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

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

4.08 of 5 stars 4.08 · rating details · 7,628 ratings · 1,198 reviews

In the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a stunningly vivid historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West, centering on Quanah, the greatest Comanche chief of them all.

S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanche

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S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.

Although readers may be more familiar with the tribal names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined just how and when the American West opened up. Comanche boys became adept bareback riders by age six; full Comanche braves were considered the best horsemen who ever rode. They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana. White settlers arriving in Texas from the eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands. So effective were the Comanches that they forced the creation of the Texas Rangers and account for the advent of the new weapon specifically designed to fight them: the six-gun.

The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. Gwynne’s exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads—a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being.

Against this backdrop Gwynne presents the compelling drama of Cynthia Ann Parker, a lovely nine-year-old girl with cornflower-blue eyes who was kidnapped by Comanches from the far Texas frontier in 1836. She grew to love her captors and became infamous as the "White Squaw" who refused to return until her tragic capture by Texas Rangers in 1860. More famous still was her son Quanah, a warrior who was never defeated and whose guerrilla wars in the Texas Panhandle made him a legend.

S. C. Gwynne’s account of these events is meticulously researched, intellectually provocative, and, above all, thrillingly told.

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Hardcover, 384 pages

Published May 25th 2010 by Scribner (first published 2010)

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Jan 08, 2013 William Thomas rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-history

As a historian, I will rarely give a general or popular history more than 3 stars. Much the same way I will never say 'an historian'. And no matter the amount of research that goes into popular history, it hardly ever seems to merit so much praise. And that is because it answers no questions, asks no new questions, puts forth none of its own theories, and has no one singular hypothesis. This book, although a fantastic, sweeping history of the Comanche, it is not a work to be discussed as academi...more As a historian, I will rarely give a general or popular history more than 3 stars. Much the same way I will never say 'an historian'. And no matter the amount of research that goes into popular history, it hardly ever seems to merit so much praise. And that is because it answers no questions, asks no new questions, puts forth none of its own theories, and has no one singular hypothesis. This book, although a fantastic, sweeping history of the Comanche, it is not a work to be discussed as academic history.

The most irritating part of the book is the history of Quanah Parker himself. The most bold and interesting history comes from the first half of the book, up until the introduction of the Hays Rangers.

What the book does is prove that the Comanche were, without a doubt, the most powerful tribe in American history. But this is not a new idea, as most historians would agree that the Comanche dwarfed all other horse tribes in the West in terms of accumulated wealth- an idea that, before the white man, was unknown to the Comanche. Once they mastered the horse, they ascended quickly from Gollum-like scavengers, a group of hyenas picking up the scraps of others, into the most feared Indians in America.

Part of the reason that Western Indian tribes were so feared comes from their lack of domesticity. They did not farm or keep animals for slaughter. They had to hunt on the plains and badlands because farming was not an option. The development of the land in the West around Oklahoma, Texas, Wyoming etc was one of the reasons for the Dust Bowl, and by extension, the Great Depression. These lands were not fit for farming, and the plains tribes understood this. However, Americans flooded the land and used all the technology at hand to turn the l;and into life-bearing plots. But I digress. The Comcanche and Apache and Lakota and Sioux were far more aggressive in the West than thier Eastern counterparts due in fact to their need to hunt in order to sustain their way of life on the plains.

But this subject is never touched upon in this book. It never puts forth an actual hypothesis. It never answers questions, but instead gives us fact after fact. And while that is useful and entertaining, especially in this case, it does little to advance our actual knowledge of the 'why's'.

I do congratulate [EDIT] (the author of) this book for not balking at the violence inherent in the Comanche. Too often historians will shy away from the amoral acts of an Indian tribe in order to preserve the idea of a noble savage. In this, we are treated to detailed accounts of Comanche torture. Cutting off the toes, the fingers and genitals of Spaniards, Americans and other frontiersmen, and stuffing them into their owners' mouths was common practice. Letting hot coals burn through a captive's abdomen was another torture technique often applied. There seemed no end to their torture ingenuity. And Gwynne does not make this a symptom of Europeans in America. Gwynne does not say that this was a practice only developed after the Europeans came and brought war upon the land. Which is in fact a fallacy. War between tribes was never bloodless. It was never so pretty or noble. It was always petty and savage. And to think that the white devil unleashed something sinister within the Indian upon their arrival is no more than PC demonizing and pandering to the modern day tribes.

Overall, the book will give the average reader insight into the frontier they did not possess before reading it. It is filled with facts- like the development of the Colt, the relationship between Eli Whitney and Samuel Colt, the Hays Rangers, the torture techniques of Comcanches, the destruction of the Apaches, the transformation of the Comanche from the 1600's- that will entertain and often disgust. But all in all it is well worth the read.(less)

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May 14, 2013 Elizabeth rated it 1 of 5 stars

