by Enss, Chris
Sometimes for their supper they enjoyed a skunk roasted whole: hunger induced me to eat a piece of the liver. When they killed a prairie chicken, Big Squaw threw it away instead of allowing me to cook it. I would have been grateful for such a delicious morsel.
Another encounter with Big Squaw came one day when I became warm and let my blanket fall to the ground. Several squaws carried axes for the purpose of felling trees. At length I decided to get my blanket, which lay behind the large squaw who was trimming off the low branches of a tree. She did not see me, and as I stooped to pick up my blanket, she drew her ax back to chop into the tree trunk, the blunt end of the ax cut a gash in the top of my head—not a very deep one—but, though slight, it bled quite freely.[13]
Sophia German was twelve years old when she was beaten and raped by her captors. Mochi was one of those Sophia saw drive an ax into her father’s head.
Item #781, Call #B German Family 2 Kansas State Historical Society
Catherine German was the oldest of the German sisters captured and tortured by the Cheyenne Indians in 1874.
Item #772, Call #B German Family 1 Kansas State Historical Society
Adelaide and Julia German. Adelaide was five years old when she witnessed the murder of her parents. She and Julia were held hostage together for several months.
K/978.1/lS2 Kansas State Historical Society
Exactly how long and how far the Indians rode hauling their prisoners behind them is unclear. Prior to their arrival at the Cheyenne’s main camp sometime after September 24, 1874, Catherine noticed that her mother and sister’s scalps had been divided into five pieces. She surmised that it was to represent the number of persons they had killed in her family.[14]
By the time the first snow fell in 1874, the Indian band that Catherine was with had ridden into New Mexico. She recounted in her memoirs years later:
The wind had ruthlessly stripped the trees of joy, comfort, and the real necessities of life, but hope and faith were left to me. I had occasion to recall the words of an invalid lady with whom I stayed for a while in Sparta, Tennessee. She had said to me one day, “The Indians out West sometimes take little girls.” I had carelessly replied, “If they get me, they will let me go.” At that time, August 1874, I entertained no thought of captivity by the savages, but now when such was a reality, I courageously longed for deliverance, or that some way of escape might be possible. While these aborigines of America were not fearing pursuers they seemed to have a good time visiting and eating. I believe that they could eat more food, or, if necessary, they could fast longer than any other human being I have ever known.[15]
Catherine was handed over to a Cheyenne Indian couple while Mochi and the other members of the Bowstring Society continued their raids on settlers in the northern plains. She survived almost three months not knowing the fate of the three sisters from whom she had been separated. Finally, in early December Catherine caught sight of Sophia at the edge of a canyon in New Mexico, where she had been living with her Indian caretakers. Catherine recounted several years later:
She was sitting on a horse, bareheaded but otherwise well wrapped up. She had become so tanned by exposure to the sun that her complexion resembled that of an Indian and I did not recognize her from a distance.
What a joyful meeting that was. We cried and cried for joy, but that did not please the Indians who seemed to think that tears meant weakness, so they said we must be separated. However, we were together all that evening and part of the next day. A short time after we really began to visit, Sophia said, “Have you seen Julia and Addie?” I was astonished and it was several seconds before I could speak in reply. I was wondering if she was in her right mind. At last I answered, “I dreamed last night that I saw them both, alive and well, but I have not seen them, nor do I ever expect to see them again.”
