September 9, 2025 • 9 mins
It’s 1836 and 8 year old Cynthia Ann Parker is kidnapped by Comanche warriors in Texas. But as time goes by she has so totally assimilated into the tribal life, that she has no interest in returning home. Then after 24 years . . she’s kidnapped again!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Okay, Imagine your life has lived one way until you're
eight years old, then you're kidnapped and adopted into a
completely different society. It happened to a little girl named
Cynthia Ann Parker in the early eighteen hundreds. How it
all came down, what she went through as a child
and then as a grown woman embracing a whole new
(00:21):
identity is mind blowing. I'm Patty Steele, kidnapped from a
loving family, not once, but twice. That's next on the backstory.
The backstory is back, all right, Close your eyes and
picture this. It's a beautiful spring morning in May, in
(00:41):
what is now Texas. It's eighteen thirty six. Cynthia Anne Parker,
an eight year old with blonde hair and blue eyes,
is playing outside behind the gates built to protect Fort Parker,
a settlement built by her grandfather several years earlier. But
every ordinary thing she's doing, every step, every breath, every
(01:02):
chore like feeding chickens and helping with laundry and cooking,
is about to change forever. Suddenly, like out of nowhere,
The morning is filled with noise, galloping horses, war cries,
screaming women and children. As hundreds of Comanche warriors and
their allies materialize from the tall grass and pour into
(01:24):
the log fort. Before there's even time to secure the gate.
It happens like lightning. Cynthia's brother shouts at her to run,
and now the little girl is running, running, but not
fast enough. Shots ring out, cracking through the air, and
then it's over, blood bodies and dust drifting across the scene.
(01:46):
That's when those that remain alive realize that Cynthia Anne
is gone, kidnapped by the Comanches along with her five
year old brother and other extended family members. Later, Cynthia
being taken the smell of the pony they'd put her on,
and how they treated her. Not cruel, but not gentle,
(02:07):
she said, they were just sure. When they arrived at
the camp, the Native American children looked at Cynthia, fascinated
with her blue eyes, which they say looks like the
river under their blonde hair that looks like wheat. The
tribe decides she will be adopted in their society. A
family that has lost someone, a mother, sister, daughter takes
(02:30):
on a child. Cynthia's old name is taken away and
she gets a new one. In this case, Nodua translated
as someone found. She learns Comanche words first, and then
Comanche jokes, which is when you know a language has
become your own. And she learns Comanche work, how to
snare a rabbit, how to tana hide until it's soft
(02:53):
and supple, how to twist sinew into thread, how to
smoke meat. Nadua learns to braid her hair differently. She
learns to ride bareback. She learns to shoot with a
bow and arrow, and to watch the horizon the way
Comanche always watch the horizon. Does she remember Fort Parker,
her mother's voice, her brother's face. Probably less and less
(03:16):
every day, because every day replaces some of yesterday. There's
food to grind, water to carry, hides to smoke, nature's
medicine to understand, and stories about her new culture to learn.
Years pass and she stops thinking about how to be Comanche.
She is Comanche, and then she falls in love. He
(03:38):
is a powerful member of the tribe Peeda Nakona Cynthia.
Now Nadua is no longer a little girl. She has
coppery golden hair and blue eyes, but she carries herself
like a Comanche woman, and the two marry. They have children,
a son called Conna and another called Pekos. They also
(03:59):
have a little girl, Topsana, which means Prairie Flower in English.
While her little brother and several others captured that day
in eighteen thirty six were eventually ransomed back to the
family fairly quickly. For Cynthia, it was a new life
and she loved it. But as she tends to the
children and to the fires that smoke and cook their food,
(04:21):
there are people many miles away still trying to find her,
especially after other family members had been returned. Now it's
the winter of eighteen sixty and Nodua and Prairie Flower
are in a small winter camp. There are families and
a few warriors with the herd nearby. The men who
guard the camp are enough to fight off wolves and raiders,
(04:42):
but they are not enough for what's coming up on
the ridge. Comes a line of men, their Texas Rangers
and US cavalry, and they move with deadly purpose. What
happens next is described by some as a skirmish and
by others as a battle or even a mass. For Nadua,
it's an inverse repeat of what happened to her twenty
(05:05):
four years earlier. The rangers suddenly storm in and begin shooting.
She takes her baby daughter, Prairie Flower, and tries to
grab for a pony, but she can't get away. According
to some reports, she bears her breasts and yells Americano
several times. The rangers stop shooting and surround her. They
(05:25):
report later that they had killed her husband in that battle.