I am not pleased with this book at all. I was excited to read it because it looked fascinating and I have always had an interest in 19th-century American history. In fact, this is my field of study currently (I'm majoring in history and soon to graduate.) So, with my perspective of having learned and read much about this period and about white westward expansion during this period and earlier, I was truly shocked by some of the innaccuracies and inflammatory, racist assertions that are all over...more I am not pleased with this book at all. I was excited to read it because it looked fascinating and I have always had an interest in 19th-century American history. In fact, this is my field of study currently (I'm majoring in history and soon to graduate.) So, with my perspective of having learned and read much about this period and about white westward expansion during this period and earlier, I was truly shocked by some of the innaccuracies and inflammatory, racist assertions that are all over this piece of writing. S.C. Gwynne has written a piece of trash that could be mistaken for turn-of-the-century sensationalist journalism, and if I didn't know better and remember that I picked this up at a modern-day bookstore, I would think someone like Frederick Jackson Turner had written this. It explores Comnache history from a purely white, expansionist point of view, and implies that the white Texan settlers were taking Indian lands from pure naivete, and only planned to peacefully settle with their families, and had no intent of robbing the Comanches of their territories. Furthermore, this book uses very heavy-handed and offensive language to discuss Comanche people and their culture. I mean, using words like "primitive" and "Stone Age barbarians" is NOT an acceptable way to discuss Native people, EVER. I thought well-read, educated Americans knew this by now, but reading reviews of this book that praise Gwynne for his accuracy and straightforwardness has shown me otherwise.

Gwynne is not straightforward or balanced in his writing, he is racist and Eurocentric. He also forgets that the Comanche tribe was completely distinct from other Native tribes, and sweeps them all under his "barbarian" category that he has made up. For example, he makes a comment about Native languages being primitive- how would he know that? He doesn't speak any, and probably doesn't even know about the extensive variety of Native languages still spoken to this day, nor knows of their characteristics. He seems entirely unaware of the distinct cultures and histories of the Plains tribes especially, and lumps them all into one entity. I am just shocked that someone who is apparently so well-educated and well-read could be so ignorant.

I think Gwynne's failure is due to the fact that he uses absolutely no Native primary sources. All of his sources are from the white perspective. It is fine to represent that side of things, but you must balance that with the other perpspective. This is a classic "history written by the victor" narrative. The silence of Comanche people in this book which claims to be all about them is deafening.

Also, I would warn that the book is harrowing to read. It illuminates the tragic and incredibly brutal violence that was inflicted by both sides of the conflict in the Texas territory. But again, Gwynne's writing always makes the white-inflicted violence seem to have reasoning behind it, and the Comanche violence always appears to be due to their aggressive, bloodthirsty natures and unprovoked. Somehow I doubt this is the unbiased reality. Again, Comanche perspective is desperately needed here. I don't deny that Comanches could have been responsible for atrocities against white settlers, but Gwynne never puts those atrocities into perspective, and he doesn't judge white settlers and their actions the same way.

This just underscores the need for a more complete telling of Native history, and bringing Native perspectives into the narrative of our history in America. The fact that SO MANY have read this book and find little to no problems with it shows me that most of us are very ignorant and have only viewed American history from one lens. (less)

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Elizabeth I agree that there is much variety amongst Native cultures and civilizations. I just wanted to try to emphasize how important it is to recognize that...more
Jul 12, 2012 10:11pm

Ben I know this is going to sound kind of odd. I liked that the author made the Comanches out to be human. Too much late literature is either so romantic...more
Jul 23, 2012 07:31am

Aug 24, 2012 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As noted on the blurb on this book's cover, S.C. Gwynne has chronicled a history of the Comanches, "the most powerful Indian tribe in American history." The book contains an excellent history of how the Comanches grew from a nondescript tribe living in the Wind River country (Wyoming), became early adopters of the horse culture of the plains in the early part of the eighteenth century, and moved south, to become the dominant force among Indian and European-based civilizations in an area comprisi...more

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Dec 07, 2011 Erin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: native-american, 2011, history

The fascinating stories of Cynthia Ann Parker and Quanah Parker bookend an endless recounting of battle after battle, in depth tactics (stressed again and again - once is interesting, 10 times, not so much) and all. In finally getting to the last stage of Quanah's life, a small portion of the book, some of the anecdotes have justifications that they are "worth noting" - of course they are, they are the most interesting parts! I do think that Gwynne stresses quite well the blow that reservation l...more The fascinating stories of Cynthia Ann Parker and Quanah Parker bookend an endless recounting of battle after battle, in depth tactics (stressed again and again - once is interesting, 10 times, not so much) and all. In finally getting to the last stage of Quanah's life, a small portion of the book, some of the anecdotes have justifications that they are "worth noting" - of course they are, they are the most interesting parts! I do think that Gwynne stresses quite well the blow that reservation life was to the Indians and how their way of life disappeared. There were other personalities sprinkled throughout, but I feel like I just read one long recounting of a century of battles rather than the stories of people I was hoping for. Not recommended.

An addendum on the racist language/unbalanced nature of the book that other reviewers mention: I had interpreted Gwynne's words as how white people regarded Native Americans, but I also know that I wasn't always able to give 100% of my attention while reading through this so I could very well have misinterpreted or be remembering wrong.

I don't think the book as a whole is skewed completely against Native Americans as some make it out to be, it certainly illustrates how cruel, stupid and racist many of the white people were - especially in the retelling of Cynthia Ann's story. Gwynne stresses again and again how many of the supposed (and reported as such) incredible victories of white forces against Native Americans ended with them limping home, lucky to even be alive.