Sophia replied, “They were alive a month or six weeks ago, for I saw them.” Then she told me how it happened that she saw [our] sisters. An Indian came to Sophia one morning just after sunrise and motioned her to follow him. She was afraid to go, so he took her by the arm and pulled her along and released her only after they were in a lodge. The Indian wanted her to see the white captive children recently brought to camp. Sophia saw a little figure lying there on some blankets. Soon she recognized her seven-year-old sister Julia who was so weak and dizzy that she could scarcely sit up. Julia told Sophia that when the Indians first left them they motioned for them to follow, which she and Addie did for a while, but the Indians were soon out of sight. At last they wandered along a creek and found a place where soldiers had once camped. Here the children found grains of corn scattered about where the horses and mules had been fed; crackers and other scraps of food were there. These, Julia and Addie ate, and when this food was gone, they gathered the ripe plums, hackberries and wild ripe grapes from the trees and vines. They also ate tender stems and roots of wild onions and other harmless plants.[16]
According to the December 12, 1874, edition of the Neosho Valley Register, by December 8, 1874, the United States cavalry was closing in on the Cheyenne raiding parties. An army scouting party from Fort Wallace had discovered the bodies of the German family several days after they had been slain. A family Bible was found at the scene and the dead were identified. The scouts reasoned that the missing children had been abducted. When news of what had happened to the German family reached people at outposts and settlements they demanded the girls be found. Soldiers in the panhandle were ordered to spare no effort in their search.[17]
Mochi was aware that the military was pursuing her and the other tormented Cheyenne in her company. Indian hunters and trackers kept a vigil on their itinerant camp and alerted the tribe whenever soldiers were in the vicinity. Dressed as a typical warrior and carrying a hunting rifle, tomahawk, and butcher knife, Mochi proudly followed Medicine Water from the campsite to the open plains, always running and hiding from tenacious troops. Mochi never wavered in her desire for vengeance. She daily recalled the details of how her family was killed and how quickly she lost everything dear to her.[18]
From the moment Colonel Miles and the infantry units in his command that rode with him during the autumn of 1874 were tasked with locating the German girls, the Cheyenne were continually on the move to avoid being captured. Miles divided his troops into three columns, and they swept over the plains in an attempt to drive Mochi, Medicine Water, and their allies into the troops stationed along the border of Texas and Indian Territory. At times food was lacking for the Cheyenne and their horses. Game was scarce, buffalo in particular, and the time that was needed to hunt for anything to eat was spent keeping ahead of the army.[19]
General Nelson Miles was a United States soldier who served in the Civil War and Indian War. He led troops on a mission to rescue the four sisters taken by Mochi and the other warring Cheyenne.
Library of Congress LC-DIG-Stereo-1S02855
In the account of her captivity, Catherine German noted:
The severity of the winter was one of the best allies the soldiers could have had in subjugating the Indians. The ponies and horses were dying by the hundreds from starvation. The Indians were forced to eat the flesh of those starved animals, thus saving their own lives. I became very hungry for bread, fruits or vegetables. Even grains of corn would have been relished.
One night I went to bed hungry, and dreamed that I crawled along a lightly traveled wagon road and searched for grains of corn. Later I dreamed that I saw little sisters, Julia and Addie, walking toward me. Then I awoke to regret that it was only a dream.[20]
On January 15, 1875, the chief of the tribe that cared for Catherine called her to his lodge and handed her a note written by General Nelson Miles. The note informed her that Julia and Addie had been found alive. A column led by Lieutenant Frank Baldwin had located the village where the two girls were living. The soldiers fought the Cheyenne in a skirmish that lasted more than four hours. During the battle the Indian women and children managed to flee the area with the tribe�
�s herd of ponies. The cavalry eventually overtook the Cheyenne village. Julia German was hiding under a buffalo robe when the soldiers found her. Addie was racing in and out of the lodges looking for her sister. She was so weak from hunger that she fell down a number of times trying to get to Julia.[21]
The Indians who had Catherine and Sophia decided to leave their campsite. The girls were ordered to help pack the tribe’s belongings and they all set out in a northeasterly direction. According to Catherine, knowing her sisters were alive gave her and Sophia the “courage to endure hardships.”[22]
Five days after Catherine received news about Julia and Addie a second note was delivered to the camp. An English-speaking Kiowa Indian had been sent by the United States Army to track the Cheyenne and present the message to Catherine. The military feared the girls might be killed if they tried to overtake the Indians en masse and believed the Kiowa stood a better chance of reaching the captured teenager. Catherine recalled some time later:
From beneath his blanket he drew a package and handed it to me. I unwrapped it at once and was delighted to find a photograph of dear little sisters, Julia and Addie. General Nelson Miles had sent the pictures to me. . . . On the back of the picture was pasted a message, “To the Misses Germaine [sic]: Your little sisters are well, and in the hands of friends. Do not be discouraged. Every effort is being made for your welfare.” I wanted to show the picture to Sophia, so that she might share my joy, but the Kiowa wished the return of it at once.
