Hermann's Restoration Begins

This painting reminds me of Herman because he would go down to the river to be by himself and the Title of this is called Solitude. The artist is one of my favorite Western painters named Zhou Shu Liang. I know, the name isn't what you'd expect.

He moved here from China in 1982 and started painting American Indians. His paintings are always historically accurate and the details are phenomenal. He's friends with many Indians on reservations across the country.

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Howdy folks, greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

We're in a series about the Wild West and the incredible 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.

He's now 19-20 years old at this point in the story and has become a full blown warrior who hates and fears the White man. And in fact, has taken many a scalp. He's been with the Comanche for a few years now.

Yesterday's post

In the last post Herman finally made it home to his family but at the time he didn't remember any of them, not even his mother and he hated being there.

Today's story

The whole town had a big celebration feast for Herman but he was trying to stay away from everyone which was pretty much impossible to do. When they lead him to the feast table he immediately was repulsed and refused to sit down.

That's because they had a fine roasted pig but the Comanche didn't believe in eating pig so he refused to sit down. Through sign language he made known the problem and after they removed the pig he sat down.

He didn't explain why they believed it was wrong to eat pork, maybe he just accepted it and didn't ask.

The mist of forgotten memories begins to lift

Herman kept hearing his name over and over and it sounded familiar to him.

He finally realized that was his name. His younger brother Willie and Mina stayed close to him and he finally started to remember them as his playmates when they were little kids.

Well shoot, he was 11 when he was taken, Willie was taken at the same time at age 9 but was released after a week.

Now Herman was 20 years old and a seasoned warrior so he was not the little boy his mother remembered! He was actually a cold-blooded killer.

He looked a sight in his Indian clothes and the townspeople examined him closely in their curiosity when he first arrived.

He was lonely and felt isolated

He felt all alone among the Palefaces, even though he WAS one. And even though he knew Willie and Mina was his brother and sister he still didn't want to be there and planned on going back with the soldiers.

They knew that and his family got him side tracked by showing him something while the soldiers slipped away. It was awkward for Herman but not really for his mother or Willie or Mina.

It could have been but they refused to be offended no matter what he did.

In fact, they were the perfect example of walking in love.. no matter what.

And he was pretty bad attitude-wise. He was aloof and indifferent to them but they treated him with love and kindness and nothing he could do changed their attitude.

Herman longed for his old life out on the Plains

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Nothing but love and affection

The soldiers told Mina what he liked to eat and how he liked his food, as much as they had learned from him on the trip down, and she did the best she could. If he refused to eat then that was fine with them.

Herman had a really nice room prepared for him with a wonderful feather bed but he refused all the Paleface luxuries. Instead, he insisted on sleeping outside with only a blanket.

They gave him a few horses and cattle, hoping that ownership of them would help encourage him to stay. (plus they were hoping he wouldn't steal any horses if he had his own!)

"Stick to that boy like glue!"

He stayed away from as many people as possible but he couldn't shake Willie, who became his constant companion and who worked on teaching him the culture and language which he'd completely forgotten. (this was his mother's strict instructions).

He shunned white man's clothes and would often times paint himself and with leggings and breech-cloth and feathers, show up in the hotel lobby among the guests and freak them out because he appeared as a savage Comanche warrior! lol. I'd loved to have seen that!

Yeah, he probably looked similar to this guy:

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He's not exactly taking to the Paleface culture but we'll see how it goes in the next post.

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas

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This is another one that I like from the great Zhou Shu Liang. It's called "Sharing the harvest." Obviously Indian maidens are gathering berries and one of them is sharing with a warrior.