Lawyer's Reviews > Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History

Sam Gwynne's History of the Spanish, the Texans, the Americans and the Comancheria


Sam C. Gwynne attended Princeton and Johns Hopkins Universities. He's spent most of his life as a journalist. He spent almost twenty years as a correspondent, bureau chief, and Chief Editor for twenty years. Gwynne's work has appeared in the New York Times, Harpers, California, Texas Monthly, among other publications. Gwynne was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History. Gwynne lives in Austin Texas with his wife and daughter. His most recent book is Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson.


First Ed., Scribner, New York, New York, 2010

Popular American histories focus their attention on the Native Americans of the High Plains. George Armstrong Custer remains an icon of glorious defeat. S.C. Gwynne does a great service in providing us with Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History. Although Gwynne's bibliography shows a great amount of previous literature regarding the Comanche, his work will acquaint those of us unfamiliar with Indians of the Southern Plains with the Comanche Indian Nation.

To actually call the Comanche an Indian Nation is a misnomer. They were a band of loosely associated nomadic bands that ranged from Colorado to Eastern New Mexico, Oklahoma, and down through the Panhandle of Texas all the way to the outskirts of present day Austin and San Antonio. The land they occupied was named Comancheria by the Spanish. The Comanche had no central political or social organization. War chiefs were chosen strictly on the basis of an individual's ability to recruit followers and successfully raid their opponents for horses and captives.


The land known as Comancheria

The Spanish, Mexicans, and Texans were all taken by surprise by the ferocity of Comanche attacks. The Comanche were the first Native American opponents of all the aforementioned to fight from horseback. The Comanche consistently out-maneuvered not only the Indian tribes they had previously dominated but also European and American colonists.

Gwynne offers captivating portraits of individuals frequently left out of histories of the American West. While early history of the Comanche remains much of a mystery, Gwynne brings the Comanche into sharp focus from 1830s Texas until their ultimate surrender in the late 19th Century.

Students of Texas history will discover unsettling policies of government leaders during the time of the Republic of Texas that was nothing short of an extermination of the Native Americans. Although the Comanche was their true opponent, early Texans showed a lack of discernment in implementing the Republic's policies, attacking tribes who were peaceful or had already chosen to follow the "white man's road." My wife, a native Texan, was completely unaware of much of the Republic's actions against the Indians, as these incidents were completely left out of her school texts from elementary school through college.

Do not consider Gwynne's work or this review to be a replication of the sorrow recounted in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. The Comanche were brutal in their attacks on any opponent. The Comanche subjected those they defeated in battle to torture and mutilation. Captured infants were routinely murdered, being of no immediate use to the band. Women were routinely repeatedly sexually assaulted and mutilated. Those women who were not murdered were enslaved to increase the female workforce in the band. They were also passed to their captor's relatives and friends as sexual objects. Many did not survive their captivity. Those who were either rescued or purchased back from the Comanche ultimately were outcasts in white society.

On occasion, white captives were adopted by the band who took them away from their homes and families. Such is the case of the best known captive of the Comanche, Cynthia Ann Parker. Cynthia Ann was captured when she was nine. She was adopted by the band who captured her. She married a Comanche known as Peter Nocona and gave birth to three children, one who would grow to become the principal war chief of the Comanche, Quanah Parker.


Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped at age nine by a Comanche war band in 1836. Her family was killed. She was adopted by the tribe, ultimately marrying Comanche brave Peter Nocona. She gave birth to three children, including Quanah Parker, the last free Comanche Chief until his surrender. Cynthia died of influenza in 1871, after several unsuccessful attempts to return to her Indian family.


Peta Nocona, Chief of the Quahadi Comanche Band, married Cynthia Ann Parker, fathering three children by her, including Quanah Parker. The date of his death is disputed. According to some he was killed in an attack by Texas Rangers at the battle of Pease River in 1864. According to son Quanah, Rangers did not kill his father, but he died of wounds several days later that he had received in fighting with Apaches, not the Rangers.


Quanah Parker was born in 1845. He was never named principal war chief by the Comanches although he did fight as a warrior at the battle of Adobe Walls along with Apaches. He surrendered in 1875 and was named Chief of the Apaches by the United States Government. He died in 1911.

The Parker family story was the inspiration for Allen Lemay's western masterpiece "The Searchers," subsequently filmed by John Ford in 1956, starring John Wayne and Natalie Wood. Although both book and movie were highly acclaimed, the story told there comes nowhere close to the dramatic truth of the history of the Parker family.


It's an iconic American film, but the truth overwhelms one of Hollywood's best.

Gwynne's work is a complex story of a lesser known era in American history. It is a story worth knowing. Gwynne tells it well. I would encourage anyone interested in expansion of the American frontier to read it. One not fully familiar with Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico geography would be well served to have maps readily available to appreciate the range of the Comanche travels and the speed in which they achieved it.

Highly recommended. This is a solid Five Star read.