You may be sure I found Sophia as soon as possible. She was in a lodge not far from the chief. These guardians seemed to be taking special care of their captive. Sister was much pleased to know that I had seen the picture of our sisters and to hear the encouraging message written on the back of it. The cheerful thought that efforts were being made for our benefit by the Major General of the United States Army helped us to take courage and to hope that soon release would come.[23]
Colonel Miles was determined to rescue Catherine and Sophia. Throughout the bitter winter months of 1874–1875, he and his troops relentlessly pursued the warring Plains tribes. Little by little, the bands surrendered, and some were forthcoming about where the girls could be found. Military dispatches were sent to reason with Indians reluctant to admit defeat. They were promised safe passage to the reservation only if Catherine and Sophia were alive and well.[24]
It was almost evening on March 1, 1875, when the two oldest German girls were led onto the Cheyenne Indian reservation. The military had crushed the Indians’ ability to resist. Slowly they moved to army garrisons to surrender. The band of Indians holding Catherine and Sophia captive were the last to give in. Mochi and Medicine Water were a part of that band. In her memoirs of her time as a Cheyenne captive, Catherine noted:
Soldiers from the military headquarters came to meet us and for one-half mile they lined the road on both sides. They waved their caps and shouted welcome to us. I cannot tell you how very, very glad we were. We cried and cried for joy as we rode into safety among our people. “Safe at last! Safe at last!” were the words that repeated themselves in my mind. Our hearts were full to overflowing, of gratitude, both to God and to the brave men who had rescued us.
Sophia and I were taken first to the Mission school where the white ladies greeted and welcomed us. How sympathetic, good and kind they were to us poor orphan girls. We must have looked very forlorn to them; our hair unkempt, our bodies thin; and our faces and hands roughened and weather beaten.[25]
My first inquiries were for the welfare of our two small sisters, Julia and Addie. I learned that they were in good care at the home of Mrs. Patrick Corney in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. We needed to rest and live under quiet conditions. The newspapers reported that the two older German girls had been surrendered by the Indians and were living at the Mission school. Many interested travelers stopped to see us. These visitors increased in numbers until the military officers considered it best to station a guard at the door of the school. For a fortnight, all inquirers who wished to see us were asked to go to headquarters and obtain a pass in order to be admitted by the guard. Although we were very thin, we were not especially weak; our strenuous life with the Indians had kept our muscles hard and firm. Sophia’s weight was sixty pounds and mine only eighty. Sophia was twelve years and six months, and twenty days after we arrived at the Cheyenne Mission school I celebrated my eighteenth birthday.[26]
The German girls weren’t the only ones suffering from malnutrition. The majority of the Cheyenne Indians were half-starved as well. The buffalo was all but gone, having been hunted by white men to near extinction. At thirty-four, Mochi’s face was weathered and gaunt, and her eyes were cold and desperate. No one seemed to recall the agony that began for her at Sand Creek as she rode past the troops behind her husband.[27]
Mochi wrestled with the military guards who pulled her from her horse and corralled her with the other members of the Bowstring Society that had surrendered. Some of the Cheyenne were led to quarters where they could settle into their new living environment comfortably. Mochi and Medicine Water were placed in irons and taken to the guardhouse.[28]
1. Grace E. Meredith, Girl Captives of the Cheyennes: A True Story of the Capture and Rescue of Four Pioneer Girls, 1874, 17–20; Peter Harrison, Mochi: Cheyenne Woman Warrior, 9–10.
