Cynthia Parker

One of the greatest legends of the West is the story of Cynthia Parker.


Cynthia Ann Parker

In 1836, when she was only nine, the white pioneer girl was taken captive by Comanche warriors who raided her family’s settlement in Texas.



Following Comanche custom, she was adopted into the tribe. Her new Comanche parents renamed her Preloch. As she grew up, whites tried to convince the Comanches to release Preloch, but the tribe refused. Preloch loved her new family and did not want to leave. She eventually married a Comanche warrior, and they had three children.



In 1860 the U.S. Army attacked Preloch’s camp while her husband and the other men were away. She was taken prisoner and sent to live with her white relatives. Although whites believed she had been “rescued,” Preloch was heartbroken at being separated from her Comanche relatives.



She died ten years later in misery. Her only surviving child, Quanah, grew up to be one of the greatest leaders of her tribe.




Preloch’s son, Quanah Parker

In Depth

The City Of Tenochtitlan

By the sixteenth century, Tenochtitlan had a population of about 400,000, making it the largest Indian city ever built in Mesoamerica (an area roughly including Mexico and most of Central America).



Tenochtitlan was the capital city of the Aztec Empire.



The city was originally established on a small island on Lake Texcoco. As Tenochtitlan grew in size, its inhabitants took over a neighboring island, Tlatelolco, and built bridges to make it accessible to Tenochtitlan.



In an even greater engineering feat, they actually increased the size of the land on which Tenochtitlan rested. After anchoring baskets to the shallow bottom of the surrounding lake, they covered them with soil and vegetation to create small floating islands onto which the city could expand, as well as through the use of chinampas, which were used to grow food.



Among the largest buildings in the Aztec capital were spectacular temples. The largest honored Huitzilopochtli, the god of war and of the sun, who the Aztec believed chose them to rule their enormous empire. Nearby was a great palace with two stories, one with living quarters for the ruler and his family, the other with offices from which the vast empire could be run. Within the city, there were also schools, ball courts, zoos, and a huge market where food and goods were traded.









The ruins of Tenochtitlan became the foundation for another great urban center, Mexico City, today the capital of Mexico and that country’s largest metropolis. Lake Texcoco is no longer. It was repeatedly drained in an effort to control flooding starting in the 17th century.


Modern-day Mexico City

In Depth

In What Country Is Santa Claus A Woman?

In America, we exchange Christmas gifts on December 24 and 25. But in Italy and some other European countries, gifts are not exchanged until January 6, the feast of the Epiphany.



This is a celebration of the visit of the three Wise Men to Bethlehem. There’s another difference between Christmas in America and in Italy, the Italian Santa Claus is a woman!



The Italian gift-bringer is called La Befana, a name that comes from the Italian word for Epiphany.


La Befana – The Christmas Whitch

According to a legend, the Three Wise Men met La Befana on their way to Bethlehem, but she was too busy cleaning her house to accompany them on their journey.



Instead, she promised to see them on their return. But the Three Wise Men took a different route home, and La Befana has been wandering the earth ever since, visiting people’s homes in search of the Wise Men.



Italians don’t decorate a tree at Christmas. Instead, they hang up a ceppo, a triangular-shaped wooden frame that holds gifts and food. Each Italian child gets his or her own ceppo!





In Depth

Who Was Fannie Lou Hamer?

Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) was born a sharecropper and had just a few years of schooling, but she became a pivotal player in the civil rights movement.


Fannie Lou Hamer

In August 1964, when Democrats refused to allow African Americans to represent their party as delegates at the presidential convention, Fannie Lou Hamer led the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) in their challenge against the all-white delegation.



The MFDP felt that because Mississippi had such a large black population, there should certainly be black representation at the convention. Fannie Lou Hamer bravely testified to the committee that she had been jailed, beaten, and refused the right to vote.



Many others risked their lives in this battle for fairness. The MFDP lost that year, but in 1968 she was among the first African American delegates to the Democratic National Convention.



She went on to speak often for the cause of civil rights.



Hamer died at age 59 on March 14, 1977, in Mount Bayou, Mississippi. She died from complications of hypertension and breast cancer.



In Depth

When Was Vietnam Divided Into North And South Vietnam?

North and South Vietnam were politically divided in 1959 but have been unified since 1975.



In 1975 the Communists of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) defeated the mostly inept South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) after 16 years of war and it became one country, called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.


Flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

The United States was involved in that war, in which 58,000 Americans died.



The Vietnam War ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975.



Vietnam is long and narrow in shape: it is more than 1,000 miles (1,610 km) long but only about 380 miles (612 km) wide at its widest point.



In Depth