Captured By The Apache: Hermann Meets Another Captive German Boy

Apache design used on pottery, rugs, baskets, etc, don't ask me what it means lol.

source

Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas! We're in a series about the Wild West and the story of an 11 year old German boy, Hermann, who was captured by an Apache raiding party from his family's farm in 1870 in Central Texas.

He's been with them now for several months and has been in training to become a warrior. The kid has been through it physically and emotionally and has been told that his family was all killed(which was not true, they were fine).

But Hermann's been broken down and at this point in the story has been in the process of being remade into an Apache warrior. He felt his compassion leaving him and his will to survive has meant having to cast off emotions and feelings of caring about others.

He was being hardened on purpose and he embraced that in order to survive. It's the same principle of joining the Marines. They get you to boot camp and suddenly you have to forget everything you knew of your old life and how you did things and even how you thought.

Now there is only one way and that is the Marine way. They remake you in THEIR image so they can turn you into a killing machine(or so they hope). Part of that process is breaking you down and reprogramming you. Same principle used by the Apache in this story.

He has now seen death and has decided he wants to live and will do whatever it takes to stay alive.

Hermann meets another German boy!

An interesting incident happened to Hermann one day while out with a raiding party. They were camping at a lake when they were approached by a group of Comanches.

They were friendly and shared the camp for the night. The Comanches had with them another German boy by the name of Adolph Korn who was ten years old.

Adolph had actually been captured just like Hermann was, from his family's farm in Central Texas by Apaches but they had traded him to the Comanches for a horse, a pistol, a new blanket(those hand-weaved blankets were beautiful) and some trinkets.

Side note

Adolph had a slightly different experience than Hermann in that he didn't undergo brutal training. He injured himself falling off a horse so he wasn't of much use to the warriors for a time so a kind squaw took him in and treated him like her own son.

He lived with them for three years and became a warrior, even participating on attacks on the settlements that he came from according to research done by his great, great, great nephew.

The chief took Adolph to Fort Sill where he and two other kidnapped children were returned to white society. Try as he might he never could quite fit in and was very troubled, reportedly kept stealing things, like horses, because that's what he had done with the Comanches.

Police records show that he committed many offenses. Eventually he moved into a cave in the Hill Country of Central Texas and lived as a hermit for the rest of his life, which was short, he died at only 41 years of age.

This is a photo of the cave Adolph lived in, this is his great, great, great nephew who wrote an article about him, Scott Zesch :

source

He had a chance to go back to the reservation but he didn't want that either. It was hard to get his whole story because unlike Hermann he didn't talk about it and refused to talk much about it.

But apparently he loved the freedom of the nomadic lifestyle of the Plains Indians.

The two boys got together and of course they spoke in German so no one could understand them and they hoped the two groups would stay together long enough to plot an escape.

Unfortunately, the Comanches left the next morning and took Adolph with them.

It makes me wonder what might have been if they'd been left together.

I got sidetracked with Adolph's story today but tomorrow we continue with Hermann's testing when he's forced to take his first scalp.

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!

-jonboy
Texas