Customer Reviews

Nine Years Among the Indians, 1870-1879: The Story of the Captivity and Life of a Texan Among the Indians

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In events strikingly similar but less well-chronicled to those taking place on the Northern Plains, the 1870's witnessed the demise of the Southern Plains Indians--Apaches, Lipans, Commanches. Enter this young Henry Lehmann, an eleven-year old white taken from his frontier family by an Apache raiding party. Over the next ten years he matures from captive slave to fully "Indianized" warrior, only to ultimately (and reluctantly) reunite with his family. This amazing firsthand account details Indian life as it reached a violent climax with encroaching white settlement. A real page-turner and a must read for those interested in Plains Indians and Texas frontier history.

An absolutely mesmerizing account of the capture, survival and ultimately return to frontier Fredericksburg, Texas. An insiders look at Native American existence, its differing cultures, its taboos and its different forms of organization. It is not a pretty picture.

After spending a lifetime watching Westerns this was an eye-opener for me. I was a history major in college (back in the ice age) and there was very little information about Native American culture available. A great follow-up to the book about captive children in the late 1800s by Zorn.

The older farmers of my childhood remembered the last Indians from a time before plows and pavement. Ours was an Indian land not long ago. This man's sharp memories, though not for the squeamish, are a window on that world before and while it was snatched from them. This is a fascinating book - a fast, enjoyable read.

Herman Lehmann was a name mentioned a few times within my family as a boy growing up. Others were Korn, Fisher, etc. I was born in Texas. My Mother was Choctaw, born 1902, my father,1895, a descendent from hard core Texans that fought with Sam Houston. My Mother's people were moved from Mississippi to Oklahome where some reside today. I have read many stories concerning the lives of various tribes but I think Herman hits the nail on the head when it comes to the Apachie and Comanchie, however he does not speak for them all.In the seventies,I lived as a missionary among the Navaho and others. I found that each tribe place their values of life somewhat different.
Herman's life is interesting and educational. Several college professors have used his documented eventful life as source.
A good book, buy it!

Fascinating read, yet must be read with the realization that this is a picture of a culture under intense (mostly wartime) stress and flux. The account happens at a time of major population incursions of whites into native lands and a time when native groups are being pushed into each other's subsistence territories by such incursions. It also occurs at a time when a number of destabilizing introductions (such as horses and guns) have recently come into native communities. Keep in mind that this picture of Apache & Comanche culture is about as reflective in the broader, overall sense as an German soldier's account of his life from 1916-1946 would be of overall German culture down through the ages. Read in proper historical context, this book is excellent. Read as a sweeping generalization of Apache life, it is bound to give a skewed impression.

This book is a good antidote to the familiar modern view of all American Indians as proto-flower-children. The fact is that some tribes were not at all nice and, in fact, worked hard at deserving the term "savages." Unfortunately, the public is not encouraged to distinguish among tribes and cultures. There is gross irony in modern liberals and pacifists championing an idealized memory of thorough-going warrior cultures, in which the principal measure of one's stature was how many scalps hung from one's accoutrements.

My brother attends a family reunion in Texas yearly and learned that the author of this book is our ancestor who wrote the book as an adult. It's a fascinating story of a young boy who was captured by the Indians and tells about his experiences living among the native Indians of Texas. I've ordered this book for my grandchildren and extended family who have enjoyed it as much as I have. One can visualize his story and feel as though you are experiencing his life with him. Excellent autobiography!

If you are going to be stolen by raiding Apaches, you'd better hope you are made of the same kind of mesquite and hickory as little eleven year old Herman Lehmann. This is one of America's wildest tales of hardship and adventure, and nobody can tell it better than the sufferer and endurer, Herman. By the time it is over, the multi-lingual Herman stands out as one of the most fascinating characters in any time or place- EVER. He adopts the Apache culture until he pretty much out-Apaches even the hardest raiders. A small miscalculation of liquor and temper and a well- or ill-placed blow set him adrift even from the Apaches, who give a whole now definition to the term "wild-asses." You'll never think of Plains Indians the same way again- its not a racist or cultural problem, it is just that the folks who capture Herman are just hard to imagine from where we are sitting now. His life with them (he became a fearsome raider, too), and then as a hunted outcast who finds refuge with his former enemies the Comanches after a truly Biblical sojourn absolutely alone on the plains, hiding, for over a year....and then-- goes back to white "civilization" and tells us the wildest tale of all- how he re-integrated and then led a pretty normal life (he was not somebody you'd want to talk ugly to in the local saloon, but hey).

This book is a thousand things, all of them astonishing. Let's just say, if you are a captive, and some scarred old warrior offers you the guts out of a baby antelope that has been roasted, whole and alive in a bonfire that might also be used to.... well, just do as Herman did and chow down with all the enthusiasm you can muster.

Hal Herring

Must-read book for scholars of Indian life. Rare account of man who lived in both Indian and pioneer cultures on the frontier, in the last days before Indians were forced onto the reservations. The only bad thing is this book is too short, only 238 pages. If only it were twice as long. Normally, the risk in historical narratives is that narrators may lie or exaggerate, but this captive's story is so matter-of-fact, and his affection for his Indian family so palpable, that his amazing story is likely 100% genuine.

The finest aspect of this book is the unvarnished truth about frontier violence, without the politically correct drivel Hollywood producers and educators force-feed us. The narrator describes nonstop violence against white settlers, without emotion, dozens of raids to steal pioneers' horses and property, and kill and scalp as many pioneers as possible, including pioneer women and children. Politically correct dingbats portray Indians as noble good guys, and whites as the bad guys, but this book reveals both were humans, and humans often behave as violent brutes. You then understand why white soldiers responded in kind, attacking Indian villages and sometimes killing Indian women and children.

Most accounts of killings are not so detailed that readers are not grossed out by the details. Mainly the accounts of killing/scalping are just sad. Some victims were buffalo hunters destroying the Indians' food source, others just pioneers trying to make a life on the frontier. One particular description is gruesome: the treatment of hated Tonkaways, a tribe that sided with the whites.

The description of arrowhead manufacture differs from any I've ever read, and his description of buffalo hide shields is unique.