![]() The parade took place just 15 years after the Massacre at Wounded Knee, less than 20 years after Geronimo surrendered and 30 since Quanah Parker and the Comanches had surrendered to the reservation after the Red River War. More than 115 years later, Roosevelt’s inaugural parade remains symbolic of the enigmatic relationship between the United States and its Indian citizens and leaders. It seemed to all those optimistic about the future, that a new era was about to begin for Indians in America. And marching right behind them were the cadets of the Carlisle Indian School. Comanche Chief Quanah Parker, standing in the doorway of his Star House in Cache, Oklahoma Territory, circa 1890, fought for the rights of his people until his death in 1911.Īccording to the Baltimore Sun, when “Old Quanah Parker, who was nearest the President’s Stand, rose in his stirrups and shot his glance at the President in salutation,” Roosevelt heartily applauded and waved his hat in return. With him in the parade of 35,000 were five other Indian leaders: Geronimo, Little Plume, American Horse, Hollow Horn Bear and Buckskin Charlie, representing the Apache, Blackfeet, Oglala, Brulé and Ute people, respectively.ĭespite criticism from politicians and the press that six Indian leaders who once fought against the United States would be in the parade, the befeathered leaders rode with dignity and pride, and were greeted along the parade route with applause. On March 4, 1905, Comanche Chief Quanah Parker paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue in President Theodore Roosevelt’s inaugural parade. “Resting here until day breaks and shadows fall and darkness disappears is Quanah Parker, the last chief of the Comanches” – Epitaph on Quanah Parker’s gravestone
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