Quanah Parker, Chief of the Comanche, ca.1909 (photographer unknown, from the collection of the Library of Congress).

Parker is the subject of a new biography by S.C. Gwyne, Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History. I always found Quanah Parker really fascinating because of his ability to navigate the sweeping change from when the Comanche basically controlled what is now Texas and regions to its North and West, through the development of the railroad and slaughter of the buffalo, as well as the so-called Indian wars. Parker had been a great leader and defender of his homeland, and he continued to lead the Comanche as a great negotiator, a close friend and often political ally of Teddy Roosevelt.

Read Bruce Barcott's review of Gwyne's book, combined with a review of Nathaniel Philbrick's new book Custer, Sitting Bull and the Battle of the Little Bighorn, at nytimes.com.