Enter Quanah: The Goodnight-Parker Saga begins

“Quanah Parker was the child of a Commanche father, Peta Nocona, and Cynthia Ann Parker, a white woman. Once Charles Goodnight found their encampment, Quanah would lose his mother forever…”

As Indian troubles in Northwest Texas increased, concurrent with heated conflict over the reservations on the upper Brazos and Clear Fork, Goodnight and his neighbors joined forces with Capt. Jack (J. J.) Cureton’s rangers, with whom he served as a scout and guide. It was Goodnight who found the trail leading to Peta Nocona’s Comanche encampment on the Pease River in December 1860 and brought word of it back to Cureton and Capt. Lawrence Sullivan (Sul) Ross. [Goodnight] guided the rangers to the Indian camp and took part in the attack on December 18 in which Cynthia Ann Parker was recaptured.

H. Allen Anderson
Handbook of Texas Online