r/TheCowboyBunkhouse

"During a raid, Comanche, Kiowa and Caddo Native Americans in Texas kidnap Cynthia Ann Parker (who was around 9 or 10 years old) and kill her family. Adopted into the Comanche tribe, she eventually married a respected Comanche chief and had three children, including Quanah, who grew up to become the last Comanche leader. Parker lived with the Comanche until Texas Rangers recaptured her and forced her to return to live again among Anglo-Americans.

Silas and Lucy Parker moved their young family from Illinois to Texas in 1832. As author S. C. Gwynne writes in Empire of the Summer Moon, the Parkers had settled right at the edge of the 250,000-square-mile Comanche empire. As white settlers had begun to encroach on their territory, which was vital to their way of life, particularly for buffalo hunting, the Comanche carried out multiple raids against white settlers, as well as against neighboring Native American tribes.

The Parkers had erected a solidly constructed civilian stockade about 40 miles east of present-day Waco that came to be called Parker’s Fort. The tall wooden stockade was reportedly capable of holding off “a large enemy force” if properly defended. However, when no Native American attacks materialized for many months, the Parker family and the relatives who joined them in the fort became careless. Frequently they left the bulletproof gates to the fort wide open for long periods.

On May 19, 1836, several hundred Comanche, Kiowa and Caddo Native Americans staged a surprise attack. During the ensuing battle, the Native Americans killed five of the Parkers. In the chaos, the Native Americans abducted young Cynthia Ann Parker and four other white women and children. The Comanche and Caddo bands later divided women and children between them. The Comanche took Parker, and she lived with them for the next 25 years.

Like many Plains Indian tribes, the Comanche had long engaged in the practice of kidnapping their enemy’s women and children. Sometimes these captives were treated like enslaved workers who provided useful work and could be traded for valuable goods. Often, though, captives eventually became full-fledged members of the tribe, particularly if they were kidnapped as young children. Such was the case with Parker.

Texan settlers first learned that the young girl might still be alive four years later. A trader named Williams reported seeing Parker with a band of Comanche near the Canadian River in northern Texas. He tried to purchase her release but failed. The Comanche Chief Pahauka allowed Williams to speak to the girl, but she stared at the ground and refused to answer his questions. After four years, Parker apparently had become accustomed to Comanche ways and did not want to leave. In 1845, two other white men saw Parker, who was by then 17 years old. A Comanche warrior told them he was now her husband, and the men reported “she is unwilling to leave” and “she would run off and hide herself to avoid those who went to ransom her.”

Clearly, Parker had come to think of herself as Comanche. By all accounts, her husband, a rising young warrior named Peta Nocona, treated her well, and the couple was happily married. She gave birth to three children, two boys and a girl, and Nocona was reportedly so pleased with her that he rejected the common practice of taking several wives and remained monogamous.

Unfortunately, Nocona was also a warrior engaged in brutal war with the Anglo-American invaders, and he soon attracted the wrath of the Texas Rangers for leading several successful attacks on whites. In December 1860, a Ranger force attacked Nocona’s village. The Rangers mortally wounded Nocona and captured Parker and her daughter, Prairie Flower.

Returned to Anglo society against her will, Parker was taken to her uncle’s farm in Birdville, Texas, where she tried to run away several times. However, with her husband dead and her adopted people fighting a losing battle to survive, Parker apparently resigned herself to a life among a people she no longer understood. Prairie Flower, her one connection to her old life, died of influenza and pneumonia in 1863. Depressed and lonely, Parker struggled on for seven more years. Weakened by self-imposed starvation, she died of influenza in 1870."

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/may-19/cynthia-ann-parker-is-kidnapped

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia\_Ann\_Parker#/media/File:Cynthia\_Ann\_Parker\_(4819386194).jpg

We are so back, cowboys.

By Josh Rosenberg

Published: May 15, 2026 6:00 AM EDT

I didn’t think that Yellowstone could ever recover from its fifth and final season. All credit due to Taylor Sheridan—the writer hit a niche in the prestige TV market like a bullseye when the Western drama first debuted in 2018. Yellowstone’s story about a family fighting to protect their Montana ranch sounds like a no-brainer in hindsight, even if HBO famously turned it down. But Sheridan didn’t just rejuvenate the Western by putting cowboys on screen and yelling “dance!” as he shot bullets at their feet. There was something honest about how easy he made it all look, and it hit home with a wide section of America with no connection to Succession’s cold board rooms or Euphoria’s California high school hedonism. Audiences ate it up.

Then, Rome collapsed. The beauty of Yellowstone’s rolling mountain ranges faded and the characters’ dedication to persevere against all odds suddenly wasn’t a quality shared by their off-screen counterparts. As the Duttons fought to protect the American dream, the evils of the modern world prevailed behind the scenes. A feud over contracts and film schedules led to a rushed and haphazardly written series finale. Even worse? Yellowstone’s sequel spinoff, Marshals, turned one of the show’s leading characters into another cog in cable’s boring churn of task force procedurals. But just as the fire appeared to dim on Yellowstone’s future forever, Dutton Ranch rolled out a story surprisingly worthy of carrying the torch.

How? Well, to put it simply: Dutton Ranch is Yellowstone season 6. It’s not, contractually. And Paramount certainly can’t say it is as long as the network hopes to keep it streaming on Paramount+ and not Peacock—where they sold the initial streaming rights to Yellowstone six years ago. But after just a few minutes into the first episode of Dutton Ranch, it’s clear that the latest spinoff series is just Yellowstone with a new name and two very familiar faces.

Squint your eyes hard enough and that DR brand might just look like a “Y.”

When we last saw Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) at the end of the Yellowstone series finale, the couple aimed to start a new life for themselves. Daddy John Dutton (Kevin Costner) was unceremoniously assassinated in his bathroom off screen, and Beth’s brother Kayce (Luke Grimes) sold the family ranch to the Reservation. So, with nothing left to tie them to Yellowstone, Beth and Rip move to Dillon, Montana, and pick up right where we left off—at peace.

Any Yellowstone fan can probably guess where the series heads next, because peace isn’t exactly something the Duttons are afforded for more than five minutes at a time. As their ancestor Elsa Dutton narrated (often) in 1923, “Violence has always haunted this family … and where it doesn't follow, we hunt it down. We seek it.” So, the couple’s peaceful night’s sleep out in the fields of Montana is interrupted by a sudden wildfire that destroys everything they’ve built. Whether it’s God punishing them for their sins, some sort of Dutton violence curse—as Elsa suggests—or just shit luck, it doesn’t matter. Beth and Rip are now forced to pick themselves up, move to Texas (where Sheridan lives, conveniently), and start again.

It might be Reilly and Hauser’s series, but Bening steals the show.

This time, the roles are flipped. The Duttons are the newcomers encroaching on another ranch that has prospered for generations. The Jackson family, which owns everything in Rio Paloma, Texas from their plantation-era mansion, is run by matriarch Beulah Jackson (Annette Bening). Viewers hoping to see Ed Harris in the villain role will be surprised to find Bening playing against type instead, but the Duttons’ cunning new foe can certainly handle the part.

She’s joined by her two sons, the strait-laced Joaquin (Juan Pablo Raba) and his fuck-up of a brother Rob-Will (Jai Courtney). The latter is a wild card of a man so rashly destructive and racist that the writers gave him two first names—and no character ever abbreviates it. Rob-Will is immediately a problem for the Duttons, as well as a problem for Courtney if he ever wants to escape drunk cowboy typecasting after this one. But a plot involving a murder occurs early enough in the series that figuring out what to do with dead bodies without the convenience of the Train Station is a decent way to raise the stakes right away.

Elsewhere, Harris pals around as a local veterinarian and unbothered grandpa, whose exact role in this story is harder to figure out. Finn Little returns as Beth and Rip’s adopted son, Carter. He’s having an awful time trying to fit in at his new school. There’s also Rip’s sole ranch hand Azul (J.R. Villarreal), who knows everyone in town and likely bears some sort of dark secret of his own.

Once Dutton Ranch figures out a plan for Ed Harris’s character, we’re off to the races.

For the most part, Dutton Ranch is the grand return of Yellowstone that Marshals isn’t. I’m remaining hopeful that I won’t open the closet to see that Paramount and Dutton Ranch’s creative team stuffed a mountain of mess inside just waiting to pour out. Perhaps showrunner Chad Feehan departing the series before it even aired is just a sign that Sheridan actually wanted his hands on the wheel a bit more than he originally planned. Dutton Ranch has more of a traditional writers’ room, and I’m a bit worried what we might lose without Sheridan running the rodeo.

But at the same time, you can’t say that his one-man show is always right on the money. From what’s I’ve seen of Dutton Ranch so far, it seems like the Sheridan magic has rubbed off on them anyway.

In a scene near the end of Dutton Ranch’s premiere episode, Beth returns to their cozy cabin following her first spat with Bening. When she tells her husband that they have to get creative about finding a place to turn their cattle into prime angus beef, Rip takes a long sip of his Coors lager and delivers a line that’s certain to kill with fans: “Glad you’re making friends, honey.” Alongside the badassery, cattle-wrangling B-roll, and side plots about the dangers of snakes on the ranch, it’s just one important ingredient that makes Dutton Ranch finally feel like home again.

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a71310138/dutton-ranch-yellowstone-review/

"Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything with love." (1 Corinthians 16:13 NIV).

Lord, give us courage, in Jesus' name. (Art by Tyler Crow, used by permission. Thanks, Tyler, and God bless you.)

Please check out today' poem, "Lawman," and the daily "Pass the Reins" devotional at: https://www.godshorsebackgospel.com/daily-poem/lawman

Thanks, and God bless your day. (Please share.)

Stream the first two episodes of Dutton Ranch available now only on Paramount+.

Hi everyone, a friend of mine is writing recaps/discussion pieces of Dutton Ranch! I really hope you don't mind me dropping them here. It's hard out there for a freelancer and every view helps.

No worries if you aren't interested! 🙂 Hope you're enjoying the show! Would love to know what you all think!

https://thephrasemaker.com/2026/05/15/unexpected-storms-strike-paradise-in-dutton-ranch-episode-1-recap/

https://thephrasemaker.com/2026/05/15/family-problems-run-riot-in-dutton-ranch-episode-2-recap/

From last Saturday's episode of Saturday Night Live, featuring Sarah Sherman and guest host Matt Damon.

New series "Dutton Ranch" is bringing Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler back to our screens… and adding Ed Harris and Annette Bening to the mix 👀🤠

The complaint alleges Cameron used a photograph of Kilcher from 2005 as a facial reference while developing the character, later portrayed by actress Zoe Saldaña in the film series.

Kilcher, who is Quechua-Huachipaeri from the Madre de Dios region of Peru, is seeking damages tied to the franchise and pursuing claims under California’s deepfake law.

—

Source: Reuters, Konbini

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/disney-james-cameron-sued-allegedly-misusing-actors-face-avatar-2026-05-06/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/qorianka-kilcher-james-cameron-unauthorized-use-likeness-avatar-1236589497/

https://youtu.be/\_bO6Y9ucFWA?si=OgD7Oo8LWM1i2MLe