W HEN C HIEF Q UANAH P ARKER S OUGHT P EYOTE
by Glenn Justice
A
ccording to Fort Davis histori-
an Barry Scobee, Comanche
Chief Quanah Parker showed
up in Fort Davis in 1894. He came in
search of “The gift-of-God cactus, to
lighten the Red man’s burden."
Accompanied by Chief Rising Star
and several other dignitaries from the
Indian Territory, Chief Quanah
arrived at the Hotel Limpia much to
the astonishment of Miss Finck, who
worked at the front desk. Scobee
described this most unusual occur-
rence of Miss Finck hearing a knock at
the door and was startled to see three
Indians standing in the doorway. Mr.
Fox, an Indian agent accompanying
the party, stepped forward explaining
that the chief and his two traveling
companions came on a peaceful mis-
sion, simply wishing to obtain bed and
board while they searched for peyote
somewhere in vicinity of Mitre Peak.
Quanah had told the Indian agent that
Comanche traditions taught that the
wonderful cactus could not be found in
any other location.
While Scobee’s intriguing glimpse
into the past ends there, there is more
to the story, much more. Chief
Quanah Parker knew every corner of
the Big Bend area. Born about 1850
probably near Elk Creek in the
Wichita Mountains of today’s
Oklahoma, Quanah rose to become
the principal Comanche leader during
and after the Texas Panhandle - Red
River War
In 1836, Quanah’s mother, Cynthia
Ann Parker, was taken captive from
Fort Parker, Texas. She was nine. Her
story became immortalized in the dark
but classic John Wayne movie The
Searchers. Quanah came from an
impressive line of Comanche chief-
tains. His father was Peta Nocona,
who died of complications from
wounds received during a fight with
the Apache. Iron Jacket, Quanah’s
grandfather, got his name because he
wore a Spanish coat of mail into battle.
Comanche legend has it that Iron
Jacket had the ability to blow threaten-
ing bullets away from him with his
breath.
Quanah’s father died when he was
10. Chief Wild Horse of the
Destanyuka band took the 10-year-old
Quanah under his wing, teaching the
boy the warrior ways of the
Comanche.
It is not clear at what point the
Comanche first used peyote in
shamanistic ceremonies. According to
anthropologist Dr. Omar C. Stewart,
who is considered to be an expert in
the study of peyote use by Native
Americans, the Comanche probably
first learned about peyote as they trav-
eled on the Comanche Trail across
West Texas and into Chihuahua. It is
here that the young Quanah most like-
ly first encountered the magical cactus.
Although Quanah Parker is not credit-
ed with introducing peyote to his peo-
ple, according to Stewart, Quanah was
“the most important Comanche road-
man in the early history of peyotism.”
A roadman is the spiritual guide dur-
ing a peyote ceremony.
Long before the arrival of the
Comanche, the Native Americans of
Mexico including the Tarahumara
knew of the power of peyote as a natu-
ral medicinal drug. Christian
Tarahumara also associated peyote
with their faith. They applied it to
snake bites, wounds, and burns, and
thought it cured rheumatism. Its
power went beyond that. The
Tarahumara believed if a man carried
peyote on his person bears could not
bite him, deer would not run away and
game would become tame and easy to
kill.
During the early 1700s Chihuahua
experienced a considerable number of
investigations into the possession and
use of peyote.
U. S. Army Captain Valery
Havard, a surgeon stationed in the
1880s near Presidio, became one of the
first Anglo physicians to describe the
use of peyote and mescal beans in the
Big Bend. He noted the beautiful
flower produced by the peyote cactus
and its presence in most Mexican
houses. Although Havard said peyote
is mostly an intoxicant, he thought it to
be good for the relief of fever. The
good doctor also pointed out that if
one chewed the magical cactus a
“delirious exhilaration” could be expe-
rienced and that peyote in those days
was known as “dry whiskey.”
In 1896 an observer saw Quanah sit
up all night during a peyote ceremony
Photo courtesy: US national archives
and eat thirty buttons. The following
morning he seemed unaffected and
alert. He once sent a roadman to
Mexico to obtain 8,000 buttons.
Perhaps the chief summed it up best
when he said, “The white man goes to
his church and talks about Jesus. The
Indian goes to his tipi and talks with
Jesus.”
Perhaps Quanah became a believer
in the power of peyote when he went
to visit his brother John Parker in
Chihuahua about 1885. Previously he
had opposed the use of peyote. During
the visit a Spanish bull is said to have
somehow attacked the great chief,
leaving him with a terrible wound that
resulted in a bad case of blood poison-
Cenizo
ing and fever. Other accounts state
that Quanah contracted some sort of
stomach disorder. Whatever the case,
a shaman mixed him a strong potion
made from peyote juice and he recov-
ered. Apparently Quanah believed the
concoction cured him, because after
that time he became an ardent sup-
porter of the use of peyote.
As a whole, the Comanche and
Quanah in particular never really had
much confidence in the Ghost Dance
Movement of 1890. The movement
was a religious revival that swept
Native American tribes from coast to
coast in that year, encouraging clean
living and the giving up of some old
tribal customs, as well as peaceful
cooperation with whites. Quanah
respected the white man’s religion but
when told by the U. S. Secretary of the
Interior that he must give up all of his
wives except one—he had three—the
great chief replied, “Mr. Secretary,
you tell them." Multiple wives and
peyote were two things Chief Quanah
never compromised. He became quite
a successful businessman, making
money in cattle and land. But even in
his last days he took an active part in
peyote ceremonies described as the
Half Moon ceremony or the Quanah
Parker Way.
Quanah Parker died in 1911. C. S.
Simmons observed that not long
before his death the great chief con-
ducted a peyote ceremony at his home
outside Lawton, Oklahoma. “At about
three o’clock in the morning, the silent
hour and the time of the greatest man-
ifestation of power, Quanah, the
leader, knelt before the altar and
prayed earnestly. Then, taking the
eagle feathers in both hands, he arose
to his feet. I saw at once he was under
great inspiration. His whole personali-
ty seemed to change. His eyes glowed
with a strong light and his body swayed
to and fro, vibrating with some power-
ful emotion. He sang the beautiful
song “Ya-na-ah-away” in a most
grand and inspiring manner. Then all
who were gathered sang together in
harmony. They prayed to God and
Jesus and sang of a “narrow way.”
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