The Nokona's History

Lord of the Plains
The word Comanche comes from the Ute word Komantcia meaning "anyone who wants to fight me all the time." In their own language the Comanches called themselves simply The People.

The Comanches swept down from the upper plains to west and central Texas in the eighteenth century. They drove the Apache, no slouches when it came to fighting, completely off the Southern Plains.
Good horse breeders, they traveled with enormous herds. They were also superb hunters, depending mainly on the buffalo for food, shelter, and clothing.

Comanches and Nature
The Comanches were likely the first people to discover the pleasures of Barton Springs. A legend attributed to them held that the Great Spirit hurled a bolt of lightning and split open the rocks which poured forth the pure waters.

The People believed everything in nature had a soul. When they killed a buffalo they would give its spirit thanks for allowing its flesh to be eaten.

The Nokoni and the Last Days of the Comanche
In the third quarter of the nineteenth century, as the tremendous buffalo herds were exterminated by whites, and as settlers poured onto their lands, the Comanches were gradually driven onto the reservation.

The last Comanche chief to hold out was Quanah Parker, son of Chief Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker. Peta Nocona was the leader of the Nokoni band, one of several independent Comanche tribes who roamed from the Red River to the Brazos.

The word Nokoni is usually translated as: They who go out and return again.

After the Civil War there was a long bloody war between the army and the Comanches. Quanah Parker joined with a warlike Quahadi band who, like him, refused to submit. In 1875, after their supplies were raided during a brutal winter, they straggled into Fort Sill and the Texas Indian Wars were over.

Quanah Parker became a bridge between the whites and his people, becoming a rancher, a judge of the Indian Court, and a lobbyist who went to Washington to plead his people's causes. He rode in his friend President Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade.

The Nokonah
The name Nokonah celebrates Texas' Native American heritage. The Comanche lived close to the Earth, revering nature, respecting its gifts to man. In Austin, a city famous for its dedication to the environment, it seems fitting to recall and salute its first stewards.