Until Peta Nocona died, he had taken care of his sons. Quanah Parker had not learned that his mother was White until Cynthia Ann Parker was abducted and forced back into White society, and he learned he was of mixed blood. Neither of his parents had discussed his white ancestry before. According to Quanah Parker and his warriors, Peta Nocona was a broken and bitter man after Pease River. He was never the same after his wife was taken from him, and died sometime around 1863 or 1864 of complications of old war wounds incurred fighting the Apaches, and from grief at the loss of his wife and infant daughter.