At the same time, I did often wonder about the veracity of many of the accounts given the truth in the criticism that this seems to be told mainly from white sources. What else was completely false in the accounts he used or colored by outright racism? I think Gwynne did a great job telling the stories of both Cynthia and Quanah, as well as revealing the true stories behind many of the battles rather than what had been reported. At the same time, the Comanches really are made out to be a marauding, bloodthirsty band that killed and raped and plundered just for the joy of it (The book is also full of many forces of Caucasians that love and pointedly seek to kill Indians.). Truth or racism? My own apparent "noble savage" complex made that stuff tough to swallow. I do find myself wishing there was more actual Comanche voices and accounts in the book.(less)

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Aug 12, 2012 David Brickley rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a book that I think every American should read. In the beginning we came into this land and immediately began displacing all of the aboriginal peoples who had dwelled here for many centuries. Yet I would wager that almost nobody knows anything about those peoples other than what watching Wagon Train has showed them. Which leaves out anyone born later than 1960. This is all to say that this book does an excellent job of showing, with most excellent clarity, the dichotomy of a native peopl...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Tim rated it 5 of 5 stars

Every now and then one runs across an historical fiction book that is breathtakingly enlightening.

Commancheria - the millions of acres of treeless plains encompassing northern Mexico to present day Nebraska, the land of the 5 principal bands of the Commanches, a culture centuries behind the development of the eastern Indian tribes, and intertwined with the buffalo herds. Commancheria - a region so forcefully held by the Commanches that the westward tide of Anglo-Saxon expansion was held at a sta...more

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Jul 23, 2010 Curtis Butturff rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, non-fiction

I'm not sure that comparing the fights against the Commanche in Texas to the Sioux Wars is really a topic that will bring a universal agreement as to who fought best and so on. The description of the tactics used by the Commanche in their fights and their horsemanship are identical to accounts of the fights in the northern plains and the skills of the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne.

The Sioux and Commanche share some common things as both were horse tribes, they both drove other tribes from the bes...more

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Oct 18, 2011 Kurt rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's hard to imagine the plains of the central United States as author S. C. Gwynne describes them. However, having seen many Westerns lately, I could put myself there. The level of danger that pervades the everyday lives of both Indians and White settlers is astounding. This book contains very graphic descriptions of individual acts of torture, rape, mutilation, and village massacres. Gwynne builds the story well, and readers will clearly feel the tides turn in favor of the the bluecoats, espec...more

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Jul 08, 2011 Dan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Not knowing much detail of this period of regional US history, I can't attest authoritatively to the accuracy of Empire of the Summer Moon but it feels like a very well researched work. Gwynne tells the stories of both the plains Indians and the white settlers in both a compassionate and critical manner. There is much, sometimes an amazing amount of, detail about the lives on boths sides in the southern great plains and learning the realities of what spawned the American Cowboys and Indians myth...more

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May 01, 2012 Julie Barrett rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished-2012, history

I think this book is misnamed. I went into it thinking I was going to be reading a biography of Quanah, but really the book is a history of all the tribes of the southwest, the history of the Texas Rangers & the history of the state of Texas. Quanah and his mother are only secondary characters.
The author spends an inordinate amount of time discussing battles and military strategies which is not my cup of tea. I prefer a more personal, private focus of history. The author provides a very deta...more I think this book is misnamed. I went into it thinking I was going to be reading a biography of Quanah, but really the book is a history of all the tribes of the southwest, the history of the Texas Rangers & the history of the state of Texas. Quanah and his mother are only secondary characters.
The author spends an inordinate amount of time discussing battles and military strategies which is not my cup of tea. I prefer a more personal, private focus of history. The author provides a very detailed, thorough bibliography, as well as copious footnotes. I now plan to read several of the memoirs & biographies he used in his research. I think they will give me more the picture I am looking for.
The actual day-to-day life of the Comanches was hardcore tough. I kept thinking of the famous quote from the philosopher Hobbes, describing what man's life would be like without the restraining hand of government. It describes the Comanche existence to a T.
"There is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving, and removing, such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
All the Comanche men did was fight, raise horses & hunt Buffalo. The women cleaned the buffaloes & tanned their hides, packed & unpacked the camp, fed the animals, fed the men & children, raised the children, and sometimes fought if the tribe needed it. Yep, basically everything. Sucks to be a woman. Unlike a lot of the other tribes, the Comanche had no arts like pottery or weaving, no formalized religion with leaders, no central chief etc. They focused on war & did a really, really good job of
it.
I had no idea how much torture & gang rape there was back then. One of the reasons the Comanches fought to the death was because they assumed they would be horribly tortured if caught. There was no such thing as surrender, as the white settlers found out. Just very gruesome, over the top torture until death was the fate of any adult man caught by the Comanche. Adult women were gang raped & tortured but kept alive to be sex slaves to the men & work slaves to the women, doing the worst jobs around camp. Babies & toddlers were killed immediately, usually in front of their mother. Prepubescent children were kept alive & adopted into the tribe. The author was not sure how much, if any, torture & rape was done to these children who were adopted. They certainly saw it happen to their family members, even if it did not happen to them.
One of the most interesting aspects of the book to me was how all of this was happening only 150 years ago. I was fascinated by the final chapters of the book which discussed Quanah's life in the white world. Traveling on trains, staying in fancy hotels, hanging out with the President, buying a car, installing a phone in his house etc. Quanah experienced an amazing life - living free on the plains as his ancestors had done for thousands of years before being captured & inserted into the white man's world. I wish the book had been more about him & less a general history.(less)

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Oct 02, 2011 David Witty rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was recommended to me by a friend, who also recommended 'The Worst Hard Time.' He mentioned he thought this book would make a great prelude to anyone else considering reading TWHT. Before the white man could move into the great and fertile plains west of the Mississippi and turn the earth upside down to create one of the greatest man-made catastrophes our country has experienced, the land had to be tamed. And taming the plains took over a hundred years to do. Taming the plains meant no...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Brian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

