D. Russell Parks collection on Quanah Parker
Finding aid prepared by Julianna Gil, Student Processing Assistant.
Special Collections & University Archives
© 2017
The UCR Library
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University of California
Riverside, California 92517-5900
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Title: D. Russell Parks collection on Quanah Parker
Date (inclusive): 1966-2010, undated
Collection Number: MS 049
Creator:
Parks, D. Russell
Extent:
0.42 linear feet
(1 box)
Repository:
Rivera Library. Special Collections Department.
Riverside, CA 92517-5900
Abstract: This collection contains stories, articles, newspaper clippings, scholarly journals, booklets, and other material collected
by D. Russell Parks on U.S. Native Americans and Quanah Parker, the last chief of the Comanche tribe. Parks was part of the
same Comanche tribe as Quanah Parker, and was interested in writing an accurate history of Parker and his contributions to
Oklahoma and the Comanche people. The collection consists of information gathered by Parks for his research, as well as biographical
information about Parks and his childhood stories from Indiahoma, Oklahoma.
Languages: The collection is in English.
The collection is open for research.
Copyright Unknown: Some materials in these collections may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). In addition, the reproduction,
and/or commercial use, of some materials may be restricted by gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and
publicity rights, licensing agreement(s), and/or trademark rights. Distribution or reproduction of materials protected by
copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. To the extent other restrictions
apply, permission for distribution or reproduction from the applicable rights holder is also required. Responsibility for
obtaining permissions, and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
[identification of item], [date if possible]. D. Russell Parks collection on Quanah Parker (MS 049). Special Collections &
University Archives, University of California, Riverside.
Gift of Walter Parks, 2010.
Processed by Julianna Gil, Student Processing Assistant, 2017.
Processing of the collection was completed by undergraduate students from the University of California, Riverside as part
of the Special Collections & University Archives Backlog Processing Project started in 2015. This project was funded by the
UCR Library and administed by Jessica Geiser, Collections Management Librarian.
David Russell Parks was born on the Comanche reservation in Indiahoma, Oklahoma, in 1909. In 1925, Parks left Oklahoma after
graduating high school and moved to California with his sister to join the rest of their family. In Southern California, Parks
worked as a teacher, principal, and superintendent for a number of schools in the Orange County area from 1928 to 1970. He
then worked as an educational consultant from 1970 to 1982. He passed away in 1990.
Quanah Parker was born in Elk Valley, Wichita Mountains, Indian Territory, Oklahoma, in 1845 or 1852. He was known as the
"Last Chief of the Comanche," and was the Comanche leader of the Quahadi band of the Comanche people. Parker was son of the
Comanche warrior chief Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, an American captured as a child by Comanches and adopted into their
tribe. He came to prominence during the Red River War, where he led his people against the American forces trying to relocate
multiple tribes from the Southern Plains to reservations in Indian Territory, although he ultimately was forced to surrender
and relocate in 1875 after the extinction of the American bison led the Comanches to have no way of surviving in the plains.
Parker was appointed by the United States federal government as principal chief of the entire Comanche nation, and became
a primary emissary of southwest indigenous Americans to the U.S. legislature, despite never being appointed as chief by his
tribe.
He is also credited as one of the first leaders of the Native American Church movement, and fought for the legal use of peyote
in the movement's religious practices. Parker had seven wives and seventeen children. On February 25, 1911, Quanah Parker
passed away in Quanah Parker Star House, Cache, Oklahoma, and was buried in Chief's Knoll in Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
This collection contains correspondence, newspaper articles, scholarly journals, clippings of newspaper stories, and pamphlets
related to D. Russell Parks' research on Native Americans and Quanah Parker, the last chief of the Comanche tribe. Also included
is biographical information on Parks, as well as stories written by Parks about his childhood in Indiahoma, Oklahoma.
This collection is arranged topically into folders.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog.
Parker, Quanah, 1845?-1911
Biographies (documents)
Comanche Indians -- History
Indiahoma (Okla.)
Indians of North America
Clippings (information artifacts)
Box 1, Folder 1
Biographical Information - D. Russell Parks 1985, 2010
Box 1, Folder 2
Research on Parker 1966, undated
Box 1, Folder 3
Research on Native Americans 1967-1989
Box 1, Folder 4
Correspondence 1969-1987
Box 1, Folder 5
Family Stories undated