# What was this old western—with an interlude with an old (white) woman who living with Indians? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 27, 2013, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-old-western-with-an-interlude-with-an-old-white-woman-who-living-with-indians/672353 "2013-10-27T04:10:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-old-western-with-an-interlude-with-an-old-white-woman-who-living-with-indians/672353/1 "2013-10-27T04:10:31Z")
I wonder if someone could help me ID a western that I’m half-remembering…color, 50s or 60s (I think), and not “The Searchers.” I _think_ Quanah Parker might be a character, or at least mentioned, but I’m not sure. A couple of cowboys are stopping by an Indian settlement for some reason (I have no idea which nation, or even the region), and happen to meet with an old white lady who was living with them. She’d either been captured, rescued, or run off the join them when she was younger—she’d apparently made a life there, and had a family, and said she didn’t want to “go back.” Possibly because it might upset relatives who’d already mourned her for dead, or would be disturbed that she’d “gone native,” and she didn’t feel any reason to leave, anyway. She seemed pleasant and perfectly happy enough. Anyway, that’s all I can remember, unfortunately. Does thing ring a bell to anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-old-western-with-an-interlude-with-an-old-white-woman-who-living-with-indians/672353/2 "2013-10-27T04:19:25Z")
I don’t remember a scene like that, but in [Little Big Man,](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065988/?ref_=nv_sr_1) Jack Crabb’s sister, Olga, was taken by the Indians the same time he was; she grew up as one of them and fit right in and didn’t want or need rescuing when he saw her as an adult. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-old-western-with-an-interlude-with-an-old-white-woman-who-living-with-indians/672353/3 "2013-10-27T05:28:27Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > I don’t remember a scene like that, but in [Little Big Man,](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065988/?ref_=nv_sr_1) Jack Crabb’s sister, Olga, was taken by the Indians the same time he was; she grew up as one of them and fit right in and didn’t want or need rescuing when he saw her as an adult. Olga was Jack/Little Big Man’s Swedish wife who was abducted. IIRC, years later she is the nagging wife of his rival and doesn’t recognize him. I think Jack and his sister were captured as kids but she got away and he was raised as one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-old-western-with-an-interlude-with-an-old-white-woman-who-living-with-indians/672353/4 "2013-10-27T05:52:22Z")
“The Searchers” was loosely based upon the abduction by Indians of Cynthia Ann Parker, Quanah Parker’s mom. Also, the character of “Stands With Fist” played by Mary McDonnell in “Dances With Wolves” was based upon her. Cynthia Ann Parker was fully assimilated into the culture of her captors and after she was “freed” and repatriated back into white culture, she was never happy. Her son, Quanah Parker became a legendary Comanche chief before and during the final years of that era. Quanah and his mother, Cynthia Ann Parker are buried beside each other in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. > **[Cynthia Ann Parker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia_Ann_Parker)** > > Cynthia Ann Parker (October 28, 1827 – March 1871), also known as Naduah (Comanche: Narua), was a white woman who was notable for having been captured during the Fort Parker massacre at about age nine, by a Comanche war band and adopted into the tribe. Twenty-four years later she was discovered and taken captive by Texas Rangers, at approximately age 33, and unwillingly taken back to European-American society. Her Comanche name means "someone found" in English. > Thoroughly assimilated as Comanche... > **[Quanah Parker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quanah_Parker)** > > Quanah Parker (Comanche kwana, "smell, odor") (c. 1845 – February 23, 1911) was a war leader of the Kwahadi ("Antelope") band of the Comanche Nation. He was likely born into the Nokoni ("Wanderers") band of Tabby-nocca and grew up among the Kwahadis, the son of Kwahadi Comanche chief Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, an Anglo-American who had been abducted as a nine-year-old child and assimilated into the Nokoni tribe. Following the apprehension of several Kiowa chiefs in 1871, Quanah Parker e... [![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cynthia_Ann_Parker_Gravestone.jpg) ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cynthia_Ann_Parker_Gravestone.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-old-western-with-an-interlude-with-an-old-white-woman-who-living-with-indians/672353/5 "2013-10-27T13:12:29Z")
I wouldn’t be surprised if it were **She Wore a Yellow Ribbon**. It’s the type of detail that film would have had. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-old-western-with-an-interlude-with-an-old-white-woman-who-living-with-indians/672353/6 "2013-10-27T17:58:51Z")
[Two Rode Together](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055558/) has a scene like that. The two cowboys in the title are going to try to ransom a number of people that the Comanches have captured over the years. They find that many of the captives don’t want to return. It is strongly hinted that the old woman’s white husband was abusive, and that her Comanche husband treated her better. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-old-western-with-an-interlude-with-an-old-white-woman-who-living-with-indians/672353/7 "2013-10-28T01:06:50Z")
Checking the scene online, it looks like _Two Rode Together_ was the movie I was thinking of—though the old woman seems a tad crazier than I thought I remembered. :smack: Thanks for the help, all! A niggling question finally laid to rest.