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    Ride The Wind: The Story of Cynthia Ann Parker and Last Days of the Comanche
    Ride The Wind: The Story of Cynthia Ann Parker and Last Days of the Comanche
    Ride The Wind: The Story of Cynthia Ann Parker and Last Days of the Comanche
    Audiobook29 hours

    Ride The Wind: The Story of Cynthia Ann Parker and Last Days of the Comanche

    Written by Lucia St. Clair Robson

    Narrated by Laurie Klein

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In 1836, when she was nine years old, Cynthia Ann Parker 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. It is also the story of a proud and innocent people whose lives pulsed with the very heartbeat of the land. It is the story of a way of life that is gone forever....
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBooks in Motion
    Release dateDec 15, 2009
    ISBN9781605485171
    Ride The Wind: The Story of Cynthia Ann Parker and Last Days of the Comanche

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    Reviews for Ride The Wind

    4.5/5

    151 ratings15 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Even the introduction brings up George Catlin Who is a distant relative of mine so you know that they really did in-depth study into the history of the area & what was happening at that time. I thought it was beautifully told and a wonderful story.One of those books that when you’re done you can’t find anything else to read for a while

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I read this book long ago and loved the story then and enjoyed it all over again with the wonderful narrator, Laurie Klein.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful story, as enjoyable as my 1st time reading it 30ish years ago. I recommend to those who like a book that gives strong emotional feels.
    • 5/5
      What an amazing book! It described the day to day lives and different perspectives of the different groups of people and the landscape beautifully. Although brutal and heartbreaking at times I enjoyed the historical significance of the book.
    • 5/5
      Even though this book is fiction it still makes me feel sad for the people who have been affected by the loss of their way of life. Living for thousands of years the people revered the earth, and lived well by its bounty. The Europeans brought disease and pollution and greed.
    • 5/5
      What a great read this book turned out to be! It's the historical fiction retelling of the story of Cynthia Ann Parker, kidnapped at the age of nine by a Comanche war band who massacred her family’s settlement in Texas. She was adopted by the Comanche and lived with them for 24 years, eventually marrying a Comanche chieftain and having three children with him, including the last free Comanche chief Quanah Parker. When she was 34, she was finally "rescued" by the Texas Rangers and returned to her white family. She spent the remaining years of her life in lonely misery, refusing to adjust to life in white society. The author appears to have thoroughly researched the conflict between the Comanche tribe and the Texans. I appreciated the way she told both sides of the story and the way Cynthia Ann Parker (Naduah in Comanche) is portrayed. In reality she never told anyone about her life among the Comanche but based on the stories from her son, Quanah Parker, I would like to think that the author's version was how it happened.

      I enjoyed this book very much but it is very difficult to read in places. It's often violent, very shocking reading, and is not for the faint of heart. Some of the atrocities were very difficult to read through especially the deaths of the children and babies. They die from disease and from the elements but many of them are brutally tortured and murdered.

