Cynthia Ann Parker

A member of a family of settlers, she was abducted by a Comanche band when she was nine years old. The Indians who raided her settlement demanded two of the Parker children, leaving two behind. Cynthia was subjected to brutalities during her first days in the control of the Comanches but was later adopted into the tribe with all the rights of a full-blood Comanche. Her abduction was noteworthy because her father had been a member of the militia of Texas at the time. However, her name became a household word when another militia member found Cynthia living with the Comanches a decade later. The man tried to ransom Cynthia but she was unwilling to leave with the man. Her refusal to return to the white man's settlement made news. There were additional efforts later to ransom her as well but those also failed, the Indians...