Tomassa Chandler Conover (c. 1840 – 1900) was a Mexican-American woman who was captured by the Comanche as a child and later integrated into their society. She supported the Fort Sill Indian Agency by helping establish the Fort Sill Agency School, working there as a translator. Tomassa aided in communication between the fort and the Comanche, and was known for her compassion and humanitarian efforts.
Tomassa | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | c. 1840 |
| Died | 1900 Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Occupation | Translator |
| Employer | Fort Sill |
Life
editTomassa was born c. 1840 into a well-off family in the Centralist Republic of Mexico.[1] As a young child, she and her older cousin were captured by the Carissa Comanche.[1] They spent a decade with the Comanche and became fully integrated into their society before being ransomed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and returned to Mexico.[1][2] No one came to claim them, so they were taken in by a wealthy Mexican family who treated them as servants.[1] She enrolled in school but chose to return to the Comanche.[2] Accompanied by a schoolmate, Tomassa crossed the Mexico–United States border, relying on the stars for navigation, and survived by killing their horses for food and making moccasins from their hides.[2]
At around fourteen, Tomassa's Comanche mother arranged for her to marry a man named Blue Leggings.[1] Defying Comanche traditions, Tomassa refused and instead chose to marry Joseph Chandler (1823–73), a half-Cherokee, half-white farmer near what would become Fort Sill in Oklahoma.[1] Chandler bought her from Blue Leggings for three dollars and a rooster. During the American Civil War, their land was devastated by raiders, and the Chandlers relocated to Texas, returning to Oklahoma in 1868.[1] The couple lived near Fort Cobb, Oklahoma, where they raised several children and provided beef to the Kiowa-Comanche Agency and the U.S. Army during the post-Civil War period.[3] In 1867, after the signing of the Medicine Lodge Treaty, Joseph Chandler received a 320-acre headright under the treaty’s provisions.[3] This headright was located about thirty miles northeast of Fort Sill, and the Chandlers became one of the first families to benefit from the treaty.[3]
Tomassa supported the Fort Sill Indian Agency by helping establish the Fort Sill Agency School.[2] In 1871, she began working at the school as an translator.[1] Fluent in Spanish, English, Comanche, and Caddo, she played a crucial role in assisting the fort's officials and maintaining communication with the Comanche, which helped in preventing raids.[1]
Following Joseph Chandler’s death in 1873, Tomassa became involved with the Quaker-run school established at the Kiowa-Comanche Agency.[3] She worked as both a student and an interpreter at the school.[3] During this time, she played a role in protecting a Mexican couple who had been captured by the Comanche as children.[3] Tomassa hid them from their pursuers in her home and later surrendered them to Indian Agent Lawrie Tatum.[3] Tomassa was known for her compassion, which earned her respect from both the Indian agents and the Comanche.[1]
Tomassa was a widow with four children.[1] She later married George Conover, a retired army officer, and had several more children. In 1887, she converted to Christianity and joined the Methodist church.[1][3] Tomassa died in 1900 and was buried on her ranch in western Grady County, Oklahoma.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Bataille, Gretchen M.; Lisa, Laurie (1993). Native American women : a biographical dictionary. Internet Archive. New York : Garland. ISBN 978-0-8240-5267-6.
- ^ a b c d Bodnár, Ágnes (2021). The Making of the Subject in Indian Captivity Narratives: An exploration of subject construction via the performative, intersubjective, and narrative self (PDF) (Ph.D. thesis). ELTE Faculty of Humanities. Retrieved 2024-08-17.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Brown, Opal Hartsell (1994). Indomitable Oklahoma Women. Oklahoma Heritage Association. ISBN 978-0-86546-088-1.