Peta Nocona

Peta Nocona, also known as Puhtocnocony, or Tah-con-ne-ah-pe-ah (c. 1820 – 1864), the son of Puhihwikwasu'u, or Iron Jacket, was a chief of the Comanche Quahadi (also known as Kwahado, Quahada) band. He married Cynthia Ann Parker, who had been taken as a captive during the Fort Parker massacre in 1836 and was adopted into the tribe by Tabby-nocca's family. Among their three children was Quanah Parker, the last war chief of the Comanche.

Peta Nocona chose his wife from among the members of the Nokoni band. He led his tribe during the extensive Indian Wars in Texas, from the late 1840s until the 1860s, as the United States tried to suppress his people. He was the son of the Quahadi Comanche chief Iron Jacket. He became so renowned that a legend said that "his" band, the Nokoni (or Wanderers, or Travellers) band, were named for him, but the name of the Nokoni people had long antedated him, and, anyway, he was a Kwahadi, having a Nokoni wife. The city of Nocona, Texas is named after him.^[1]

Despite Sul Ross's claim that Peta Nocona was killed at Pease River, his son Quanah insisted he was not present at the site of that battle, and died several years later. This claim is supported by contemporary Texas historian John Henry Brown. Brown had already disputed the identity of the person killed at Mule Creek, before Quanah Parker came onto the reservation, stating he was told the name of the man killed at Pease River was Mo-he-ew, not Peta Nocona. Quanah Parker then wrote an affidavit disputing his father's death: "while I was too young to remember the chief, it is likely that Brown was correct" (but the killed warrior's name results to have been Nobah, a former captive adopted in the tribe, and Col. Wilbur S. Nye personally met Peta Nocona time after the Pease River's fight and his claimed death).^[2]