Artist John Soderberg was so moved and inspired by the story of Preloch (below), he sculpted The Birth of Preloch in 1983. There are only 20 casts in the world,...
Artist John Soderberg was so moved and inspired by the story of Preloch (below), he sculpted The Birth of Preloch in 1983. There are only 20 casts in the world, Shanin Renee Art Gallery has in curation 5/20.
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Cynthia Ann Parker, “Preloch” (1827–1871)
A white child named Cynthia Ann Parker was captured at the age of 9 by a Comanche Native band during the Texas Fort Parker Massacre in 1836, where several of her relatives were captured or killed. Cynthia was adopted into the tribe and thoroughly assimilated as Comanche. The child was renamed “Preloch,” meaning “someone found” in the Comanche language. Preloch grew up Comanche. She married tribal chief Peta Nocona with whom she had three children, including son Quanah Parker, who became the last free Comanche chief.
Twenty-four years later, at age 33, she was captured and relocated again, this time by the Texas Rangers during the Battle of Pease River, and unwillingly forced to separate from her sons and tribe and conform to European-American society. Parker was returned to her extended biological family, who had been searching for her all those years. However, for the remaining eleven years of her life, she mourned for her Comanche family and refused to adjust to white society. She escaped at least once but was recaptured and brought back.
Unable to grasp how thoroughly she identified with the Comanche, the European-American settlers held strong their belief that they had saved and redeemed her by returning her to her family and their society. Heartbroken over ensuing events—including the death by pneumonia of her young daughter—and missing her Comanche tribe and family, Parker died by starving herself within eleven years at the young age of 44. She is buried in Fort Sill Cemetery in Oklahoma near her son Quanah and daughter Prairie Flower.