Ride the Wind
Encyclopedia
Ride the Wind by Lucia St. Clair Robson
is the story of Cynthia Ann Parker
's life after she was captured during the Comanche raid on her family's fort. In 1836, when she was nine years old, Cynthia was kidnapped by Comanche
Indians. This is the story of how she grew up with them, mastered their ways, married one of their leaders, and became, in every way, a Comanche woman. Her son Quanah Parker
was the last Comanche leader to surrender. It is also an account of a people who were happiest when they were moving, and a depiction of a way of life that is gone forever.
Ride the Wind earned The Western Writers' Golden Spur Award
for best historical western in 1982. It also made the NY Times and Washington Post best seller lists that year. In its 26th printing, it is still popular today. Ride the Wind has earned more than 120 5-star reviews on Amazon.
Ride the Wind was voted one of 100 Western Classics for the century by; 100 Years of Western Classics as selected by American Western Magazine's readers in 2000 100 Western Classics
Lucia St. Clair Robson
-Literary biography:Lucia St. Clair Robson was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up in West Palm Beach, Florida. She has been a Peace Corps Volunteer in Venezuela, a teacher in New York City, and a librarian in Annapolis, Maryland. She has also lived in Japan, South Carolina, and Arizona...
is the story of Cynthia Ann Parker
Cynthia Ann Parker
Cynthia Ann Parker, or Naduah , was an American woman of old colonial stock of Scots-Irish descent who was captured and kidnapped at the age of nine by a American Indian band which massacred her family and...
's life after she was captured during the Comanche raid on her family's fort. In 1836, when she was nine years old, Cynthia was kidnapped by Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
Indians. This is the story of how she grew up with them, mastered their ways, married one of their leaders, and became, in every way, a Comanche woman. Her son Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker was a Comanche chief, a leader in the Native American Church, and the last leader of the powerful Quahadi band before they surrendered their battle of the Great Plains and went to a reservation in Indian Territory...
was the last Comanche leader to surrender. It is also an account of a people who were happiest when they were moving, and a depiction of a way of life that is gone forever.
Ride the Wind earned The Western Writers' Golden Spur Award
Spur Award
The Spur Award is an annual literary prize awarded by the Western Writers of America. Founded in 1953 with only four categories , the award today has expanded to include the following categories:...
for best historical western in 1982. It also made the NY Times and Washington Post best seller lists that year. In its 26th printing, it is still popular today. Ride the Wind has earned more than 120 5-star reviews on Amazon.
Ride the Wind was voted one of 100 Western Classics for the century by; 100 Years of Western Classics as selected by American Western Magazine's readers in 2000 100 Western Classics
Excerpt from Ride the Wind
- A rolling sea of deep grass flecked with a foam of primroses washed up on islands of towering oaks and pecans and walnuts. The pale blue sky was fading at the edges as the sun heated up the day. Soon it would be hot enough for the children to sneak down to the nearby Navasota River to splash in the cool shaded waters. The warm East Texas wind blew through the stockade door, bringing company with it. It was a morning in May; a time of sunshine and peace, an open gate and Indians.
- Inside the high wooden box of Parker's Fort, twenty-six people stood frozen as though in a child's game of statues. Outside the gate scores of painted warriors sat sullenly on their ponies. One of them dropped the dirty white flag he had been holding. It fluttered slowly to the ground where his nervous little pinto danced it into the dust.
- Give them a cow, Uncle Ben please. If that's what they want, give it to them. The cracked corn felt cool around nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker's fingers as she held the small gourd of chicken feed. Cold chills prickled her skin under her father's scratchy, tow linen shirt. Patched and frayed and altered down to only three or four sizes too large, the shirt looked as though it had been dyed with the same pale, gray-brown dust that covered her bare toes. She watched the men at the gate like a baby rabbit staring into a snake's eyes.
- They were begging, Uncle Ben had said. A Cow? What would a hundred Indians do with one cow? Roast it outside the fort? Would all of them leave driving one cow ahead of them? It didn’t matter. Uncle Ben wouldn’t give it to them. The Parkers didn’t hold with begging. He’d tell them to move on, and everyone would go back to their chores. Maybe her grandfather, Elder John, would preach a sermon on sloth at the service Sunday. Foreboding swelled in her stomach and spread to her chest. She heard pounding in her ears.