Herman lehmann autobiography of malcolm x
Herman Lehmann
White captive, adopted son of Quanah Parker
This article is about a white man captured by Native Americans in For the German-born British physician, see Hermann Lehmann.
Herman Lehmann (June 5, – February 2, ) was captured as a child by Native Americans. He lived first among the Apache and then the Comanche but returned to his Euro-American birth family later in life.
He published his autobiography, Nine Years Among the Indians, in
Early life
Herman Lehmann was born near Mason, Texas, on June 5, , to German immigrants Ernst Moritz Lehmann and Augusta Johanna Adams Lehmann.
Herman lehmann autobiography of malcolm x pdf Read Edit View history. Malcolm's Malcolm is in itself a fabrication; the 'truth' about him is impossible to know. On May 29, , the United States Congress authorized the United States Secretary of the Interior to allot Lehmann, as an adopted member of the Comanche nation, one hundred and sixty acres of Oklahoma land. Grove Press then published the book later that year.He was a third child, following a brother Gustave Adolph, born in , and a sister Wilhelmina, born in The Lehmanns had another son, William F., born in Augusta had three more daughters, Emeliyn, Caroline Wilhelmina and Mathilde, but their birth order is unclear, as is their patrilineage. Moritz Lehmann died in , and Augusta married local stonemason Philip Buchmeier in
Kidnapping as a child
On May 16, , a raiding party of eight to ten Apaches (probably Lipans) captured Herman Lehmann, who was almost eleven, and his eight-year-old brother, Willie, while they were in the fields at their mother's request scaring birds from the wheat.
Their two sisters escaped without injury. Four days later, the Apache raiding party encountered a patrol of ten African-American cavalrymen led by Sgt. Emanuel Stance, who had been sent from Fort McKavett to recover the two Lehmann boys. In the short battle that followed, Willie Lehmann escaped, but the Apaches fled with young Herman. (Sergeant Stance became the first black regular to receive a Medal of Honor for his bravery on this mission.) The kidnapping site was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in , Marker number [3]
Life with the Apaches
A few months after Lehmann's capture, the Apaches told Lehmann they had killed his entire family, depriving him of any incentive to attempt escape.
The Apaches took Herman Lehmann to their village in eastern New Mexico.
He was adopted by a man named Carnoviste and his wife, Laughing Eyes. A year after his capture, General William T. Sherman passed through Loyal Valley on an inspection tour. Augusta Lehmann Buchmeier was granted a private audience with Sherman to plead for his assistance in finding her son.
The Apaches called Lehmann "En Da" (Pale Boy).
He spent about six years with them and became assimilated into their culture, rising to the position of petty chief. As a young warrior, one of his most memorable battles was a running fight with the Texas Rangers on August 24, , which took place near Fort Concho, about 65 miles west of the site of San Angelo, Texas. Ranger James Gillett nearly shot Lehmann before he realized he was a white captive.
When the Rangers tried to find Lehmann later, he escaped by crawling through the grass.
Asylum with the Comanches
Around the spring of , Herman Lehmann killed an Apache medicine man, avenging the killing of Carnoviste, his adoptive father. Fearing revenge, he fled from the Apaches and spent a year alone in hiding. He became lonely and decided to search for a Comanche tribe that he might join.
He observed a tribe all day long then entered the camp just after dark. At first they were going to kill him, however, a young warrior approached him that spoke the Apache tongue. Lehmann then explained his situation—that he was born White adopted by the Indians and that he left the Apaches after killing the medicine man. Another brave came forward verifying his story and he was welcomed to stay.
He joined the Comanches who gave him a new name, Montechema (meaning unknown).
In the spring of , Lehmann and the Comanches attacked buffalo hunters on the high plains of Texas.
Lehmann was wounded by hunters in a surprise attack on the Indian camp at Yellow House Canyon (present-day Lubbock, Texas) on March 18, , the last major fight between Indians and non-Indians in Texas.[7]
See also: Buffalo Hunters' War
In July , Comanche chief Quanah Parker, who had successfully negotiated the surrender of the last fighting Comanches in , was sent in search of the renegades.
Herman Lehmann was among the group that Quanah found camped on the Pecos River in eastern New Mexico. Quanah persuaded them to quit fighting and come to the Indian reservation near Fort Sill, Indian Territory (in present-day Oklahoma). While Lehmann initially refused to go, he later followed at Quanah's request.
Return and adjustment
Herman Lehmann lived with Quanah Parker's family on the Kiowa-Comanche reservation in – Several people took notice of the White boy living among the Native Americans.
Lehmann's mother still searched for her son. She questioned Colonel Mackenzie, the commanding officer of Fort Sill, whether there were any blue eyed boys on the reservation. He said yes; however, the description led them to believe that this was not her boy. Nevertheless, she requested that the boy be brought to her.
In April , Lt. Col. John W.
Davidson ordered that Lehmann be sent under guard to his family in Texas. Five soldiers and a driver escorted Lehmann on a four-mule-drawn ambulance to Loyal Valley in Mason County, Texas. Lehmann arrived in Loyal Valley with an escort of soldiers on May 12, , almost nine years after his capture. The people of Loyal Valley gathered to see the captive boy brought home.