This was an incredibly interesting story, very well written. I thought Gwynne did a very unbiased report, as best the facts could be gleaned from various sources. He pointed out several myths and misconceptions and did his best to provided evidence to the contrary. He didn't go out with the mission to uncover misconceptions, but when he found facts to the contrary, he would list several sources to support his belief. It's interesting to note that old western movies with the Calvary coming to the...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Keri rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is an AWESOME book! I LOVE LOVE LOVEd it! My mind has been blown away by the history of my land. I am not Native American, but I am from the lands of the Comanche peoples. My blood runs red like the Oklahoma dirt, and now I know why. S.C Gwynne takes actual historical interviews and newspaper clippings (daily life, living conditions, afterlife beliefs, kidnap, murder, torture, etc) as the framework of the book, but then somehow manages to make it easy to read like a fictional work of art. I...more This is an AWESOME book! I LOVE LOVE LOVEd it! My mind has been blown away by the history of my land. I am not Native American, but I am from the lands of the Comanche peoples. My blood runs red like the Oklahoma dirt, and now I know why. S.C Gwynne takes actual historical interviews and newspaper clippings (daily life, living conditions, afterlife beliefs, kidnap, murder, torture, etc) as the framework of the book, but then somehow manages to make it easy to read like a fictional work of art. I mean the non-fiction is plentiful and accounts for 90% of the work. It alone is sensational - like listening to Grandpa relate the stories on the plains in firsthand account, but what really helps, is the great writing style. It's so easy to follow, not your typical "history" book with facts and details.

Do you know why the middle of the American map had such little development for so long in the history of the United States? Why the East and West Coasts bragged of such soaring populations and cities while the middle was a no-man's land? Because the largest, most fierce and most advanced calvary in the world blocked the middle of America. It was so feared and advanced that it wasn't until after the Civil War that the US military finally had enough weaponry to take on the Comanches. This book explains the ferocity and heart of a people I had heard about in my childhood, but couldn't possibly understand. Their ways sound cruel to my 21st century delicate nature, but even now, as I envision trying to live a life back then, growing up in Oklahoma or the border of, I find my heartbeat racing at the thought of the invading "neighbors." Of course the true irony is that I, the white person, am the invader, and we have broken so many rules for expansion, and forced so many other tribes into such a small area of America. What happens when you encroach onto the hunting lands of a people so steeped in a war history it made the US war history look like a baby (at that time)?

Read this book to find out! It's worth it.
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Feb 16, 2013 DW rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: good-to-know, pulitzer

So I thought the title "Empire of the Summer Moon" sounded poetic ... boy was I wrong. Apparently the full moon in summer is when the Comanches went on raiding parties to torture, rape, kill, and mutilate the bodies of people (whites and other Indian tribes) and steal their horses. Many of the descriptions were sickening.

The book has interesting characters, like Cynthia Ann Parker, who was kidnapped by Comanches at age 9 (after watching her family be killed), "rescued" from them as an adult, and...more So I thought the title "Empire of the Summer Moon" sounded poetic ... boy was I wrong. Apparently the full moon in summer is when the Comanches went on raiding parties to torture, rape, kill, and mutilate the bodies of people (whites and other Indian tribes) and steal their horses. Many of the descriptions were sickening.

The book has interesting characters, like Cynthia Ann Parker, who was kidnapped by Comanches at age 9 (after watching her family be killed), "rescued" from them as an adult, and was so miserable living with whites that she basically died of grief. My favorite character was Ranald Slidell Mackenzie, the soldier who finally defeated the Comanches. He's described as "dazzlingly competent," "recklessly brave," and "scrupulously fair." Also irritable and "brutally demanding," probably because of debilitating battle wounds that he never fully recovered from. And of course Quanah himself is fascinating; he was amazingly effective in battle but also became a popular and effective leader after his tribe was forced onto the reservation when he was 28.

This book gave me a greater appreciation for the complexity of the "white vs. Indian" issue (as in, I wasn't rooting for either side because they were both despicable). Commanches were kicked around by other tribes until they got horses around 1700ish, and then they became brilliant horsemen and started winning fights. Their warrior culture meant that if the whites hadn't been trying to take their land, Commanches would have been murdering people from other tribes. Torture, rape, and murder of non-combatants was just their way of life.

Then the US government came in and exterminated Indians and drove them onto reservations where they cheated and lied to them. So nobody comes out of this story looking good. What particularly struck me was this pattern: after the Comanches raided a white settlement, whites would form a "punitive expedition" and slaughter people from an unrelated tribe who were already cooperating with the whites, just because that's who they stumbled across first.

One point I found interesting: bouncing around on horseback made the Commanches less fertile, and adults kept dying in battle, so it made sense for them to adopt captive children into the tribe. Even though these children saw their families brutally murdered or raped in front of them, after that they were treated well and many of them preferred to stay with their adopted families when given the choice to leave.

Anyways, three stars because the book was too bloody for my taste (it's mostly war, punctuated by the wholesale slaughter of the plains buffalo, and eventually captured herds of horses). Also, there are odd incomplete sentences that are appropriate for informal writing but seem out of place in such a well-researched and footnoted book. And several times the antecedents of pronouns were unclear, which was also unexpected in a published book.(less)

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Feb 11, 2013 Tom R. rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book may have more fascinating facts that I'd never heard before than just about any other book I've ever read.
I knew virtually nothing about the Comanche tribe before reading it -- and man do they have a fascinating history!
They were an unimportant tribe until the horse came along. They learned how to ride and fight from horses better than anyone else, and as a result became a tribe feared by the white man and other American Indians for hundreds of years.
A relatively small number of them a...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Littleoddme rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 04, 2013 happy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-general

This a history of the Comanches and a semi biography of Quanah Parker, their last great chief.
Very good read. If you are at all interested in the history of the West, I would highly recommend this.

