Twenty-five years ago, I read the story of Cynthia Anne Parker, the most famous captive in nineteenth-century America. I was devastated by her loss. I contacted museums and libraries to find out everything I could about her (this was before the world of information was only a keystroke away). Her story haunted my heart for more than two decades. In November 2021, I decided to do something about it.
I developed a character inspired by Cynthia, started at the moment of crisis, and wrote a different trajectory. I couldn’t give Cynthia a happy ending, but I could give my character Eyes-Like-Sky a muted happy-ever-after. Eyes-Like-Sky suffers great loss, but that is only the beginning of the story. I offer her the opportunity for healing and a new beginning.
In the real-life account, Cynthia was taken captive by the Comanche at age nine during an attack on her family’s fort in the Texas frontier in 1836. Her father and several other extended family members were killed, and her brother John, her cousin Rachel, and a couple other family members were captured along with her.
Her Aunt Elizabeth was rescued a couple months after the attack. Her cousin Rachel, who had been badly abused by the tribe, was returned a couple of years later and died within a year of her return. John adopted the Comanche lifestyle and lived with the tribe for years before eventually leaving the tribe to farm in Mexico. But Cynthia became Comanche and was an integral part of the tribe for over twenty-four years.
She wed Peta Nocona, a powerful war chief, and had three children with him, including Quanah Parker, the most famous Comanche chief ever. Several times over the decades, traders and Indian agents attempted to ransom her, but she refused to forsake her adopted people, and the tribe refused to trade her.
In December 1860, Texas Rangers and U.S. Cavalry attacked her village and captured her and her baby girl, Prairie Flower (Topsanah), killing everyone else in the village. (There has been significant historical debate about whether her husband was present at the time. Some believe he died defending her. My Comanche sources say he died a couple of years later from a war wound.)
After the soldiers brought her to the fort against her will, one of Cynthia’s uncles came to identify her and took her and Prairie Flower to live with his family. However, Cynthia refused to adapt to the new life that was being forced upon her. She tried to escape on multiple occasions, desperate to find her husband and her sons. One of her uncles finally promised to help her search for her tribe when the Civil War ended.
However, Prairie Flower died, news came that Cynthia’s son Pecos had passed away, as well, and the Civil War dragged on. Cynthia lost hope of ever seeing the only two remaining members of her family again, Nocona and Quanah. Overwhelmed by grief and longing, she sank into a deep depression and eventually died of a broken heart.
Cynthia Ann was a woman torn between cultures, and the narrative of her life has haunted and intrigued me since I learned of her. My heart aches for her loss, and questions flood my mind. Some stories are like that. They stay with you, and this one was all the more indelible because it was true and filled with unknowns.
Thus, Cynthia Ann’s courage, strength, and pain inspired my story of Eyes-Like-Sky and Texas Forsaken. Eyes-Like-Sky’s path is not a happy-ever-after with no thorns along the way. Texas Forsaken is a story of grief and guilt, forgiveness and redemption, and healing.
Originally from Tennessee, Sherry loves to take her readers into the past. A romantic at heart, she is an avid student of the Civil War and the Old West. When she is not busy writing, she is an English professor working to pass on her love of writing to her students. Sherry is an award-winning writer: 2023 Genesis finalist, Maggie finalist, and Crown finalist. She currently resides in Minnesota with her husband of thirty-nine years.