Captive!
Local family ambushed. Parents and three children murdered. Four sisters kidnapped.
by Arelene Feldmann Jauken
edited by Sharon Fendley
Devastated after reading in the Knoxville Chronicle of October 16, 1874
about the massacre of the German family by Indians, Thomas German of Morganton,
Ga. wrote a letter to Lieutenant C. C. Hewitt of the 19th Infantry at
Fort Wallace, Kansas. Thomas, grandfather to the four girls taken captive
by the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers on the Great Plains
near the western border of Kansas, explained his relationship to the deceased
family members and inquired about any new information regarding the survivors.
It would be months before Sophia and Catherine German would become aware of their grandparents’ efforts to recover them. They had no idea the story of their family’s massacre and their capture had been published nationwide and that many people were praying for them. Seventeen-year-old Catherine only knew that she had been separated from her twelve-year-old sister, Sophia, and believed her two younger sisters (age seven and five) had been left by the Indians to die on the Plains. While Catherine and Sophia were in two different bands of Indians, their fate was similar. Catherine had become the property of an Indian couple. Wasati and her Indian husband, Long Back, would use Catherine as a trade item to other men and couples in bartering for their own material gain. Sophia was to become an Indian wife. She had been traded by her Indian master, Bear Shield, to Wolf Robe—a man twenty years her senior.
Military dispatches continued to search for the captives as well as battle raiding Indian parties who refused to turn themselves into the reservations. Jauken relates, “On the night of November 7, both soldiers and Indians (unknowingly) camped not far from Julia and Addie, who hovered near death.” For six weeks these two younger girls had miraculously survived by themselves on the Texas panhandle. During the late afternoon three scouts from one of the groups of Dog Soldiers came upon the cold, starving orphans. After much consultation they decided to take the girls with them. Weak and frail, Julia and Addie could hardly stand and riding on the Indian ponies caused them even more pain. One member of the Indian warriors was none other than Medicine Water, the leader of the band who murdered John and Lydia German and three of their older children
The
next morning a warrior came to Sophia whose lodge was in Grey Beard’s
encampment near McClellan Creek and brought her to her little sisters.
They were so feeble and thin Sophia did not recognize them at first. Their
reunion was disturbed a short time later when a Lieutenant Baldwin and
his company of soldiers spotted the Indian encampment. With ammunition
nearly exhausted the Indians fled northward as Baldwin’s scouts, cavalry
and infantry stormed upon them. Sophia and Catherine (who happened to
be with another band in the same encampment) were placed upon ponies and
rushed away with the first Indians to leave the camp. Sophia later wrote:
“I had learned a few words of their language and my heart stopped when an Indian decided it would be best to kill my little sisters and rode back to do so. He aimed his gun and fired but missed. Later, as I saw a soldier come riding over the hill, I heard an Indian say he (the Indian) had been shot. I prayed my little sisters had not been killed.”
A white soldier almost fired when he spotted movement from a pile of buffalo robes that hid Julia German. When George James of D Company of the 5th Infantry saw the starved white child under the blankets he asked Julia her name. She told him and said, “Addie and Sophia were here a while ago.”
After a search of the other lodges the soldiers discovered Addie who
was trying to find fuel to keep up the fire and get warm. Making more
gentle seats with their arms the men
gingerly carried the children to a wagon. Nearly naked, they were still
wearing the threadbare dresses their mother had made them. Addie was bewildered
and suspicious, not sure the men were really rescue soldiers who meant
well. Weakly, Julia told the teary-eyed soldiers, “We are so glad to see
you! We heard sisters praying all the time that God would send soldiers
to deliver (us).”
Greatly moved by the condition of these frail little waifs, the soldiers collected clothing and gave them the kindest attention. Originally thinking the girls were suffering from insufficient food and traveling on the ponies of the Indians for weeks, the soldiers were astonished when they learned that the pitiful condition of the two sisters was a result of spending six weeks alone on the prairie. General Miles interviewed the girls and wrote in a report to Assistant Adjutant Lieutenant Colonel R. Williams in Leavenworth, “Their tale of woe and suffering is simply too horrible to describe.” Dr. Junius Powell was given guardianship of the girls and he gradually transported them to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas where ladies of the fort eagerly assisted in providing and caring for the girls. By the time Julia and Addie had arrived in Leavenworth Grandpa German back in Fannin County, Ga. had heard of their re-capture and was trying to make arrangements to have them returned to his family.
With the two younger sisters rescued, General Miles continued his pursuit of Greybeard’s large band in the canyon areas of the Red River. He hoped to find the two older sisters who were still captive. Catherine and Sophia were separated and each wondered about the fate of the other. Sophia was very depressed because she believed again that her two younger sisters had been killed. Catherine became more hopeful when a middle-aged warrior told her that he had seen Sophia and she would meet with her soon.
The military continued to receive bits and pieces of information from Indian reports and encounters with some Indian/Mexican traders. General Miles wrote, “We are also informed that the young ladies have been ‘traded’ frequently since their capture for ponies and other articles of commerce among Indians and that the Indians believe that peace will soon be declared and a large ransom approved.”
Although buffalo were plentiful the Indians were unable to hunt due to the pursuits of the military. Their ammunition supplies were very low and winter weather was making it difficult for them to survive. More bands began to resign themselves to life on the reservation. The military, however, was also withdrawing its forces due to the inclement weather. General Miles wrote a letter to his wife vowing to make one more effort to rescue the German girls. On December 19, two warriors reported to Miles that Chief Stone Calf had sent a message to Grey Beard to bring the white woman (Sophia) to him and he would return both women to the agency.
With talk of surrender Chief Stone Calf called Catherine to his lodge.
The old chief made it clear that he was sorry some
of his people had committed crimes against her family and that he hoped
to have the sisters returned to their own people. The next morning Catherine
was invited back to her Indian parents’ teepee. She was shocked when she
saw Medicine Water, her original captor. Knowing if Catherine was released
to her people she could testify against him, Medicine Water asked her
questions to determine how much of the Cheyenne language she had acquired.
Realizing his motive, the teenager answered him only in English or not
at all. He finally gave an exasperating grunt of disgust and left.
Catherine and Sophia suffered the deprivation and harsh winter along with the Indians who held them captive. Because of the lack of food they were forced to eat the flesh of the starving horses and dogs that were with their camp. Three weeks after hearing of her sister, Catherine was reunited with a Sophia she hardly recognized. Sophia tearfully shared her story about seeing Julia and Addie. Their tears might have been joyful had they known that thousands of soldiers were trying to rescue them and that their younger siblings were safe at Leavenworth.