Some interesting facts

(view spoiler)...more

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Dec 30, 2012 Ms.pegasus rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone interested in American history, or western fiction

Shelves: history, nonfiction, the-american-west

Gwynne frames this history of the Comanche with the remarkable and parallel tragedy of Cynthia Ann Parker. In 1836 at the age of 9, she was abducted during the course of a raid. She married a warrior, Peta Nacona, resisted attempts to restore her to the Parker family, and bore 3 children before being recaptured in 1860. She died a decade later in white society, six years after the death of her young daughter Prairie Flower, and without knowing the fate of her two sons. One of those sons was Quan...more Gwynne frames this history of the Comanche with the remarkable and parallel tragedy of Cynthia Ann Parker. In 1836 at the age of 9, she was abducted during the course of a raid. She married a warrior, Peta Nacona, resisted attempts to restore her to the Parker family, and bore 3 children before being recaptured in 1860. She died a decade later in white society, six years after the death of her young daughter Prairie Flower, and without knowing the fate of her two sons. One of those sons was Quanah who was 12 years old when separated from his mother. Quanah, despite his mixed blood, became a major Comanche war leader. In 1875 he finally brought his band in for surrender and re-invented himself to fit into white society – a bridge between two worlds.

Gwynne begins his story in 1871, but moves fluidly through time, going back, first to the Spanish and then to the Mexican occupation of the southwest territory. His gift as a historian is in tracing the consequences of well-known events to form a linked narrative. We all know that horses were reintroduced to the Americas by the Spanish. Gwynne notes how these particular horses were fortuitously well-adapted to flourish on the American plains. They were the descendants of hardy desert-dwelling Arabians: Small, intelligent, able to forage from the tough plains vegetation, and swift. He pegs 1625-1750 as the rise of the plains Indian horse culture, but the period was punctuated by two major events. In 1680 the “Pueblo Revolt” by the Apaches temporarily drove out the Spanish, liberating their livestock, including horses. By 1700 the “Great Horse Dispersal” had resulted in a cultural revolution on the plains. The Comanche had learned not only to ride, capture and tame horses, but also to breed them. They were transformed from a marginal northern collection of bands into a warrior culture of raiders who decimated non-horse and semi-agricultural bands including the Apache, who were pushed into the rocky arid mountains of Arizona.

The tragedy Gwynne chronicles is not one of sadness but of inevitability. Comanche society relied on a spiritual foundation of raiding and an economic one of hunting buffalo. Although it took nearly half a century, both pillars were toppled. Their raids created numerous Indian enemies only too happy to channel tribal hatred and lust for vengeance into aiding the Texans. The Civil War provided only a temporary hiatus as military resources used to fight Indians were diverted to the East, and the Comanche succeeded in pushing the frontier eastward. Cultural collapse had already set in, however. Smallpox (1816 and 1839) and cholera (1849), spread by the California gold rush, reduced Indian populations. Between 1872 and 1874 the buffalo herds had been destroyed. General Sherman observed that the slaughter of the herds had “done...more to settle the vexed Indian question than the entire regular army has done in the last thirty years....They are destroying the Indians' commissary....For the sake of a lasting peace, let them kill, skin and sell until the buffaloes are exterminated.” It's a chilling comment on massive and wasteful slaughter. As Gwynne grimly observes: “Killing the Indians' food was not just an accident of commerce; it was a deliberate political act.”

The weakest part of his narrative is the military history of Texas. Extensive histories of battles, raids, tactics and intervention of both good and bad luck cover much of the bulk of this book. His attempts to find watershed moments in these events felt forced. On the other hand the ineptitude of the Federal forces, and the character of both the Texan settlers and the Rangers shed some insight on the modern-day Texas ethos.

Despite this horror-filled history, Gwynne has an ear for good stories. Of the US Army efforts to stop the Comanches he offers: “The only way the Indians could ever be in danger from these soldiers, observed one Texas Ranger, was if their ridiculous appearance and ungainly horsemanship caused the Indians to laugh themselves to death. 'It was rather an unfortunate experiment to mount infantry soldiers,' write a Ranger captain, 'many of whom had never been on horse in their lives, to operate against the best horsemen in the United States – the Comanche. Yet the United States Army tried it.'”

Gwynne also recounts how Quanah, after his surrender, figured out the very American concept of protection rackets. Ranchers routinely infringed on Indian grazing lands. Rather than resist, Quanah organized groups of armed Comanches who would offer “protection” in return for beef. That “protection” included safety from midnight stampedes, as well as guidance to water and trails.

This is a serious historical study of the 19th century Texas frontier. It offers glimpses of ethnography, politics and geography through the almost holographic shades of participants such as Cynthia Ann Parker, Quanah, Jack Coffee Hays and Ranald Slidell MacKenzie. Since Larry McMurtry wrote the novel COMANCHE MOON, I'm motivated to re-read it with this deeper historical perception. (less)

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Dec 25, 2012 Dan rated it 5 of 5 stars

I first encountered the Comanche as a specific and terrifying force in Robert Caro's writings about LBJ's pioneer ancestors. I was surprised to learn that Comanche raids were frequent in Texas well into the 1870s. I made a mental note to learn more about them, and when I saw this book on the Pulitzer short list, I knew I wanted to read it.

