Wanada Parker Page (1882-1970)

She was born in 1882 in Indian Territory. Her Indian name was Woon-ardy Parker. “Woon-ardy” in Comanche means “Stand Up and Be Strong,” because she was weak in the limbs and had to walk on crutches for a long time.

Mrs. Page had also been given her mother’s name, Weckeah.

She attended Chilocco Indian School, then in 1894 was sent to Carlisle Indian School, Pa. where she remained several years with her half-brother Harold (oldest of Quanah’s sons) and her half-sister Neda.

At Carlisle, her name was spelled at first “Juanada” until it was objected that she was not Mexican or Spanish. She was baptized under the name of “Annie” in 1895 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Carlisle, but nobody called her that.

Wanada attended the Fort Sill Indian School for about a year, about 1903, living in a girl’s frame dormitory.

In 1908 she married Walter Komah, a Comanche. They went to Mescalero, N.M., where he died of tuberculosis in 1912.

Wanada returned to Lawton shortly after that. She worked at Fort Sill Indian School as assistant matron while her sister Alice was a student.

In 1915 she became a nurse’s aide at the Fort Sill Indian Hospital and it was during her work there that she met her future husband, Harrison Page. He was a white soldier in the Medical Corps assigned to the Station Hospital at Fort Sill.

They commuted by street car during their courtship and were married on Dec. 18, 1916.
In her later years, Mrs. Page attended the first Parker Family Reunion at Fort Parker, Tex., in 1953, when the Indian Parkers of Oklahoma and the white Parkers of Texas held their first annual get-together