Name: The Captured
ISBN: 9780312317874

Scott Zesch

A True Story of Abduction by Indians on the Texas Frontier

The Captured

Dana Kraft

I liked that this was about individual stories of kids taken into a completely "foreign" culture and then returned to their "native" culture. It's easy to see how they would have wanted to stay with their new life rather than return to the old one. One of the things I learned was how miserable life on the frontier actually was, even before the threat of violence or robbery from Indians. I've read that before, but its interesting how clear that became to these kids.

The most haunting story I'll remember is from the last chapter when the author describes an Indian agent report about how the government would issue beef to the Indians. "...He described how the government agents provided the Comanches with five or six cows, which they chased and killed in a sort of mock buffalo hunt. ... I don't think Uncle Adolph wanted to live in a world where his fellow Comanches chased government-issued cows around an enclosed arena." That made me think about how we all try to preserve memories or traditions from the past, and how absurd those efforts may seem to an outsider.

The Captured A True Story of Abduction by Indians on the Texas Frontier

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