You'll learn all about the Comanche by reading this. Some highlights:
- The Comanche belong to the same class as the Huns or the Mongols: incredible horsemen wh...more

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Dec 01, 2012 Mike Kershaw rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Parker book I think is better and here I mean more balanced -- although his claims to Commanche 'exceptionalism' would probably find their critics in Sioux, Kiowa and Apache histories. He demythologizes the various opponents (Indians, Texas Rangers and US Cavalry), and gives an unvarnished account of the Indian lives (low birth rates, high mortality, brutal lifestyles -- ie a primitive culture) in particular. Parker's mother had been captured in a raid on the frontier and her fate is a centr...more

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Nov 01, 2012 Erik Larson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Holy Shit!!! Sorry if the opening statement is offensive, but if you are offended by it, then this book is NOT for you. Very graphically detailed. I read it almost a year ago and it still haunts my dreams. The Author painstakingly detailed account of the Comanche’s is remarkable to say the least. First the disclaimer: This book is riddled with violent rape, unimaginable torture, Bloodshed, and unbelievable detail of humanity at its worst.
Why did I give it 5 stars? Without a doubt, this is the mo...more

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Oct 29, 2012 Danny rated it 5 of 5 stars

S.C.Gwynne put together a very tight, entertaining and factual story line of the greatest, most feared warrior tribe of Indians in the Americas. Gwynne details the Comanche and his rise to fame as the most feared of all the plains tribes who were the first to tame the horse and integrate it totally into their society as none other, thus allowing them to control the vast area of land from Mexico in the south, north to Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, eastern New Mexico and much of western Texas. The st...more

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Oct 09, 2012 Therra Cat rated it 5 of 5 stars

Quite simply one of the best books on American history that I have ever read. Yes, this book is about the ever-astonishing Quanah Parker and his very misunderstood mother Cynthia, but what it's really about is the final push to settle the West by whites and how the Comanches, as a tribe, almost single-handedly held that push off for decades. When the Comanche nation finally falls, it's about the opening up of a whole section of the country for "progress". The West would never be the same again....more

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Sep 26, 2012 Regina Lindsey rated it 4 of 5 stars

As the title states, Gwynne chronicles the rise and fall the Comanche tribe (nationa is apparently inappropriate when speaking about Comanches) beginning in the 1600’s when horses were introduced to North America, makes the case for why the Comanches became so powerful, explores reasons for their decline, and accounts for the time Cynthia Ann Parker spent with them after she was taken captive at nine-years old.

I was drawn to the book because, thanks to our State’s 8th grade curriculum, I am fa...more As the title states, Gwynne chronicles the rise and fall the Comanche tribe (nationa is apparently inappropriate when speaking about Comanches) beginning in the 1600’s when horses were introduced to North America, makes the case for why the Comanches became so powerful, explores reasons for their decline, and accounts for the time Cynthia Ann Parker spent with them after she was taken captive at nine-years old.

I was drawn to the book because, thanks to our State’s 8th grade curriculum, I am familiar with the story of Cynthia Ann, her “captivity”, her marriage to Peta Necona, her refusal to return to “civilization” voluntarily, and her eventual “repatriation” to her family. I think I always assumed Cynthia Ann was suffering from some sort of Stockholm syndrome, but Gwynne makes the case that Parker truly assimilated into the tribe paralleling the experience of other children taken captive by Comanches, adopted into families within the tribe, and eventually returning to White settlement. While adult captives were treated brutally, as evidenced in Cynthia Ann’s aunt’s diary, children fared much better. Gwynne asserts this reason for this was a low birth rate for this tribe and a need to expand the family base. It turns out Cynthia Ann’s life truly was a tragedy. While her family relentlessly tried to locate her after the raid on her home, even calling upon a friendship with President Sam Houston, when she was eventually returned the reunion was far from what any of them hoped for. Parker was a prisoner once again. “We will never know how Cynthia Ann Parker felt in the weeks and months after her capture by Sul Ross. There are so few comparable events in American history but it was painfully apparent from the earliest days that the real tragedy in her life was not her first captivity but her second. White men never quite grasped this. The event that destroyed her life was not the raid at Parker’s Fort in 1836 but her miraculous and much-celebrated “rescue” at Mule Creek in 1860.” (pg 181)

Gwynne made an interesting comparison between how New Mexico and Texas engaged the Comanches, In New Mexico, “What Anza did next was equally unconventional. Other governors flush with success, would likely have tried to destroy the rest of the Comanches, in spite of the fact that there were more than twenty thousand of them on the plains (or, according to Anza’s own inflated estimate, thirty thousand). But Anza was not trying to beat the Comanches, just scare them enough so that a diplomatic accommodation could be made. Considering what happened in New Mexico and what was even now happening in Texas, he had what sounded like a wildly implausible goal: He wanted to make friends and allies of them. This he did. He gathered Comanche chiefs for peace talks, insisting that he speak with all of the bands that touched the western perimeter of the plains, and eventually insisting on appointing a single chief to speak for all the bands, something that had never happened before. Anza treated the Comanches as equals, did not threaten their hunting grounds, and refused to try to declare sovereignty over them. He offered them trade. They liked and respected him. In one of the more remarkable diplomatic pirouettes ever seen on the border Anza then managed to concoct an overweening solution to all his problems. “ (pg 710). On the other hand, in Texas President Lamar was calling for an extermination war. Gwynne goes on to note, “The Texans were not the Spanish or the Mexicans. They were tougher, meaner, almost impossible to discourage, willing to take absurd risks to secure themselves a plot of dirt, and temperamentally well suited to the remorseless destruction of native tribes. They did not rely on a cumbersome, heavily mounted, overly bureaucratized, state-sponsored soldiery; they tended to handle things themselves, with volunteers who not only were not scared of Indians but actually liked hunting them down and killing them.” (Pg 82). I was surprised to learn that it was strategy against Native Americans that brought forth the organization we know today as Texas Rangers.

