White Man's Way
Quannah Parker, a native American of the Comanche ethnic group, adopted many of the white man's ways after he quit the warpath. However, he clung to one aspect of the custom of his fathers until his old age. He continued to be a polygamist.
Quannah Parker, a native American of the Comanche ethnic group, adopted many of the white man's ways after he quit the warpath. However, he clung to one aspect of the custom of his fathers until his old age. He continued to be a polygamist.
He was a friend and admirer of President Theodore Roosevelt and on one occasion when Roosevelt was touring
With pride, Parker pointed out that he lived in a house like a white man, his children went to a white man's school, and he himself dressed like a white man - whereupon
"See here, chief, why don't you set your people a better example? A white man has only one wife - he's allowed only one at a time. Here you are living with five squaws. Why don't you give up four of them and remain faithful to the fifth?"
Parker stood still a moment, considering the proposition. Then he answered, "You are my great white father, and I will do as you wish - on one condition."
"What is the condition?" asked
"You pick out the one I am to live with and then you go kill the other four."
You shouldn’t have married so many in the first place; Roosevelt thought.
But he could not offer another solution that would not involve Parker hurting the women who loved him.
