What do you know about the children of Cynthia Ann Parker, the woman who was taken captive by the Comanches in 1836 and returned to her family in 1860?

What do you know about the children of Cynthia Ann Parker, the woman who was taken captive by the Comanches in 1836 and returned to her family in 1860?

Linda A. Young

Buffalo, Texas

Cynthia lost several children during childbirth, according to legend. Child mortality rates were high during that time. Three children survived but only the great Comanche leader, Quanah, lived to adulthood. The little girl, Topsanah or “Prairie Flower,” died about three years after Cynthia was returned to her family. Another son, her youngest, Pecos or “Peanut,” remained with her husband Peta Nacona. Peta, who never took another wife, died from an infected wound, and the boy succumbed to disease in the mid-1860s.

Cynthia never readjusted to life with the whites after nearly 25 years living as a Comanche. She frequently—and unsuccessfully—tried to return to the tribe.  She also scarified her breasts in self-mutilation and prayed to Comanche spirits. Cynthia allegedly died in the 1870s.