Blork?

[rolanni]

It's cold, and it's going to get colder. So there.

In other news, Kinzel and I switched what we have of our respective projects; I just finished emailing the first 25,900 words of Sword of Orion to its fond editor, and am now going to curl up in a chair and read about Indian abductions of adults between 1750 and 1870, firsthand accounts, written by the people themselves. The book on child abductions in Texas in the 1860s and 1870s was ultimately a little disappointing, as the author could only infer why and how the captive children assimilated so easily into Indian culture -- and had no insight into why they found re-assimilating into their birth so difficult. There is, however, a pretty good bibliography, including at least two books written by former captives, so all is not lost.

Comments

I have known about the abductions my entire life, as a seventh generation Texan.

[noiseinmyhead.livejournal.com]

And that my father delt in Americana and had a very soft spot for Texana. It is my personal belief that the hard time reassimilating problems were a kind of survior guilt mixed with rather harsh judgements of the "white"s as to "improper" behavior.
there is a very politiaclly incorrect set of comics called the _texas hitory movies_ that I remember as having one of these stories.....I'll see if I can find Dad's copy.

Re: I have known about the abductions my entire life, as a seventh generation Texan.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I was thinking fear of being punished for various crimes against whites when they were Indians. Also, it didn't seem as if the parents had Any Clue about what their kids had gone through, or any idea why they couldn't just pick up where they'd been before experiencing a Serious Life Changing Event.

A long time ago, I'd read about ...Cynthia Ann Parker? Quanah Parker's mother. And how after she was returned, against her will, after living with and as an Indian for twenty-four years she was often locked in her room by her loving family, because, for some reason, she kept trying to run away and rejoin her husband and sons. Go figure.

there is a very politiaclly incorrect set of comics called the _texas hitory movies_ that I remember as having one of these stories....

That sounds interesting...

[gingerwood.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that the cold you are getting is the stuff that finally moved out of MN this morning.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Sigh.

Perhaps reading my journals backward is bad. Is this for a specific idea, or something that is starting to noodle? I can ask the PhD for suggestions, if needed, although sounds like you have a good start.

One of my great-great (etc.) grandfathers was adopted, and half native American--we think Choctaw, but are no longer sure--and he had a reputation as a very quiet man. There are no stories left about him, which is unusual in my families--we have stories on both sides about people. I suspect, watching how my grandparents handled living in OK-TX with this in their history, and the fact that my Ex's grandmother could never decide if she was more embarrassed that her husband was a bootlegger, or that he was 1/8 Cherokee, that whites in this part of the world really wanted it to Never Have Happened.

Also--although I think the violence was less with the Cherokee (on a comparative scale,) to Texans "Indian" meant the fierce tribes of south Texas...unbowed, fought to the death...there was probably a desire to erase any Indian traits as quickly as possible in those recovered. A friend, a writer down here, is part Comanche (?), but I doubt his family advertised that, a few decades back.

My best friend from childhood is named Wanada, the feminine version of Quanah--she was named for her aunt, who was named for Parker's son Quanah--he was a good friend of her grandparents back in OK. I might be able to get some anecdotes from her....

[deb-krol.livejournal.com]

Okay-I'll bite. Why are you reading abduction stories?

And are these people mostly women, perhaps? You do know that abduction was a fine old tradition amongst the Plains tribes as a means of avoiding inbreeding, righto?

...all indigenous peoples [or all that I know of] have a strong inbreeding taboo. We consider breeding with close relatives to be a 'sin,' if sin as the Judeo-Christian system denotes applies to Native peoples. It's Simply Not Done, you see. How else do you keep from reinforcing lethal recessives when you don't have gene testing?

An associate of mine at a science Website where I did my internship once styled the various forms of clans, ritual abductions and the like as "social solutions to a biological problem." I just call it common sense.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Why are you reading abduction stories?

Beats the heck outta me. My backbrain has very odd reading habits. Bye-n-bye it'll let me know what it's up to.

And are these people mostly women, perhaps?

Actually, no. The book on the Texas abductions followed nine children -- two girls and seven boys. The understanding I got from the text was that boys were the preferred abductees -- which makes some sense, given this was 1860/1870 and the Comanche and Apache needed warriors to go against the encroaching white settlers.

The book I'm into now is a collection of first-hand accounts of adult captives on the East Coast between 1750 and 1870. I've only read the first two -- both men.

I'm not interested in the widening-of-the-gene-pool aspect of the matter as much as I am the process of acculturation. The children, for instance, seemed to accept the Indian culture readily, but very few of them were able to re-acculturate, if that happens to be a word, once they were returned to their birth families. Granted, a couple of the kids were with the Indians for years, and had been on raids and were full-fledged members of the tribe, so it was going to be difficult to impossible to return home and go back to being a kid again. But the children who were only with the Indians for six or eight months had similar -- if not more -- difficulties re-adapting. In fact, I think it's fair to say that none of the abductees followed ever re-adapted. Very curious.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

According to my uncle, the brother of one of our ancestors was abducted by the local tribe, became a tribe member and then went on to gain a reputation for killing white people when he was older. (The reputation may or may not have been true.) If it wasn't for the fact that his name escapes me, I'd do some research on the story.

[deb-krol.livejournal.com]

Okay--I've thought about this for awhile now. I think there may be a reason here--but I hope I don't sound ethnocentric or [heaven forbid!!] ethnosnobbish [he he].

There may be a couple of reasons here--the first being that they may have simply found Native cultures to be more to their liking. For instance, women enjoy more status in Indian cultures; in several tribal cultures, women hold the economic power, while men hold the military and/or political power. The Clan Mothers of the Northern Woods tribes come to mind here--or Navajo culture, where inheritance is passed through the matrilineal side [although this factor does _not_ apply to all tribes!] Whereas, at the time, the Judeo-Christian viewpoint related women to a subservient role--maybe this is a case of 'how you gonna keep 'em on the farm after they've seen Paree' scenario.

As for children--here my theory won't hold so much water [except that, in virtually all Native cultures, children were far more nurtured and endured far less physical disclipline than their American counterparts]. Or it could simply be a case of subconsciously resisting further change.

Then, there's the external factor--after all, when the captives returned, I get the impression that they were expected to not be 'right' somehow. As in, we need to reeducate them...maybe they're having such a hard time reacculturating because they have been convinced that it is hard...kind of like reverse psychology.

One thing for certain, if I had a choice between living in the Navajo or the American world in the 1800s, I'd choose Navajo every time! [being a female, that is...]