Quanah Parker Star House

Last updated
Quanah Parker Star House
Quanah Parker Star House.jpg
Exterior view of the Quanah Parker Star House (August 2014)
USA Oklahoma location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Quanah Parker Star House
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Quanah Parker Star House
LocationEagle Park
Cache, Oklahoma
Coordinates 34°38′04″N98°38′30″W / 34.63444°N 98.64167°W / 34.63444; -98.64167 Coordinates: 34°38′04″N98°38′30″W / 34.63444°N 98.64167°W / 34.63444; -98.64167
Builtca 1890
NRHP reference No. 70000532 [1]
Added to NRHPSeptember 29, 1970

The Quanah Parker Star House, with stars painted on its roof, is located in the city of Cache, county of Comanche, in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in Comanche County, Oklahoma, in 1970. [2]

Contents

Background

After Comanche chief Quanah Parker's surrender in 1875, he lived for many years in a reservation tipi. Parker decided that he needed living quarters more befitting his status among the Comanches, and more suitable to his position as a spokesperson for the white cattle owners. In order to accommodate his multiple wives and children, this two-story ten-room clapboard house with ten-foot ceilings and a picket fence was constructed for Parker. Request for financial assistance was denied by the United States Government. Parker's friends in the cattle business, in particular 6666 Ranch owner Samuel Burk Burnett, financed the building of the house, circa 1890. [3]

Construction

The cost of construction was slightly over $2,000 ($48,000 in 2010, adjusted for inflation). In his formal wallpapered dining room with its wood-burning stove, Parker entertained white business associates, celebrities and tribal members alike. Among his celebrated visitors was Theodore Roosevelt. [4] Parker was a founding supporter of the Native American Church. His home was often the scene of practitioners who sought him out for spiritual advice. Parker fed hungry tribal members in his home and was known to never turn away anyone. [5]

After Parker's death

The structure was purchased by his daughter Laura Neda Parker Birdsong upon Parker's 1911 death. Originally located near the Wichita Mountains north of Cache on Fort Sill's west range, Birdsong moved the house from its original location to Cache and sold it to Herbert Woesner in 1958. Although no one can be certain why Parker painted the stars on his roof, lore has it that he meant it as a display of rank and importance equal to a military general. The current owner, Woesner's nephew Wayne Gipson, offered the explanation told to him by Parker's descendants that the Chief had been to Washington D.C. to speak with Theodore Roosevelt, and while there had stayed in a "five star hotel". Parker had 10 stars painted on his roof to explain to Roosevelt upon his arrival that he would have better accommodations with ten stars instead of five. [6] The Preservation Oklahoma organization has listed the Star House as endangered. [7]

Preservation

The Star House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is also on Oklahoma's list of Most Endangered Historic Places. A storm in 2015 further damaged the already crumbling house, but stimulated efforts to preserve and reconstruct it, although preservation efforts are complicated by the fact that the house is in private ownership. A grant from the National trust for Historic Preservation enabled an assessment of the condition of the house and developed a plan to maintain it. [8] The cost of restoring the house was estimated at more than one million dollars. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comanche</span> Plains Native North American tribe

The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in Lawton, Oklahoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cache, Oklahoma</span> City in Oklahoma, United States

Cache is a city in Comanche County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,796 at the 2010 census. It is an exurb included in the Lawton, Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is the location of Star House, the home of the Comanche chief Quanah Parker, the major leader of the Quahadi Comanche in the years of Indian Wars and transition to reservation life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Parker massacre</span> 1836 American Indian attack

The Fort Parker massacre, also known as the Fort Parker raid, was an event in which a group of Texian colonists were killed in an attack by a contingent of Comanche, Kiowa, Caddo, and Wichita raiders at Fort Parker on May 19, 1836. During the attack, Cynthia Ann Parker, then 9-years-old, was captured and spent most of the rest of her life within the Comanche Nation, later marrying Chief Peta Nocona and giving birth to a son, Quanah Parker, who became a prominent leader of the Comanches and a war leader during the Red River War of 1874–75. Cynthia’s brother John Richard Parker was also captured and remained with the Comanches for six years before his release was negotiated. He was unable to readapt to Western society and chose to return to the Comanche Nation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quanah Parker</span> Native American Indian leader, Comanche (c. 1845–1911)