Overall, the book was good and informative. The book was frustratingly scant on notes and the ones that were seemed oddly placed. Secondly, the booked skipped around a lot. So, for me, it took awhile after each chapter began to figure out where we were going. I do recommend the book. I found it to be well developed and insightful into what were the causes of the various stages of the Comanches.

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Jul 06, 2012 Chris Demer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

I was motivated to read this history of Quanah Parker because I picked up a historical novel about this topic last year at a hostel in Montevideo called "Ride the Wind." I have always had a fascination with Native American cultures and history and saw this book in the New York Times Book Review.

This is a most interesting account of the Comanche of the Southern Plains during the 1800s and their conflict with white settlers, ending in the destruction of their way of life. Cynthia Ann Parker was ab...more I was motivated to read this history of Quanah Parker because I picked up a historical novel about this topic last year at a hostel in Montevideo called "Ride the Wind." I have always had a fascination with Native American cultures and history and saw this book in the New York Times Book Review.

This is a most interesting account of the Comanche of the Southern Plains during the 1800s and their conflict with white settlers, ending in the destruction of their way of life. Cynthia Ann Parker was abducted by a war party of Comanches around 1835. She was nine years old. Several of her relatives were killed and others also taken by the Indians. The raid occurred on a compound built by a straight laced religious fanatic and his extended family on the far fringes of the European settlements in Texas. While some captives were held as slaves and severely treated, younger captives such as Cynthia Ann were adopted by loving Comanche families. She adapted to her new home, family and culture, eventually marrying a war "chief" Peta Nokona. They had three children the oldest being Quanah.

The narrative recounts numerous raids on settlers as the Comanche began to see their hunting territories engulfed by white farmers and cattlemen, as well as the attacks of retribution visited upon the Indians by the Army, Texas Rangers and miscellaneous official and unofficial groups of whites. Many of these attacks were totally unsuccessful, and others, touted as being routs of the natives were more like massacres and included purposeful killings of women and children and destruction of camps. Of course the Indians meted out their share of atrocities as well.

As the various bands of Comanches began to suffer severe depopulation and loss of hunting territory, they became easier targets and many eventually moved by necessity to the reservations in Oklahoma Territory. The last war chief to eventually surrender was the brave and skillful warrior and head of the Quohadi band, Quanah Parker.

While he adapted extraordinarily well to his new circumstances, obtaining land, building a large
home and truly becoming somewhat of a businessman, he never stopped caring for his People, providing food,lodging and care to many throughout most of his life.

Unfortunately, his mother, Cynthia Ann was re-captured by a white raiding party and returned to her relatives on the frontier when her sons were about 12 and 10 years old. Unable to make the dramatic adjustment in culture, language and family twice, her death at a young age seemed to be from a broken heart. She so missed her sons and her young daughter, recaptured with her, died from an infectious disease.

I learned so much about the Comanche and their ways from this well-documented book. A marginalized, primitive hunting and gathering tribe from the Wind River area of Wyoming, this unlikely group evolved rapidly in size and stature with the availability of the horse, brought by early Spanish explorers. Their prowess as riders, hunters and raiders was legendary and through these skills, they took command of a huge territory of the southern plains.They were a force to be reckoned with, until they collided headlong with manifest destiny.

I highly recommend this superb book!(less)

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Jun 25, 2012 Thea rated it 4 of 5 stars

I loved this book. But then I love anything to do with the history of the First Nations, their culture, and their habit of kidnapping and adopting white children.

Although this book describes the brutality of the Comanche nation, and that of other native tribes, as well as the utter cruelty of the whites as they decimate first their livelihood, and then their peoples, it also shows how the indigenous peoples over a period of about fifty years completely assimilate into a "north american" culture...more

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Jun 16, 2012 Carol Claussen rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an excellent book about the Comanches. There are fascinating descriptions of horsemanship and guesome descriptions of scalping and torture. Alongside these familiar descriptions of plains Indians, are stories of family life much like any other society. I was fascinated by the difference between people captured as adults who were treated as slaves, and children who were captured and adopted by the tribe. These adopted children became beloved members of the tribe and some even married and...more

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Jun 01, 2012 Potomacwill rated it 4 of 5 stars

Manifest Destiny and the Fate of the Comanche

Stranger and more riveting than myth, Empire of the Summer Moon provides a corrective lens for our vision of how the West was won.

Ingeniously, this well-researched and imminently readable popular history develops the saga from the blood-curdling mid-19th century backstory of the birth of a "half breed" who becomes history's most powerful Comanche War Chief to the last days of the frontier in which the once fierce warrior, Quanah Parker, becomes a mov...more
Manifest Destiny and the Fate of the Comanche

Stranger and more riveting than myth, Empire of the Summer Moon provides a corrective lens for our vision of how the West was won.

