weckeah, a young woman who became his first wife, taking with them twenty-one warriors who set up an encampment and began stealing horses all over Texas to establish a power base. When he returned to his band, it was as a fully fledged war chief.
Randall Slidell Mackenzie
Born to a well connected family of Scottish origin, Randall Slidell Mackenzie was a West Point graduate and a Civil War veteran. He was sent to the frontier as part of an effort to replace the corrupt and inefficient "Indian Service" government representatives.
Upon arriving, Mackenzie noticed that the Comanche war parties had an incentive to escalate their raids: based on past experience, eventually some kind of peace treaty would be signed in which they not only got to keep the horses and movable property they stole, but they would be given lavish gifts. No such incentive existed if they stayed quiet, limited their raiding, and behaved like good neighbors. Therefore, one of the first things Mackenzie did was to alter policy and begin actual military aggression. His first attempts were unsuccessful, but he did eventually the Quahadi band (the only Comanche band never to sign a peace treaty) was beaten badly enough to consider negotiating.
Mackenzie displayed unusual behavior consistent with mental illness, and was removed from command. He was institutionalized and died in a hospital at the age of forty-eight.
Isa-Tai
A noted Comanche medicine man, Isa-Tai was also a religious leader. He organized a Sun Dance to attempt to unite the various factions of the Comanche nation, which up until that time had been divided into various independent tribes. He preached purification and salvation, provided the Comanche and their allies purged the invading white settlers from their midst. He was instrumental in maintaining the conflict between the various Comanche tribes and the American settlers.
Isa-Tai teamed up with Quanah, such that Isa-Tai was the charismatic leader and Quanah was the enforcer or war chief. Instead of a spiritually focused Sun Dance featuring vision seeking, they held all-night drumming and party sessions fueled by alcohol. At the end of the festival, about half the Comanche had bought into the notion of war and revenge.