Quanah Parker was a war leader of the Kwahadi ("Antelope") band of the Comanche Nation. He was likely born into the Nokoni ("Wanderers") band of Tabby-nocca and grew up among the Kwahadis, the son of Kwahadi Comanche chief Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, an Anglo-American who had been abducted as a nine-year-old child and assimilated into the Nokoni tribe. Following the apprehension of several Kiowa chiefs in 1871, Quanah Parker emerged as a dominant figure in the Red River War, clashing repeatedly with Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie. With European-Americans hunting American bison, the Comanches' primary sustenance, into near extinction, Quanah Parker eventually surrendered and peaceably led the Kwahadi to the reservation at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cynthia Ann Parker</span> American kidnapped by Comanche Indians (1827–1871)

Cynthia Ann Parker, also known as Naduah, was a white woman who was notable for having been captured during the Fort Parker massacre at about age nine, by a Comanche war band and adopted into the tribe. Twenty-four years later she was discovered and taken captive by Texas Rangers, at approximately age 33, and unwillingly taken back to European-American society. Her Comanche name means "someone found" in English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Goodnight</span> American rancher in the Texas Panhandle (1836-1929)

Charles Goodnight, also known as Charlie Goodnight, was a rancher in the American West. In 1955, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comanche Wars</span> Conflicts over Comanche lands, 1706 to 1870s

The Comanche Wars were a series of armed conflicts fought between Comanche peoples and Spanish, Mexican, and American militaries and civilians in the United States and Mexico from as early as 1706 until at least the mid-1870s. The Comanche were the Native American inhabitants of a large area known as Comancheria, which stretched across much of the southern Great Plains from Colorado and Kansas in the north through Oklahoma, Texas, and eastern New Mexico and into the Mexican state of Chihuahua in the south. For more than 150 years, the Comanche were the dominant native tribe in the region, known as “the Lords of the Southern Plains”, though they also shared parts of Comancheria with the Wichita, Kiowa, and Kiowa Apache and, after 1840, the southern Cheyenne and Arapaho.

The Comanche campaign is a general term for military operations by the United States government against the Comanche tribe in the newly settled west. Between 1867 and 1875, military units fought against the Comanche people in a series of expeditions and campaigns until the Comanche surrendered and relocated to a reservation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Pasture</span>

The Big Pasture was 488,000 acres (1,975 km2) of prairie land, in what is now southwestern Oklahoma. The land had been reserved for grazing use by the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache tribes after their reserve was opened for settlement by a lottery conducted during June through August 1901. The tribes, however, leased most of the land out to large ranchers and it became known as Big Pasture. The Big Pasture was maintained for grazing until June 5, 1906, when Congress passed an act requiring that it be disposed of by allotting 160 acres (0.6 km2), in severalty, to each child born into the tribes after the act of 1900. The remaining land was sold by sealed bid in December 1906 and the proceeds placed in the U.S. Treasury for the tribes. This was the last large tract of land opened for settlement in Oklahoma Territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Pease River</span> Raid against Comanche Indians by Texas Rangers and militia

The Battle of Pease River occurred on December 18, 1860, near the present-day town of Margaret, Texas in Foard County, Texas, United States. The town is located between Crowell and Vernon within sight of the Medicine Mounds just outside present-day Quanah, Texas.

The Texas–Indian wars were a series of conflicts between settlers in Texas and the Southern Plains Indians during the 19th-century. Conflict between the Plains Indians and the Spanish began before other European and Anglo-American settlers were encouraged—first by Spain and then by the newly Independent Mexican government—to colonize Texas in order to provide a protective-settlement buffer in Texas between the Plains Indians and the rest of Mexico. As a consequence, conflict between Anglo-American settlers and Plains Indians occurred during the Texas colonial period as part of Mexico. The conflicts continued after Texas secured its independence from Mexico in 1836 and did not end until 30 years after Texas became a state of the United States, when in 1875 the last free band of Plains Indians, the Comanches led by Quahadi warrior Quanah Parker, surrendered and moved to the Fort Sill reservation in Oklahoma.