Upon his arrival, neither he nor his mother recognized one another. Lehmann had long believed his family dead, for the Apache had shown him proof during his time of transition to their way of life. It was his sister who found a scar on his arm, which had been caused by her when they were playing with a hatchet. His family surrounded him welcoming him home and the distant memories began to come back.
Hearing someone repeat "Herman", he thought that sounded familiar and then realized it was his own name.
At first, he was sullen and wanted nothing to do with his mother and siblings. As he put it, "I was an Indian, and I did not like them because they were palefaces." Lehmann's readjustment to his original culture was slow and painful.
Herman lehmann autobiography of malcolm x sparknotes Carson, Clayborne While Lehmann initially refused to go, he later followed at Quanah's request. The Autobiography of Malcolm X stands as the definitive statement of a movement and a man whose work was never completed but whose message is timeless. Ask any middle-aged socially conscious intellectual to list the books that influenced his or her youthful thinking, and he or she will most likely mention The Autobiography of Malcolm X.He rejected food offered, and was unaccustomed to sleeping in a bed.[11]
Herman Lehmann's first memoir, written with the assistance of Jonathan H. Jones, was published in under the title A Condensed History of the Apache and Comanche Indian Tribes for Amusement and General Knowledge (also known as Indianology).
Lehmann hated this book for he felt Jones had taken liberty to fluff it up a bit.
Throughout his life, Herman Lehmann drifted between two very different cultures. Lehmann was a very popular figure in southwestern Oklahoma and the Texas Hill Country, appearing at county fairs and rodeos. To thrill audiences, such as he did in at the Old Settlers Reunion in Mason County, he would chase a calf around an arena, kill it with arrows, jump off his horse, cut out the calf's liver, and eat it raw.[12]
His second autobiography, Nine Years Among the Indians (, edited by J.
Marvin Hunter) was at the request of Lehmann. He requested that this time the book be written just as he told it.
Autobiography of malcolm x full text Omaha, Nebraska South Carolina. My life in particular never has stayed fixed in one position for very long. Toggle the table of contents. London: The Guilford Press.It is one of the finest captivity narratives in American literature, according to J. Frank Dobie.
Herman Lehmann's story also inspired Mason County native Fred Gipson's novel Savage Sam, a sequel to Old Yeller.[citation needed]
Personal life and death
- July 16, – Herman Lehmann married N.E.
Burke.[13] The marriage ended in divorce, with conflicting accounts of the cause.
- March 4, – Lehmann married Fannie Light.[13] The couple had two sons (Henry and John) and three daughters (Amelia, May, and Caroline).[15] Although Lehmann deserted his second wife in Oklahoma in , a divorce was never filed.
Upon Lehmann's death, Fannie Light was his legal widow.
They left Texas and moved back to Indian Territory in to be close to his Apache and Comanche friends.
On August 26, , Quanah Parker provided a legal affidavit verifying Lehmann's life as his adopted son – On May 29, , the United States Congress authorized the United States Secretary of the Interior to allot Lehmann, as an adopted member of the Comanche nation, one hundred and sixty acres of Oklahoma land.
Autobiography of malcolm x analysis: Terrill, Robert E. Throughout his life, Herman Lehmann drifted between two very different cultures. Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape "Donate to the archive" User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest. Contents move to sidebar hide.
Lehmann chose a site near Grandfield and moved there in He later deeded some of the property over for a school.
Lehmann died on February 2, , in Loyal Valley, where he is buried next to his mother and stepfather in the cemetery next to the old Loyal Valley one-room school house.
See also
References
Source material
- Greene, A.
C. () The Last Captive. Austin: The Encinco Press.
- Lehmann, Herman () []. Hunter, J. Marvin (ed.). Nine Years Among the Indians, . University of New Mexico Press. ISBN&#;.
- Pioneers in God's Hills. Gillespie County Historical Society.
- Albertarelli, Rino (& Sergio Toppi).Herman lehmann autobiography of malcolm x Forget what I wanted changed, let what you already had stand. Retrieved June 4, Ted Olinger, KP News. Download as PDF Printable version.
() Herman Lehmann - L'indiano blanco. (Coll. I Protagonisti, ) Milano: Daim Press; reprints: Cinisello Balsamo: Hobby & Work, (X); Milano: Sergio Bonelli, ; Milano: Sergio Bonelli, le Storie CULT, - Comic version.
- Zesch, Scott (). The Captured: A True Story of Abduction by Indians on the Texas Frontier.
St. Martin's Press.
- La Vere, David (). Life among the Texas Indians: The WPA Narratives. TAMU Press. ISBN&#;.
- Chebahtah, William; Minor, Nancy McGown (). Chevato: The Story of the Apache Warrior Who Captured Herman Lehmann. Univ. of Nebraska Press. ISBN&#;.
- Michno, Susan and Gregory ().
A Fate Worse Than Death: Indian Captivities in the West . Caxton Press. ISBN&#;.
- "Immigration Database". Galveston Historical Foundation.
- Tiling, Moritz: The German Element in Texas from to and historical sketches of the German Texas Singers' League and Houston Turnverein from to , Houston , 1st ed.