      This is a wonderfully written and readable book. The author does a great job of describing the culture and time period. In many ways it is a heartbreaking book that documents a time and way of life that is gone forever. I highly recommend this book.
    • 5/5
      This novel by Lucia St. Clair Robson is based on the life of Cynthia Ann Parker, who in 1836 at the age of nine, was kidnapped by Comanche Indians. She grew up in their care, married a war chief and had three children. Her eldest child was Quanah Parker, one of last great warriors of the Comanche nation. I consider this to be a masterpiece of historical fiction. Well-researched, totally accurate with her historical dates, places and people, yet, still a fantastic story that sweeps you away to another time and place. The life of Cynthia Ann Parker was an extraordinary one and Lucia St. Clair Robson, fills in the blanks in a totally convincing and realistic way. The details of Comanche daily life, their beliefs, their love of nature and the land, their loving family ways and humor is all shown but she doesn’t flinch from also showing the brutal and savage side as well. The book opens with the massacre at Parker’s fort and the capture of Cynthia Ann along with other members of her family. She and her younger brother are the lucky ones, because of their young age they are adopted as full family members. Unfortunately the other women that were taken were abused repeatedly, tortured and treated like animals. Of course, the brutality is not all on the side of the Indian, we are also shown how the white people lied repeatedly to them, introduced them to disease, killed off their food source and systematically wiped out a nation.Beautifully written and totally absorbing, I highly recommend this unforgettable book.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this book. (As I get older I need to keep a notebook to follow the Indian names!)
      This was a very detailed book on Indian life and I just loved reading the exact details of how the Indian women did things in their daily lives. I have a new respect for Native Americans and am ashamed at how the americans treated them.
    • 4/5
      The fictionalized story of Cynthia Ann Parker's abduction and life among the Comanche. Very little detail is known about Cynthia Ann's life, other than that she was abducted at age 9, adopted and brought up by a Tenowish Comanche family, married Chief Peta Nocona (for whom the fearsome Noconi band was named), had three children (one of which was Quanah Parker, the last of the Comanche Chiefs to surrender and enter a reservation), and was recaptured and returned to her birth family at age 34 where she tried and failed to escape and where she, after her daughter's death, was so unhappy that she starved herself to death.Obviously, the descriptions of Cynthia Ann's day-to-day tribal life are purely fictional - she never described any of the events - but because of the author's great knowledge of Native American life, every little detail rings true. It may not be an exact description of what Cynthia Ann experienced, but it is a great description of a collective experience - if you want to know how the Comanche (and other tribes) lived without resorting to straight history books, this is perfect. Details (and there are loads of them) of how they trained and rode horses, how they made camp, raided, cooked, celebrated, worshipped, courted, gave birth, hosted friends, raised children, and (ferociously) fought their enemies, are all integrated into the overall narrative.Robson isn't a sentimental writer, so the descriptions of the hardships - on all sides - are described in quite gruesome details. Life on the prairie may be romanticized by Wild West movies, but it was harsher than harsh and most of us wouldn't have lasted a season. A few parts of the book do tend toward the romantic (and the book cover is beyond BAD), but not too much - they read more like a tribute to how happy Cynthia Ann and Peta Nocona's marriage was, made evident by the fact that he never took another wife, which would have been traditional for a great chieftain. Overall, it's a well-researched story about the end of traditional Native American life, with all the proverbial good, bad and ugly inherent in its history.
    • 5/5
      A Must-Read Western Saga The author, Lucia St. Clair Robson, has created a masterpiece of historical fiction. There is great storytelling and a remarkable amount of research in this heartbreaking novelization of the life of Cynthia Ann Parker (Naduah), abducted as a child by the Comanches. Although nothing much is known about Naduah during the period covered in Ride the Wind, Robson creates strong characters that spring to life and are long remembered after you've put the book down. I learned a lot about the day to day life of the Comanches, their warfare, customs, family relationships and nomadic lifestyle. Be warned the book is very graphic and not recommended for the faint hearted. The cruelty is sickening, but to balance, there are many acts of love and kindness as well. The author strikes a note of fairness in her writing which elevates the novel beyond the usual finger-pointing and knee-jerk, bleeding heart narratives contained in much of this genre. This is not your typical good guys vs bad guys Western. Knowing Naduah’s unhappy outcome beforehand, I approached the ending of the book with dread. After a weeks’ long gap, I came to the final sections of the book to find it was all wrapped up rather quickly and neatly with limited sentimentality. After my long journey reading Ride the Wind, the author let the previous chapters speak out instead of inserting over-the-top melodrama into the ending. I admire Ms. Robson for this as it made for a much stronger finish to the story.There are a few other fictionalized accounts of Parker's life story available and I will likely seek these out. However, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to find another book to rival Ride the Wind's sheer emotional intensity. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the Old West.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorite books on the life of Cynthia Ann Parker. Having read it no less than 5 times, I am delighted each time. Lucia St Clair Robson has masterfully captured the dynamic lifestyle of the American Indian, both the good and the bad, depending on your frame of reference. How wonderful to write with such passion about the historically significant young child and her possible trials and tribulations among a tribe of Indians so foreign to her yet so loving and compasionate. Naduah will capture your heart, make you smile at times, cry at times and above all give you an appreciation of the Indian perspective as they were being exterminated from the American West in ways you have yet to imagine. Such detail to the feelings and possible effect of such an epic dealing with the removal of the American Indian, a noble people, by the soldiers and the settlers has never been shown to compare with this awesome book. The birth of Quannah Parker is depicted within the pages as well as the birth of baby Topsannah, probably the best know picture of Cynthia Ann Parker.
    • 2/5
      2.5 starsI've always imagined the book to be heart wrenching and epic in scope but I was left slightly underwhelmed by the end of the book.To be honest, the violence we were shown to, was hard to stomach. By ignorance or resilience, however, I soon got over it as the novel progressed. I also found the first half of the book to be a little slow, though not as excruciatingly slow as the second half. As for the writing, the POV was confusing at best. It jumped from one person to another and I sometimes found myself wondering, "Am I reading about the same person?"Overall, I did find the book quite enjoyable and informative in regards to the lifestyle of the Comanches.
    • 5/5
      I fell in love with this story and read this book three times. Not an emotion I didn't feel reading this book. One of my favorites. This author drew me in the life of these characters, into their story, I cried with them, and felt their love and heartbreak. A must read for everyone
    • 5/5
      A compelling history lesson based on the true story of Cynthia Ann Parker and the last days of the Comanche. In 1836 Cynthia Ann is only 9 when Indians raid her family's hillside fort perched on the outskirts of the civilized West. Cynthia Ann, her brother John, and several of their relatives are taken hostage - most everyone else is killed, except for a few women and children who escaped and the few men who were away from the fort that day. Terrified for her life, Cynthia Ann views her kidnappers as barbarous killers, and to one who knows no better, they are. Soon the raiders split up, taking their hostages with them, and Cynthia Ann is left with her kidnapper, a young and handsome warrior who rides a sleek, swift black horse. He takes Cynthia Ann to live with a Comanche tribe, and there she becomes one of them, taking the name Naduah. Naduah grows up to marry Wanderer, who has become a Comanche chief, and they have 3 children together, including Quanah, who will become the last free Comanche chief. This book is a testament to the Native American and Western way of life during the early 19th century. The white man effectively devastated each and every Native American tribe in his drive to conquer the West, and this book shows the suffering of both sides. It is a sad story, for in the end Cynthia Ann is re-captured and taken back to the Parker family, of whom she has no memory. In effect, she dies of a broken heart, refusing to eat as she pines for her husband and sons.
    • 5/5
      Very well written historical novel of a white woman kidnapped from her home as a child by the Commanches. She grows up with them and falls in love with the tribe's chief. Her son grew up to be the last free chief of the tribe before surrendering to the whites. Based on true story.