Nine Years Among the Indians, 1870-1879: The Story of the Captivity and Life of a Texan Among the Indians Paperback – 7 April 2018

It really is a fasinating book that accounts a life that few have experienced. I purchased it on a whim and didnt regret it. A chance to read an almost diary like real life experience from such a dramatic time in american history.

This is a story of a white boy who is captured by Indians and lives with them for nearly a decade in the American south west. There's no "revisionist" plot here, nor indeed any other type of slant on this story. It's simply told as it happened. The stark image of the tribes involved really does paint them for what they are. A Stone Age society in decline due to the encroaching civilisation of the white man. things are brutal and life is often cheap, not only other people's lives but one's own, depicted by the decisions made that bring the individual glory or death. There's a feeling that the indigenous people are indeed civilised, but their civilisation is far behind the rest of the world at that time. Bravery and the ability to fight and steal are highly prized. But the image of the noble savage, with this story tells us that their nobility is somewhat different than a modern person would imagine. Despite the fact that this is biographical and therefore has no thought out structure that a novel would, It's utterly engrossing. Anyone with a passing interest in the Old West could do a lot worse than read this.

Nine Years Among the Indians is a wonderful book. If you're interested in history, this is a stark, factual account of life as an Indian. I couldn't put it down. I learnt how to make arrowheads, what parts of a beef to eat first, raw! I learnt about the stoic bravery of a young boy, stolen from his kin fighting to be accepted and survive.Thankyou Herman Lehmann for putting pen to paper and furnishing us with this amazing unadorned first hand account of Indian life.

Truthfully, I don’t know what to make of this. Herman Lehmann was captured by the Apache when he was about 11 yeas old. Once accepted, and that was a tough journey, he became an Apache brave, hating and killing the white man, often for no other reason than to steal his horse.The book is full of various raids on white settlements or wagon trains, often resulting in loss of life, and Lehmann describes them as ‘We did this, we did that,’ admitting he was involved.In other words, he learns to become a brutal sadistic murderer, scalping his victims without a twinge of conscience. Which begs the question of nurture or nature? Is it Lehmann’s innate qualities (nature) or his personal experiences (nurture) that determines the behavioural traits of a killer in him so easily.And yet when he finally finds his way back to civilisation and his mother at (I think) the age of 20, he’s welcomed back, accepted, worked with and held accountable for absolutely none of these murders!I’m aware that one of the worst blunders one can make is to project on the past the present frame of mind, so although the fundamental dispositions and characteristics that humans are said to naturally have don’t change, the worldview and morality - the distinction between right and wrong or good and evil - of any given period in time does. But having said that, Herman Lehmann, between the ages of 11 and 20 was thoroughly evil, and no amount of civilisation can cure that.He makes out that approaching the last days of his life he’s a lovely cuddly grandfather figure. But I can’t see it.Which is why I’m finding it hard to believe this book. He claims that so many incidents happened during his wild life that he never tried to remember the details, but then goes on to relate such details as killing a buffalo, making sauce out of the water, honey (that he got from a bee-cave) and tallow, and spreading it over the meat after it had beenwell roasted. Then cutting the hide of the yearling to make lariats. And all of this was just one day in particular.Another time, he’s lost the tribe, he has 300 miles to walk across the desert, he shoots rabbits, can’t find water then arrive. WHAT! After walking 300 miles on his own! And actually finding his way!No, not for me, I don’t believe it! It's readable, but it doesn't hold true.

Short and to the point

True story of Herman Lehman who was abducted by the Apaches when just 11 years old and trained as a warrior. He tells of the raids he went on and in time soon forgot his family. He later joined the Comanches and got to know Chief Quanah Parker well and was adopted into the Comanche tribe. It is a fascinating read, and as with many other books I have quite often read how white males and white female captives have little desire to be returned to their own people.

In Chapter XLIV - Other CaptivesI assume a Kindle scanning error rather than in the original book, since this was a famous event. It concerns the three Kiowa chiefs who were arrested by Colonel Grierson for what later became known as the Warren Wagon Train Raid. Two of them have similar names, however the scanned text conflates them.Correction:Satank (Sitting Bear), Satanta (White Bear) and Ado-ete (Big Tree) were arrested at Fort Sill and sent to be tried at the state court in Jacksboro.Shortly after they had set out, SATANK sang his own death song, cut or chewed the skin on his wrists away to escape his handcuffs, attacked the guards and was killed by them. His body was left on the road, so that the Kiowas could collect it for burial, but they were too afraid to, so he was buried by the army at Fort Sill at a place later known as Chief's Knoll (his name on his gravestone is SET-ANGYA).SATANTA was then taken with Big Tree, tried, and imprisoned twice. He took his own life by jumping from a prison window, was buried nearby, and in 1963 reinterred at Chief's Knoll by his grandson. In the interim, the Knoll had become the burial place of several chiefs of the Comanche, Arapaho and Kiowa.Big Tree served his sentence and returned to the reservation, avoiding further confrontations and living out his life as a chief there.It's important that these kinds of errors are corrected, they are important to Native American history as a whole, since the three men were the first Native chiefs to be tried as civilians on criminal charges, rather than treated as military leaders of a warring nation.

This was a page turner, as the subject matter is fascinating and I’ve always wondered what Indian life was like. Though the author died about a century ago, the events of the 19th century are not so long ago and are told in a compelling manner. One thing that caught my attention was the fact that the young man, celebrating his return to his family, was repulsed at the sight of roast pork on the table. He had learned to eat wild game raw, beginning with the curdled contents of stomachs and liver and hearts still warm, but refused to even sit at a table with cooked pig. Two of the three major world religions have this aversion so there must be commonality somewhere in history!

I bought this for my husband - he is a history buff. There seems to be a series available in this larger style of book - very good info and the price is right!

Very interesting !!! Gives an honest insight in indian life and mentality , and in the life and mentality of the pioneers ! Recommended !

Passionnant ! Une vie incroyable et totalement chamboulée suite à cet enlevement. Que c'est dure pour un enfant et passionnant à lire. Violence parfois insupportable

This story is very much in the history of America, especially what this "people" did to the Indians. Terrible and almost forgotten.