They described Nadua as being covered in buffalo grease from
handling the meat, but they see her light hair and
blue eyes. They question her and say she speaks in
broken English. That's not a surprise, because having been taken
at age eight and only speaking Comanche for the next
(05:45):
twenty four years, that's what she knew. They say. She
cried over her husband's dead body, as well as that
of another very young warrior she had helped to raise.
He had also been the son of a captured white
woman who had died years earth. Nodua, again being called Cynthia,
along with her daughter, is taken to her uncle's home
(06:06):
in Texas. The nation is fascinated by her story. The
newspapers run triumphant headlines. The state holds her up like
some sort of an emblem, proof that the Frontier can
be tamed, that what was taken can be taken back,
and the Texas legislature gives her a forty four hundred
acre piece of land, as well as a yearly stipend.
(06:29):
Her uncles are made her legal guardians. But the problem
is she hates this new life. She doesn't like the
attention she gets nor the way of life she's expected
to adapt to. Soon, she goes to live with her
surviving sister, but she misses her sons, who are back
with the tribe, and she worries about them. She escapes
(06:50):
at least once, but is always brought back and told
she must think of her little girl and her future,
that the Comanche are dying out. Then in eighteen sixty four,
her little girl catches the flu. She soon dies of pneumonia.
Nadua's grief stricken. Her little daughter is dead, and she
misses her son's and the Comanchee way of life. Soon
(07:14):
she starts refusing food and water. Her health continues to
go downhill, and while there's some question about the year
of her death, it's pretty certain that she passed in
either eighteen seventy or eighteen seventy one. Nadua or Cynthia
Ann Parker was about forty two years old when she died.
Her son Conna had become the last free chief of
(07:36):
the Comanche, and forty years later, in nineteen ten, he
had his mother's remains moved to be nearer to him.
When he died the following year, he was buried next
to her, and in nineteen fifty seven, the state of
Texas had the body of Nadua's daughter, Prairie Flower, moved
to a grave next to her mother and brother. But
(07:58):
Nodua never saw her sons again, nor was she ever
able to return to the Comanche life that she loved.
I hope you like the Backstory with Patty Steele. Please
leave a review and I would love it if you
would subscribe or follow for free to get new episodes
delivered automatically. Also feel free to DM me if you
have a story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook,
(08:21):
It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm
Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,
the Elvis Durant Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer
is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new
(08:42):
episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out
to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram
at real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.
Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the
pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.
Okay, Imagine your life has lived one way until you're
eight years old, then you're kidnapped and adopted into a
completely different society. It happened to a little girl named
Cynthia Ann Parker in the early eighteen hundreds. How it
all came down, what she went through as a child
and then as a grown woman embracing a whole new
(00:21):
identity is mind blowing. I'm Patty Steele, kidnapped from a
loving family, not once, but twice. That's next on the backstory.
The backstory is back, all right, Close your eyes and
picture this. It's a beautiful spring morning in May, in
(00:41):
what is now Texas. It's eighteen thirty six. Cynthia Anne Parker,
an eight year old with blonde hair and blue eyes,
is playing outside behind the gates built to protect Fort Parker,
a settlement built by her grandfather several years earlier. But
every ordinary thing she's doing, every step, every breath, every
(01:02):
chore like feeding chickens and helping with laundry and cooking,
is about to change forever. Suddenly, like out of nowhere,
The morning is filled with noise, galloping horses, war cries,
screaming women and children. As hundreds of Comanche warriors and
their allies materialize from the tall grass and pour into
(01:24):
the log fort. Before there's even time to secure the gate.
It happens like lightning. Cynthia's brother shouts at her to run,
and now the little girl is running, running, but not
fast enough. Shots ring out, cracking through the air, and
then it's over, blood bodies and dust drifting across the scene.
(01:46):
That's when those that remain alive realize that Cynthia Anne
is gone, kidnapped by the Comanches along with her five
year old brother and other extended family members. Later, Cynthia
being taken the smell of the pony they'd put her on,
and how they treated her. Not cruel, but not gentle,
(02:07):
she said, they were just sure. When they arrived at
the camp, the Native American children looked at Cynthia, fascinated
with her blue eyes, which they say looks like the
river under their blonde hair that looks like wheat. The
tribe decides she will be adopted in their society. A
family that has lost someone, a mother, sister, daughter takes
(02:30):
on a child. Cynthia's old name is taken away and
she gets a new one. In this case, Nodua translated
as someone found. She learns Comanche words first, and then
Comanche jokes, which is when you know a language has
become your own. And she learns Comanche work, how to
snare a rabbit, how to tana hide until it's soft
(02:53):
and supple, how to twist sinew into thread, how to
smoke meat. Nadua learns to braid her hair differently. She
learns to ride bareback. She learns to shoot with a
bow and arrow, and to watch the horizon the way
Comanche always watch the horizon. Does she remember Fort Parker,
her mother's voice, her brother's face. Probably less and less
(03:16):
every day, because every day replaces some of yesterday. There's
food to grind, water to carry, hides to smoke, nature's
medicine to understand, and stories about her new culture to learn.