Ingeniously, this well-researched and imminently readable popular history develops the saga from the blood-curdling mid-19th century backstory of the birth of a "half breed" who becomes history's most powerful Comanche War Chief to the last days of the frontier in which the once fierce warrior, Quanah Parker, becomes a movie actor, rancher, school board chairman, and friend of Teddy Roosevelt.

In the interim the reader learns how it happened that what had been a stone-age level hunter-gather society became a force able not only to prevent Spain and later Mexico from ever establishing more than a toehold north of the Rio Grande, but also to stave off—even roll back—for many years U.S. efforts to settle lands beyond the 98th meridian, the eastern flank of the Camoncheria, where what we think of as the Old West begins.

in the wild ride to the book's denouement at the dawn of the 20th century, readers encounter an amazing variety of fascinating characters such as Quanah's mother, Cynthia Anne Parker, the "White Squaw," and Isa-tai, a magician/shaman whose claim of possessing a medicine that would make the Comanche impervious to bullets occasions a heart-renting tragedy of wishful thinking.

Another of the book's fascinating story lines involves Ranald (Bad Hand) Mackenzie, the iconic Indian fighter and commander of a renowned regiment of Buffalo or Black Soldiers who eventually befriends War Chief Parker. Moreover, Civil War Generals. William Tecumseh Sherman and Philp Henry Sheridan figure in the narrative, as do Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Grover Cleveland.

Remarkably, Chief Parker lived so close to our own timed that he came to own a car and had one of the first residential telephones in Oklahoma. My one quibble with the author is his occasional resort to such highly charged and imprecise terms as "low barbarians," "pre-moral" and "civilized," as they undermine his obviously concerted effort to present the unvarnished truth.

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Mar 18, 2012 Tripp rated it 5 of 5 stars

I can't decide whether this book is the best nonfiction I have read all year, or whether it is the best in the past few years. This is the sort of book that rises above its subject matter, thanks to narrative pace, blending in of context and the quality of the writing.

The book tells the story of the Comanche Empire which, having mastered horse warfare, defeated all enemies until the late 19th century. It took the US decades to find a way to defeat them. Much of the story is of two cultures clash...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Rick rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Empire of the Summer Moon is a sound and often intriguing popular history of the Comanche Indians. It has the weakness of some popular histories, that of the unsubstantiated claim that turns a sub-title into a carnival barker’s shill. There is no real point of comparison to make such a claim meaningful. If the sub-title needed a superlative to hook readers it might have made the point that the Comanche were the greatest horseback warriors of their day and among the most fierce and successful of...more Empire of the Summer Moon is a sound and often intriguing popular history of the Comanche Indians. It has the weakness of some popular histories, that of the unsubstantiated claim that turns a sub-title into a carnival barker’s shill. There is no real point of comparison to make such a claim meaningful. If the sub-title needed a superlative to hook readers it might have made the point that the Comanche were the greatest horseback warriors of their day and among the most fierce and successful of all time. Gwynne is convincing on that point. Most of his story of the Comanche is told from the perspective of their encounters with whites and Hispanics: Spanish, Mexicans, Texans, and Americans. The western Plains Indians, north and south, underwent a major transformation with the introduction of the horse by the Spanish into their land. Those tribes that were first and best to adapt to the horse became dominant and expanded their hunting and raiding territories dramatically. The Comanche were the quickest and the most skilled adapters, assuming pre-eminence among the southwestern tribes. They also cowered first the Spanish and then the Mexicans and for a time kept the Texans and Americans at bay, despite a compelling push west by teeming tides of opportunists from the east, pioneers, adventurers, ranchers, farmers, railroad men and buffalo hunters.

Quanah Parker, the son of a white woman and a Comanche man, comes of age in the twilight of the Comanche reign. He is a brilliant warrior and warrior chief. After the Civil War when the US, under the military leadership of Sheridan and Sherman, makes a determined effort to bring the Plains tribes to the reservation, Quanah Parker is among the last of the Comanches to come in. Once in, though, he becomes quite the assimilator, building a large house, becoming a great rancher, a fine interview for the newspapers and magazines of the day, a friend to nomad and President (Roosevelt).

Gwynne doesn’t whitewash the brutality of Plains warfare; nor the duplicity of treaty making or the corruption of US representatives responsible for reservation management. He accepts the inevitability of the westward expansion, in fact and manner—given history you can’t argue with the first part but there seems to be some question regarding the second part. Did it have to be the way it went? Could the government control the leakage of people across its borders? (If not, the whining of the descendents of those pioneers about the unsecure borders is at best ironic.) If the warrior tribes needed to be defeated to be subdued and forced onto reservations, couldn’t more have been done to make a transition to a new way of life possible? Gwynne is convincing that if more could have been done there was little interest in doing more but it doesn’t make the question unworthy of further consideration. Despite Parker’s transition from late 19th Century Plains warrior to early 20th Century rancher and celebrity, there was, it seems, only room for a tiny handful of exceptions. The rule was a brutal conflict and as brutal cultural destruction.(less)

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“Worst of all was the blizzard. People from the east or west coasts of America may think they have seen a blizzard. Likely they have not. It is almost exclusively a phenomenon of the plains, and got its name on the plains. It entailed wind-driven snow so dense and temperatures so cold that anyone lost in them on the shelterless plains was as good as dead.” — 1 person liked it

“Forty years ago my mother died," he said. "She captured by Comanches, nine years old. Love Indian and wild life so well, no want to go back to white folks. All same people anyway, God say. I love my mother.” — 1 person liked it

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