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Sitting for a Formal Photograph and Breastfeeding
Tuesday, April 22, 2008

In the Library of Congress archives, there are many photographs of Indian women with their babies in papooses. In all of the seated, formal pictures of women and their children I have seen, I have never seen a photo where the mother is freely breastfeeding her child. This photograph is quite interesting because although the woman was white, her husband was an Indian and she lived in an Indian village after being captured in her youth.

Her name was Cynthia Ann Parker (ca. 1825-ca. 1871) and in this photo she was nursing her daughter, Prairie Flower (Toposannah). Parker was captured by Native American Comanches as a teenager, later married Chief Peta Nocona and bore children including Quanah Parker, the last Comanche Chief.1860-1870.

Parker's life is very interesting. If you'd like to learn more about her, click here.

Labels: breastfeeding history, breastfeeding in public

posted by Jennifer James @ 4:48 AM,

6 Comments:

At May 5, 2008 3:34 PM, Elizabeth F. said...: This is an awesome post! I didn't comment last time I was here, but I can't beleive that no one else has either. Keep up the great work. Your blog is always so fascinating.
At May 9, 2008 3:25 AM, Anonymous said...: this is such a sad story, thanks for sharing it
Helen
At May 15, 2008 7:38 AM, Marketing Mama said...: I like your blog - thanks for all of these interesting stories and photos. This is a sad story - I can't imagine being kidnapped and forced into another culture, and then married to the chief. Wow.
At May 22, 2008 9:14 PM, Stephanie said...: Absolutely amazing. It's wonderful that you have put together such an inspiring blog. I am a breastfeeding counselor for the WIC program and was given the URL to your website by a supervisor at one of our employee meetings. Good stuff!!
At May 26, 2008 12:25 PM, The Bear Maiden said...: I would, as an informal student of Native American and American history, like to call people on their remarks about this being a "sad" story.

I would be careful of just accepting the story as it's told, and pay attention from whose point of view the story is told from.

The unspoken thing here is that "white" women had much less personal freedom in the 1800's than Native women, and while several children had been kidnapped by Natives, several of them refused to go back when given the chance. Cynthia Ann herself refused to go back, and was kidnapped back into white society.

Another book to read on the subject is called "The Unredeemed Captive", by John Demos.

A small historical footnote worth mentioning is that often, the Scots and Irish intermarried with Natives by choice... so just because someone was labeled "Scotch/Irish" does not mean they were solely "white".... if the mother was "white" than the child was, since Native American society is traditionally matrilinial. Ancestors of mine were "Scotch Irish" on paper, but were in reality, Cherokee.
At June 1, 2008 11:44 AM, Helen said...: I thought both parts of the story were sad, both being taken from her fammily- by anyone, at all , ethnicity irrelavent, and then being brought back again, against her will, and again taken from her [new]family

would she have been taken back had she been a man who said he wanted to stay with his new family?
Helen