2. Harrison, Mochi: Cheyenne Woman Warrior, 9–10; Patrick M. Mendoza, Ann Strange-Owl-Raben, and Nico Strange-Owl, Four Great Rivers to Cross: Cheyenne History, Culture and Traditions, 75; Meredith, Girl Captives of the Cheyennes, 17–20.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Harrison, Mochi: Cheyenne Woman Warrior, 9–10; Meredith, Girl Captives of the Cheyennes, 23–26.
8. Meredith, Girl Captives of the Cheyennes, 23–26; Harrison, Mochi: Cheyenne Woman Warrior, 10–13.
9. Harrison, Mochi: Cheyenne Woman Warrior, 10–13; Meredith, Girl Captives of the Cheyennes, 20–21.
10. Meredith, Girl Captives of the Cheyennes, 20–21.
11. Neosho Valley Register, December 12, 1874; Harrison, Mochi: Cheyenne Woman Warrior, 11–13.
12. Harrison, Mochi: Cheyenne Woman Warrior, 11–13; Meredith, Girl Captives of the Cheyennes, 25–29; Neosho Valley Register, December 12, 1874.
13. Meredith, Girl Captives of the Cheyennes, 25–29.
14. Ibid., 31.
15. Ibid., 29–30; Neosho Valley Register, December 12, 1874.
16. Meredith, Girl Captives of the Cheyennes, 57–59.
17. Neosho Valley Register, December 12, 1874.
18. Mendoza et al., Four Great Rivers to Cross, 75–76; Harrison, Mochi: Cheyenne Woman Warrior, 13–15.
19. Harrison, Mochi: Cheyenne Woman Warrior, 13–15; George E. Hyde, Life of George Bent Written from His Letters, 361–62; Patrick M. Mendoza, Song of Sorrow: Massacre at Sand Creek, 146.
20. Meredith, Girl Captives of the Cheyennes, 56–58.
21. Hagerstown Herald & Torch Light, December 2, 1874; Hyde, Life of George Bent, 363–65; Meredith, Girl Captives of the Cheyennes, 70–71.
22. Meredith, Girl Captives of the Cheyennes, 70–71.
23. Ibid., 71–72.
24. Hyde, Life of George Bent, 363–65; Hagerstown Herald & Torch Light, December 2, 1874; Harrison, Mochi: Cheyenne Woman Warrior, 14–17.
25. Harrison, Mochi: Cheyenne Woman Warrior, 14–17; Meredith, Girl Captives of the Cheyennes, 86–87.
26. Meredith, Girl Captives of the Cheyennes, 89–90.
27. Harrison, Mochi: Cheyenne Woman Warrior, 14–17; Hyde, Life of George Bent, 364.
28. Harrison, Mochi: Cheyenne Woman Warrior, 18–19; Mendoza et al., Four Great Rivers to Cross, 75; Linda Wommack and John L. Sipes, Jr., “Mo-chi: First Female Cheyenne Warrior,” Wild West Magazine, April 2008.
Chapter 9
Life at Fort Marion
Mochi watched the activity in the camp through the iron bars on the window of a cell. The residents of the Oklahoma Territory garriso
n were busy with their regular duties: stacking cords of wood, practicing marching drills, and cleaning their weapons. Some of the soldiers were collecting money and clothing for the German girls. Mochi had heard from the Indian prisoners who spoke English that the girls’ suffering “appealed to every sentiment of sympathy in the warm hearts and gallant men who rescued them.” A total of $185 had been collected and would be presented to Catherine and Sophia before they were to be sent to join their younger sisters in Kansas.[1]
Shortly after Mochi arrived at the Darlington Cheyenne Arapaho Agency near El Reno, Oklahoma, she had stood with the other renegade Indians to be identified by the German girls as the ones who attacked their family. Both Catherine and Sophia pointed to Mochi and, holding back the tears, told the onlookers what she had personally done. “She is the one who chopped my mother’s head open with an ax,” Sophia announced. Mochi did not deny it. Like the other Cheyenne who witnessed their loved ones slaughtered at Sand Creek, she considered her actions no more disturbing than those of the soldiers.[2]