Captured By The Indians: Into Day Two

Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas! Yesterday I started a new series about the capture of an 11 yr old boy down in Central Texas in the year 1870 by Apache Indians.

While the treatment of the main character of the story, Hermann, is harsh and even brutal at first, I wanted to explain that this was a time of war to both whites and Indians. Some Indians and some whites considered each other to be deadly enemies.

The situation in 1870

I don't want to paint either side with a broad brush because there were also peaceful members of each group trying to get along and live in peace. Some had already gone to government reservations.

Some Indians considered the white settlers as being a opportunity for trading goods with and the same with some whites and they helped each other out in terms of supplies.

The truth is, in the vastness of the Great Plains stretching from Mexico to Canada it was rare to have skirmishes with Indians and even more rare to be kidnapped by them. But there WERE cold blooded killers on both sides of the conflict and both sides committed atrocities.

After some Indian raids on settlements at least some members of the Texas Rangers regarded any Indians as open game, hunting season...and would kill any man, woman or children they found... like animals.

The Indian's point of view

From the Indian Leaders' perspective...all they saw in regards to the white man were death, destruction and broken treaties.

Their food supply was decimated by the U.S. federal government encouraging and sponsoring the slaughter of millions of head of buffalo to starve the tribes into submission so they could round them up and put them on reservations.

Which also meant they were losing their freedom, their lands, and their very way of life. So for those Indians who chose to fight back against the onslaught of the white man's expansion...well, you can understand why they would not be very kind to settlers like Hermann's family.

All kidnapped enemies have it rough

There was also another reason for the harsh treatment of kidnap victims. Not just with the Indians but all through history captured enemies were treated harshly to exhaust them and to break their spirit so they wouldn't try to escape.

Now back to Hermann's story

In the last post Hermann and his little brother Willie, age 8, were snatched away from their family farm and were tied up and put on ponies heading who knows where. After riding for some time the Indians saw several loose horses so all the braves except the chief rode off to collect them.

When they heard shots fired the chief walked a ways off to see what was going on and at that point the two boys made a run for it but Willie couldn't run fast enough and the chief caught him and Hermann stopped also. The chief beat on them some and took them back. He gagged them so they couldn't shout.

The first night of rest(partially)

When the other braves got back with the horses they'd gathered the group rode out until evening when they stopped at a river. The boys were tied up securely and everyone laid down to rest. No fire was made and no food was eaten.

In the middle of the night they were roused up and mounted again and rode off and the group split up, taking Willie with one group and Hermann stayed with the chief. Two scouts were sent back to make sure they weren't being followed and to cover any tracks they could.

source

The way it worked with kidnap victims is whoever captured the person was the owner and that person, like Hermann, was the slave of the owner. So Hermann was the chief's property and responsibility.

During the night they came upon a calf laying down and the chief motioned for Hermann to go grab it. So he jumped off his horse, caught the calf and held it down. The chief came over and slit it's throat, sliced it open and cut open it's stomach.

A meal to remember

The chief scooped out the globs of soured milk and ate it. Although he hadn't eaten since the morning before, Hermann was sickened by what he saw and smelled. His gut retched.

When the chief motioned for him to eat it and he shook his head no, the chief grabbed his head and smashed his face into the stomach contents and smeared it all over his face!

You're eatin this one way or the other!

He forced some of it down Hermann's throat but he threw it back up. The chief then cut out the kidneys and liver and forced Hermann to eat some of that but he threw that up too. The chief gathered up what had been thrown up and forced it down his throat again and Hermann would throw it up again.

Then the chief soaked the raw organ pieces in the warm blood and forced him to eat it yet again. This time the warm blood seemed to settle his stomach and he kept it down. The chief then took him to a water hole and washed his face off, put him on the horse with him and met up with the other braves.

This ain't your mama's cooking

Now this sounds revolting but the chief was making sure Hermann had some sustenance and nutrition to keep going, he was taking care of him actually! lol. Just not in the way that his loving mother would have. That's some hard training.

I think Hermann's life is going to be tough for awhile but he's alive and being taken care of...somewhat. His story continues in the next post.

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!

-jonboy
Texas