Southwest Oklahoma – Open Space and Return to the Comancheria

I vividly remember an anecdote from S.C. Gwynne’s gripping book Empire of the Summer Moon about Quanah Parker and the Comanche, the “Lords of the Plains” – they were such extraordinary warriors and horseback riders that –

“The European mind simply could not comprehend the distances the average Comanche could travel. The nomadic range of their bands was around 800 miles. Their striking range… was 400 miles. That meant that a Spanish settler or soldier in San Antonio was in grave and immediate danger from a Comanche brave sitting before a fire in the equivalent of modern-day Oklahoma City. [emphasis mine]

It took years before anyone understood that the same tribe that was raiding on the plains of Durango, Mexico, was also riding above the Arkansas River in modern-day Kansas.”

Comanches could easily find their way at high speed across largely featureless plains, and often at night. Even today in Texas, I hear people use the term “Comanche moon” when there is a full, bright moon that over a hundred years ago would presage a terrifying nighttime raid, without any warning.

A recent visit to southwest Oklahoma gave me a chance to see part of the Comancheria (the original Comanche territory) relatively untouched in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, but first I spent some time at the Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center in Lawton / Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

One of the first exhibits I saw was an interactive step-on feature that vividly reminded me of that “grave and immediate danger” quote from Gwynne’s book…

The Museum is a nice mix of artifacts, exhibits, and Comanche-related art works.

One section explains how children are raised, including tribal roles for boys and girls, and anecdotes like a mythical Mopai (owl) who was sometimes used to scare children who were behaving badly. Apparently there was a “Big Cannibal Owl” who lived in the nearby Wichita Mountains and would devour those who misbehaved.

It was no surprise to learn that both boys and girls were put on a horse when very young, and expected to become excellent riders. Boys practiced picking up things from the ground while riding at high speed, to train themselves for when they might need to pick up a fallen fellow warrior and escape during a battle or a hunt.

The bison or buffalo was incredibly important to Comanche life, and there are multiple words in their language for it – a kutsu is in its adult prime, a ta?siwoo is old, and you can tell a ta?siwoo when tracking because it drags its back legs. They used every bit of the bison, including even its dung to make diaper powder for their babies.

I enjoyed the Comanche Code Talker exhibit – another wartime example of the U.S. military using speakers of a Native language, in this case Numurekwa’etuu “Comanche speakers,” as intelligence and communications assets. The 17 Comanche men who enlisted in the U.S. Army as Code Talkers were all from the Lawton, Oklahoma area.

The language that they were forbidden to speak in Indian boarding schools like the Fort Sill Indian School was suddenly a national asset.

There is a full-length video about these Code Talkers on the Comanche Museum YouTube channel, but here is the section of it that plays in the exhibit. I stood there and watched it several times, listening to the (to me) unfamiliar language being applied to military terms (“German sewing machine” was their phrase for a machine gun, and a “turtle” was a tank.)

Here is that clip, but I recommend the whole video, which has interviews with family members and some of the actual Talkers:

There was also a fascinating interactive exhibit about how the Native American Church uses peyote as a sacrament that brings them closer to the Creator. Items are arranged a certain way in the tipi or worship area, and there are very specific requirements for the use of peyote. It is illegal for non-Indians to possess it, and you must be a member in good standing of a bonafide Native American Church chapter, with the right legal paperwork, to buy it.

The Comanche Museum is free, and there is a gift shop that includes lots of craft items (beads, tassels, etc.) for those who create traditional Comanche or other Native clothing and items. When I visited, the Museum staff were strict about vaccination requirements and masking, which I was more than happy to see. Bring your COVID vaccine card.

After the museum, I drove onto the massive Fort Sill Army base to find the Fort Sill Post Cemetery, and the final resting place of Quanah Parker. If you don’t have a military or retiree ID card, get a base pass at the Visitor Center.

Quanah Parker was son of Cynthia Ann Parker, who was captured during an 1836 Comanche raid when she was nine years old. She adopted Comanche ways, living with them for 24 years, marrying Chief Peta Nocona and having three children with him. Her son Quanah was the oldest. Cynthia was recaptured by the Texas Rangers when she was around 34 years old, but she resisted returning to European ways and, sadly, died by starving herself to death in 1871.

Quanah became the last Chief of the Kwahadi or “Antelope” band of Comanche, and he died in 1911 after an extraordinary life, which is covered in Gwynne’s book.

There’s a tie-in to the Native American Church and peyote that I learned about at the Comanche Museum, too. Parker was a proponent of peyote and the old ways of worship, and he said,

“The white man goes into his church and talks about Jesus. The Indian goes into his teepee and talks with Jesus.”

I’m not a member of any particular faith group, but I had to smile a bit at that.

The inscription on Quanah’s marker reads:

“Resting here until day breaks and shadows fall and darkness disappears is Quanah Parker, Last Chief of the Comanches. Born 1852, Died February 23, 1911.”

People have left various items on the gravesite marker, including coins, feathers, and this symbol of today’s Comanche Nation…

Next to Quanah is his mother Cynthia Ann, and his sister Prairie Flower, who died of pneumonia at a young age, plunging her mother into the grief that led her to stop eating.

After paying my respects, I exited Fort Sill and made the quick drive to the entrance of the nearby Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, established in 1901 and one of the oldest in the U.S. National Wildlife Refuge system.

Granite boulder-filled mountains rose up around me, then I was surrounded by rolling grasslands just like the ones the Comanche rode across all those years ago.

Make sure you stop and see if you can spot a few prairie dogs – they make a funny chattering, chirping sound while talking to each other…

The Refuge Visitor Center is closed, hopefully only temporarily because of staffing or pandemic issues, but there’s a little box near the Refuge entrance where you can grab a map guide. It lists campgrounds, fishing/boating areas, and twelve different trails, only two of which are considered Moderate difficulty, and most are only about a half-mile long.

I was surprised by the large number of creeks and lakes. It certainly would have been perfect country for the Comanche to sustain their tribes and horses.

It was pushing towards sunset at that point in the day, and I decided to see if I could drive to the top of the tallest Refuge mountain, Mount Scott, and get back down before dark.

There are plenty of places to see vistas for miles from the top of Mount Scott, and I grabbed a quick selfie in the setting sun once I found an angle that helped the (considerable) wind to blow my hair off of my face.

After a busy day of exploring, I was pretty hungry.

Avoiding indoor dining was a priority for me in the current COVID situation, but the problem was solved by staying in my car and still eating someplace local and interesting – Wayne’s Drive Inn in Lawton, serving up classic drive-in fare since 1950.

The menu was packed with choices, including a “Sissy Cheeseburger” which is what you get when you don’t want mustard or pickles. Mine was good, as were the onion rings and shake.

The waitstaff was cheery and efficient, even though it was a cold night and they were doing a lot of running back and forth delivering orders to cars.

I was running a social media workshop the next day, so I checked into the Apache Casino Hotel in Lawton and happily crashed into my bed.

I’ve had positive experiences with stays at Oklahoma’s tribal casino hotels like the Chickasaw Riverwind Casino Hotel, even though I don’t gamble or see shows there.

It was wonderful to learn about the Comanche at their own tribal museum, experience a little of the Comancheria as it used to be – even seeing a bison minding its business on the grasslands – and pay my respects to Quanah Parker. I’m inspired now to re-read Empire of the Summer Moon after being immersed in some of the places where it happened.

Do you have a favorite place to visit in southwest Oklahoma? Tell us in the comments.

All photos by the author.

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