Years pass and she stops thinking about how to be Comanche.
She is Comanche, and then she falls in love. He
(03:38):
is a powerful member of the tribe Peeda Nakona Cynthia.
Now Nadua is no longer a little girl. She has
coppery golden hair and blue eyes, but she carries herself
like a Comanche woman, and the two marry. They have children,
a son called Conna and another called Pekos. They also
(03:59):
have a little girl, Topsana, which means Prairie Flower in English.
While her little brother and several others captured that day
in eighteen thirty six were eventually ransomed back to the
family fairly quickly. For Cynthia, it was a new life
and she loved it. But as she tends to the
children and to the fires that smoke and cook their food,
(04:21):
there are people many miles away still trying to find her,
especially after other family members had been returned. Now it's
the winter of eighteen sixty and Nodua and Prairie Flower
are in a small winter camp. There are families and
a few warriors with the herd nearby. The men who
guard the camp are enough to fight off wolves and raiders,
(04:42):
but they are not enough for what's coming up on
the ridge. Comes a line of men, their Texas Rangers
and US cavalry, and they move with deadly purpose. What
happens next is described by some as a skirmish and
by others as a battle or even a mass. For Nadua,
it's an inverse repeat of what happened to her twenty
(05:05):
four years earlier. The rangers suddenly storm in and begin shooting.
She takes her baby daughter, Prairie Flower, and tries to
grab for a pony, but she can't get away. According
to some reports, she bears her breasts and yells Americano
several times. The rangers stop shooting and surround her. They
(05:25):
report later that they had killed her husband in that battle.
They described Nadua as being covered in buffalo grease from
handling the meat, but they see her light hair and
blue eyes. They question her and say she speaks in
broken English. That's not a surprise, because having been taken
at age eight and only speaking Comanche for the next
(05:45):
twenty four years, that's what she knew. They say. She
cried over her husband's dead body, as well as that
of another very young warrior she had helped to raise.
He had also been the son of a captured white
woman who had died years earth. Nodua, again being called Cynthia,
along with her daughter, is taken to her uncle's home
(06:06):
in Texas. The nation is fascinated by her story. The
newspapers run triumphant headlines. The state holds her up like
some sort of an emblem, proof that the Frontier can
be tamed, that what was taken can be taken back,
and the Texas legislature gives her a forty four hundred
acre piece of land, as well as a yearly stipend.
(06:29):
Her uncles are made her legal guardians. But the problem
is she hates this new life. She doesn't like the
attention she gets nor the way of life she's expected
to adapt to. Soon, she goes to live with her
surviving sister, but she misses her sons, who are back
with the tribe, and she worries about them. She escapes
(06:50):
at least once, but is always brought back and told
she must think of her little girl and her future,
that the Comanche are dying out. Then in eighteen sixty four,
her little girl catches the flu. She soon dies of pneumonia.
Nadua's grief stricken. Her little daughter is dead, and she
misses her son's and the Comanchee way of life. Soon
(07:14):
she starts refusing food and water. Her health continues to
go downhill, and while there's some question about the year
of her death, it's pretty certain that she passed in
either eighteen seventy or eighteen seventy one. Nadua or Cynthia
Ann Parker was about forty two years old when she died.
Her son Conna had become the last free chief of
(07:36):
the Comanche, and forty years later, in nineteen ten, he
had his mother's remains moved to be nearer to him.
When he died the following year, he was buried next
to her, and in nineteen fifty seven, the state of
Texas had the body of Nadua's daughter, Prairie Flower, moved
to a grave next to her mother and brother. But
(07:58):
Nodua never saw her sons again, nor was she ever
able to return to the Comanche life that she loved.
I hope you like the Backstory with Patty Steele. Please
leave a review and I would love it if you
would subscribe or follow for free to get new episodes
delivered automatically. Also feel free to DM me if you
have a story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook,
(08:21):
It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm
Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,
the Elvis Durant Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer
is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new
(08:42):
episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out
to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram
at real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.
Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the
pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.
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