In 1836, at the age of 9, Cynthia Ann Parker was abducted by Comanches from a frontier settlement in Texas. She married a respected Comanche warrior and had three children by him. Twenty-four years later she was re-abducted by whites and spent the rest of her life longing to return to her Comanche family and to what had become her people.

Alan Le May’s novel The Searchers, the basis of John Ford’s film, was inspired in part by Cynthia Ann’s story, most notably by an uncle of hers who spent seven years searching for her without success.