Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas! We're in a series about the Wild West and the story of an 11 year old German boy, Hermann, who was captured by an Apache war party from his family's farm in 1870 in Central Texas.
In yesterday's post Hermann's band got tired of sitting around while the soldiers were keeping track of their every move so one day when the soldiers weren't there the band took off for New Mexico. They had a great time there of hunting deer, bear, and wild sheep and living in total freedom.
Those mountain sheep were big animals and good eatin:
Everything was going great until some type of deadly disease or pestilence broke out among them and they started dropping like flies. One of those that died was Hermann's adopted mother, the wife of the chief, so this was a great loss for the tribe.
Especially for Hermann because he was known as her property because she had taken him in and accepted him as her own. Remember when that warrior died on the battlefield and they killed his horse and put it beside his grave?
Well, it was their custom to put everything that the person cherished, their valuable possessions, with them at burial. If the person had a horse they killed the horse. The chief's wife had two dogs which she loved so they killed the two dogs and buried them with her.
Nothin personal kid, this is tradition
The problem for Hermann was that he was considered one of her possessions so they were getting ready to kill him too! He was already in shock that she had died, being the only kind and loving person that he knew there and now he was being led to his own death.
He was escorted to a spot close to the burial plot and several warriors had their arrows in their bows and he figured he was about to leave this earth when suddenly a young Indian maiden rushed up to him and threw her arms around him, hugged him tight and started pleading for them to spare his life.
And they did. For some reason they let the scrawny white boy live! It was one of many miracle deliverances that Hermann experienced.
I think his mom and family never stopped praying for him. He thought they were all dead but his brother Willie had made it back home and told them that Hermann was still alive and with the Indians. So I think this is an example of Divine Providence.
Meanwhile..
The sickness was wrecking havoc on the tribe and many were dying. The Medicine Man couldn't figure out what to do so he went up on top of the mountain and spent the night praying to the Great Spirit about what to do to save his people.
Hermann said it was so cold he thought the old guy would freeze to death but he came down the next day with a plan. Apparently the Great Spirit had told him what to do!
Here's a photo of a genuine Apache Medicine Man. I don't know who this one is but who knows, it could be the one from Hermann's tribe! At any rate, I think of him as looking something like this:
The Medicine Man told them to go dig a hole by the river, start a fire and put big rocks in that hole. When those stones were red hot they were put into a Wigwam which they'd made as close to air-tight as they could get.
The treatment
Next the people who were sick were stripped down and put in there and sweated it out like crazy, very detoxifying I reckon, get those poisons out.
They stayed in until they couldn't take it any longer(and these people were tough so I bet they were in there a good long time) and as soon as they came out they were submerged in the nearly ice-cold river water!
Yeah they were instructed to keep them in the water for several minutes.
Then they were pulled out and rubbed real hard with wet grass and rough blankets. Then they were wrapped in buffalo robes and given a very strong, bitter tea made from a local plant.
Unfortunately Hermann didn't know what plant it was but it was made from the root of a local one.
Everyone had to undergo this treatment, the sick first, then the well. Not a single other person died from the sickness, it healed them all!
Hermann's adventures continue on the next post.
Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas