Wanada Parker Page (1882-1970)


 Wanada Parker was born in 1882 in Indian Territory. Her Indian name was Woon-ardy Parker. In Comanche, "Woon-ardy" means "Stand Up and Be Strong" because she was weak in her legs and had to use crutches for a long time. She was also given her mother’s name, Weckeah.

She went to Chilocco Indian School, and in 1894, she was sent to Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. She stayed there for several years with her half-brother Harold (Quanah’s oldest son) and her half-sister Neda.

At Carlisle, her name was first spelled "Juanada," but people said that wasn’t right because she wasn’t Mexican or Spanish. In 1895, she was baptized as "Annie" at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Carlisle, but no one really called her that.

Around 1903, Wanada spent about a year at Fort Sill Indian School, living in the girls’ dormitory.

In 1908, she married Walter Komah, a Comanche man. They moved to Mescalero, New Mexico, but Walter died of tuberculosis in 1912. Wanada came back to Lawton soon after. She worked as assistant matron at Fort Sill Indian School while her sister Alice was a student there.

In 1915, she became a nurse’s aide at Fort Sill Indian Hospital. That’s where she met her future husband, Harrison Page. He was a white soldier in the Medical Corps at the hospital. They traveled by streetcar during their courtship and married on December 18, 1916.

Later in life, Mrs. Page went to the first Parker Family Reunion at Fort Parker, Texas, in 1953. This was when the Indian Parkers of Oklahoma and the white Parkers of Texas met for the first time every year.

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