The Captured: A True Story of Abduction by Indians on the Texas Frontier

Very well-written and researched documentary on the 19th century Indian depredations on the Texas Plains. Highly recommended.

It says a lot that most, if not all whites, who were captured by North American Indians, came to like the lifestyle and resented being re-captured.

I was pleasantly surprised at how good this book is. Author Zesch has turned out what should become a minor classic of Texas and Western history. "Captured" is about the experiences of nine White children captured by Comanches and Apaches from 1865 to 1871. The children lived among the Indians for up to 12 years. Several of them were members of the large German-speaking community which settled in the Texas Hill Country west of San Antonio. As the author wryly notes the only career path for Comanche men was "warrior" and the author details many of the brutal battles between Comanche and Texan. There are massacres and atrocities and gore galore here, but also a bit of humor and humanity. White children captives were often treated kindly and adopted into the tribe. Despite being eyewitnesses to the murder of their families, several of the male captives profiled by Zesch came to prefer the wild and free life of a Comanche warrior to that of a Texas sodbuster. Most notably, Herman Lehmann was one of the last few Comanche holdouts to surrender to the Whites in 1878 and he was a willing and enthusiastic participant in many battles against White soldiers and raids on White communities. Zesch also details the inability of the freed captives to readjust to life as Whites. Most became alienated drifters and a few later rejoined the defeated Comanches on reservations in Oklahoma. Many also lived to ripe old ages. There are many volumes of stories about Whites being taken captive by and living among the Indians. This is the best I have read. The author delves into reasons why so many White captives came to prefer living among Indians rather than returning to their own culture. Smallchief

The author manages to work some humor into this wonderful account of Indian captives on the Texas Frontier. Indians were noted for their generosity and this sometimes worked against them, even when they could have used the income. Zesch relates the story of one captive who wrote his life story many years later, but ended up giving away copies to almost everyone instead of making some money, which he sorely needed. There's a lot of sadness in this book, too. Many of the captives lived the remainder of their lives never quite living fully in either the white man or the Indian's world.