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The Central Great Plains Ecoregion
The Central Great Plains (9F) are slightly lower, receive more precipitation, and are somewhat more irregular than the Western High Plains (9D) to the west.
The central great plains were once a grassland with scattered low trees and shrubs in the south, however now, much of this ecoregion is now cropland. The eastern boundary of this ecoregion in most locations is the Central Lowland Plains (5E) which boundary marks the eastern limits of the major winter wheat growing area of the United States.
Subsurface salt deposits and leaching contribute to high salinity found in some streams.
Central Great Plains Information:
Description:
The Central Great Plains ecoregion is a large, mixed-grass prairie ecoregion landscape in the central United States, covering a wide area from the central Texas plains northward through the states of Oklahoma, Kansas and upward into the southern central area of Nebraska.
The Central Great Plains ecoregion characteristically is flat with some gently rolling terrain, which as a whole is impacted heavily by agriculture. This ecoregion has a dry-temperate climate with annual rainfall (higher amounts in spring) varying around twenty inches with extreme seasonal (summer and winter) temperature swings and frequent natural disturbances such as drought and fire. This ecoregion has, as a dominant vegetation, medium-height prairie grasses mixed with some shortgrass species. Further, this ecoregion has a limited tree cover consisting mainly of drought-tolerant species like mesquite and prickly pear cacti, with oak and juniper is some areas.
Mammals
This ecoregion is historically home to large herds of endemic
American bison and some
pronghorns two species of
deer and
coyote
Birds
The grasslands are home habitat for resident prairie birds, while the wetlands of the region are important stopovers for migrating birds traveling between the northernmost reaches of North America southward to Mexico and further.
Wetland Birds
The Platte River in Nebraska as well as the Cheyenne Bottoms not far from Great Bend, Kansas, both within the Central Great Plains ecoregion and both are essential stopovers for great-distance migrators.
Cheyenne Bottoms, the largest wetlands in the Great Plains are especially essential for species such as the
sandhill cranes,
whooping cranes and as many as 39 species of migratory
shorebirds.
Location:
Coordinates:
Elevation:
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Geographical Information:
General Information:
Plains Indians
Known as the indigenous people of the Great Plains are native American tribes who have historically live on the Interior Plains of North America, this region is known for the horse cultures that flourished from 1600s through the late 1800s. Their nomadism and resistance to domination have made these indigenous people an archetype in art and literature for all native Americans, and which cultures can be divided into two groups.
The first group. which became a fully nomadic horse culture who followed the vast herds of
buffalo include those of the first Migration: Arapaho, Assiniboine, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cree, Crow, Lakota, Nakoda (Stoney), Sarsi
Those of the second Migration included: Comanche, Kiowa, Tonkawa,
Those of the third Migration included: Apache (or Kiowa Apache), Lipan, Gros Ventre, Plains Ojibwe,
The second group, were sedentary or semi-sedentary and in addition to hunting buffalo, lived in villages, raised crops and traded with other tribes.
These include the First Migration tribes of:
Arikara, Dakota, Mandan, Hidatsa, Iowa, Kaw (or Kansa), Kitsai, Missouria, Omaha, Osage, Otoe, Pawnee, Ponca, Quapaw, Santee, Wichita, Yanktonai, and Yankton Dakota.
Comanche
In 1836, a Comanche raiding party attacked Fort Parker and captured Cynthia Ann Parker, who was about nine years of age. She was subsequently adopted into the Nokoni band of Comanches, given the Comanche name Narua meaning Someone Found, assimilated into the tribe and then married to the Kwahadi warrior chief, Peta Nocona, whom she borne three children. Her first child was Quanah Parker, born in the
Wichita Mountains of southwestern Oklahoma.
After raids by Peta Nocona into Parker County, Ranger Sul Ross and his company of sixty fighters started tracking the Nokonis, who were considered the hardiest fighters among the Comanche, who were in turn considered the fiercest of the Plains Indians.
In December 1860, Cynthia Ann Parker and her daughter Topusana (Prairie Flower) were captured in the Battle of Pease River, located about nine miles southeast of the Copper Breaks State Park where Mule Creek flows north into the Pease River.
Cynthia Ann Parker, after twenty-four years with the Comanche, with her infant daughter Topusana, were taken against her will by the Texas Rangers to the home of her biological brother, where she refused re-assimilation to the life with her biological family during the remaining 10 years of life.
Cynthia Ann Parker was grief stricken when her daughter died of pneumonia in 1864, and committed suicide by voluntary refusing food and water. She died in March 1871 at the O′Quinn home and was buried in Foster cemetery near Poynor, Texas.
In 1910, her first born son, Quanah Parker moved her body to Post Oak Mission Cemetery near Cache, Oklahoma.
Quanah Parker
Later in life, Quanah Parker told Charles Goodnight, a scout for the Texas Rangers, that he and his brother Pecos, had escaped the Battle of Pease River. Although his brother died shortly after that, Quanah Parker became a famous chieftain among the Comanche, and in fact, he was the last of their war chiefs.
Quanah Parker was appointed by the federal government as principal chief of the entire Comanche Nation, and became a primary emissary of southwest indigenous Americans to the United States legislature. In civilian life, he gained wealth as a rancher and settled near Cache, Oklahoma, not far from the place of his birth.
Too, he was the founder of and promoted the syncretic (united) Native American Church, and passionately fought for the legal use of peyote in the practices of this religion. In 1902, Quanah Parker was elected deputy sheriff of Lawton, Oklahoma.
Quanah Parker, in 1910, near the end of his life would have the remains of his mother removed from Texas and re-buried at the Post Oak Mission Cemetery near to where he was living in Cache, Oklahoma.
After his death in February 1911, he was buried next to his mother. Then, In 1957, their bodies were move to the Fort Sill Post Cemetery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In 1965, the state of Texas had Prairie Flower moved from her grave in Edom, Texas to join her mother and brother.
Caprock Canyons State Park (34.410296 -101.053264)
Possom Kingdom State Park (32.873613, -98.559202)
Battle of Pease River (34.069806, -99.595089)
Medicine Mounds (private property but viewable from highway - 34.194918, -99.612445)
Hardeman County Historical Museum in Quanah
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