Captured By The Apache: Hermann's Tribe Takes A Beating

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 war party from his family's farm in 1870 in Central Texas.

For Hermann it's been the Wild Wild West! The kid has been through an awful lot in a short period of time but has proven himself to be a tough little warrior even though he's been forced into it.

He still has his White Man's thinking at the same time. In other words, he's still a reluctant warrior after being with them for several months.

In the last post he narrowly escaped getting scalped by Comanches and his tribe battled them all day before they withdrew. Well, since they didn't much like the idea of the Comanches coming back in greater numbers they decided to leave and made another camp farther North.

Today's story

Their scouts found two Comanche scouts, one was ambushed and killed and the other was taken captive and brought back to camp.

Apache trackers:

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Hermann's "owner/chief/adopted father" Carnoviste, cut holes in the Camanche's arms and rawhide cords were passed through those holes and he was hung on a tall Mesquite tree.

A shunned squaw joins the enemy

The idea was that he die a slow and painful death but during the night a squaw without a nose cut him down and ran off with him. Now, I don't know if this was the same squaw who had been punished for adultery in an earlier post and had her nose cut off as the penalty. Maybe there was more than one.

At any rate, he was gone but that incident comes back to haunt them later in the story. The tribe moved on for another sixty miles and found an ideal camp with a spring. It was perfect and they wanted to make it a permanent settlement or base camp.

The only problem is, one of the warriors had a dream that they were overpowered by Camanches and suffered a huge defeat. So they leaders got together and decided to move on. When they got another 20 miles or so they were surrounded by a large Comanche force.

Comanche warriors:

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Apparently they hadn't found all the Comanche scouts and their movements had been tracked. They lost dang near everything in the battle that followed. All their horses and supplies were taken, they lost about 40 warriors, almost all their women and children were taken too!

Hermann survives again

Amazingly Hermann was spared again without harm but it was only him, about 100 warriors, 6 women and some kids. Oh, and the chief, Carnoviste. But they had no supplies and were on foot. They were in despair but survived, wandering toward the South for about a month.

Finally they were found by a group of 150 Apaches who had surplus horses and supplies as well as guns.

A distress call goes out to the tribes

Hermann's band were determined to get their women and children back so they sent scouts out in all directions to tell the story and for all Apache to gather at one of the lakes.

Messengers were sent to all tribes:

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Hermann didn't say which lake it was but over the weeks warriors came in from all directions and numbered in the thousands to help them rescue their women and children. The great chiefs like Geronimo and Victorio and Red Wasp also arrived and gave speeches.

Here's a picture of Victorio on a book written by Kathleen Chamberlain. I haven't read it but I bet it's a great book.

Victorio was a legendary leader and warrior who was never caught or defeated by the United States Army, he turned himself in when Geronimo eventually surrendered.

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Here's a little of what Victorio said:

I fear not the Comanches myself, neither am I afraid of their allies, the Kiowas; but these tribes are strong among themselves and greatly outnumber us. Besides, the whites furnish them with guns and powder and lead, to help exterminate our tribe.

The white man is the Indian's enemy, and the Indians must quit fighting among themselves and all go together to fight the palefaces. While I was gone I saw as many palefaces as there are sprigs of grass on the plains or stars in the sky, and if we continue to fight each other we will all be exterminated by the white men."

And here was Red Wasp's opinion:

"We do not fear the cowardly palefaces. The have robbed us of our hunting grounds, they have destroyed our game, they have brought us disease, they have stirred up discord among our own race, they have intimidated our braves, they have made profligates of our children, reprobates of our wives and destroyed our traditions.

They have wrought despair and desolation to our tribe and for my part I am ready to fight until I fall. As to the Comanches, our grievances are great and the cause of the war is just, and I'll be glad to kill them when they come, kill them as they killed our companions..kill them...kill them.

And if we must die, let us fight to the bitter end. I want to fight."

Will the tribe agree with Victorio's logical call-to-arms for all Indians to unite against the whites or will they vow to continue their age-old blood feud? And how do they get their women and children back?

We'll find out in the next post. Thanks for reading folks!
-jonboy
Texas