The Rio Grande Ranch Headquarters Historic District is a historic one-story residence located 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Okay in Wagoner County, Oklahoma. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places September 9, 1992. The site's Period of Significance is 1910 to 1935, and it qualified for listing under NRHP criteria A and C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theodore Roosevelt's Maltese Cross Cabin</span> Cabin used by Theodore Roosevelt

The Maltese Cross Cabin is a cabin used by Theodore Roosevelt, before he was President. The cabin is currently located at the visitor center at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, just outside the town of Medora, North Dakota.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elkhorn Ranch</span> United States historic center

The Elkhorn Ranch was established by Theodore Roosevelt on the banks of the Little Missouri River 35 miles north of Medora, North Dakota in the summer of 1884. Roosevelt hired Bill Sewall and Wilmot Dow, two Maine woodsmen, to run the ranch. Sewall and Dow built the ranch house, "a long, low house of logs," in the winter of 1884–1885.

The History of Lawton, Oklahoma refers to the history of the southwestern Oklahoma city of Lawton, Oklahoma. Lawton's history starts with opening of American Indian reservation lands in the early 1900s and has seen population and economic growth throughout the 20th Century due to its proximity with Fort Sill.

Adobe Walls is a ghost town in Hutchinson County, 17 miles (27 km) northeast of Stinnett, in the U.S. state of Texas. It was established in 1843 as a trading post for buffalo hunters and local Native American trade in the vicinity of the Canadian River. It later became a ranching community. Historically, Adobe Walls is the site of two decisive battles between Native Americans and settlers. In November 1864 First Battle of Adobe Walls, Native Americans successfully repelled attacking troops led by Kit Carson. Ten years later, on June 27, 1874, known as the Second Battle of Adobe Walls, civilians at the Adobe Walls trading post successfully fought off an attack by a war party of mainly Comanche and Cheyenne warriors led by the Comanche chief Quanah Parker. The second battle led to a military campaign which resulted in Indian relocation to Indian Territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Couts Burnett</span>

Mary Couts Burnett was a wealthy philanthropist who donated the bulk of her estate to Texas Christian University. The endowment was used to establish the Mary Couts Burnett Library at the university.

<i>Daughter of Dawn</i> 1920 film

The Daughter of Dawn is a 1920 American silent Western film. It is 83 minutes long and may be the only silent film ever made with an entirely Native American cast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie C. Cox</span> Native American activist (1920-2005)

Marie C. Cox (1920-2005) was a Comanche activist who worked on legislation for Native American children. She received many accolades for her efforts including the 1974 Indian Leadership Award from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and state recognition that same year as the Outstanding Citizen of Oklahoma from Governor David Hall. She was named as an Outstanding Indian Woman of 1977 by the North American Indian Women's Association, and served on the National Advisory Council on Indian Education from 1983 to 1990. In 1993, she was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame for her work with foster children and the founding of the North American Indian Women's Association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ketch Ranch House (Oklahoma)</span> Bungalow in Oklahoma, United States of America

Ketch Ranch House or Ketch Ranch was private property located in the Wichita Mountains of Southwestern Oklahoma. The ranch was established as a working ranch and vacation home for Ada May Ketch and Frank Levant Ketch during the early 1920s. The Wichita Mountain ranch offered a guest house, barn, smokehouse, springhouse, and root cellar while providing outdoor experiences with horseback riding, boating, and fishing at Ketch Lake which was close proximity of 1 mile (1.6 km) from the Ketch Ranch House.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. "NRHP Quanah Parker Star House". American Dreams Inc. Retrieved 17 November 2011.
  3. Four Sixes RanchTSHA Handbook of Texas
  4. Roosevelt's Wolf Hunt Archived October 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine , Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
  5. Gwynne, S.C (2010). Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History . Scribner. pp.  301–304. ISBN   978-1-4165-9105-4.
  6. "Quanah Parker Star House". National Park Service. Retrieved 17 November 2011.
  7. "Star House". Preservation Oklahoma Inc. Archived from the original on February 1, 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2011.
  8. Miller, Stuart, "In Oklahoma, Efforts to Save House of Last Comanche Chief," The New York Times, July 17, 2015
  9. "Quanah Parker's House Joins Geronimo's Teepee". January 23, 2017. Retrieved 1 November 2017.

Bibliography