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This is a photograph of Juliana (Julia) Arminda and Nancy Adelaide (Addie) German, who were taken captive with their sisters, Catherine (Kate) and Sophia, by Cheyenne Indians after their family was killed. On September 11, 1874, the John German family, consisting of his wife and seven children, were attacked by a band of Cheyenne east of Ft. Wallace, Kansas. Only four of the children, Catherine, Sophia, Julia, and Adelaide, were spared and taken captive. The two youngest, Julia and Adelaide (aged 7 and 5), were subsequently abandoned on the prairie in what is now the Texas panhandle. Catherine and Sophia were kept by their Cheyenne captors. Fort Wallace received word of the killings, and began the search to find the girls, and to negotiate their release. They found Julia and Adelaide, who had survived on their own for 6 weeks, and on March 1, 1875, the Cheyennes formally released Sophia and Catherine German at the Darlington Agency in Indian Territory (Oklahoma). The two girls were reunited with their younger sisters, Julia and Adelaide, at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. The photograph was copied from Girl Captives of the Cheyennes by Grace E. Meredith.
Date: Between 1870 and 1880
Item Number: 308801
Call Number: B German family *3
KSHS Identifier: DaRT ID: 308801
Collections - Photograph
Date - 1870s
Military - Wars - Indian Wars
Objects and Artifacts - Communication Artifacts - Documentary Artifact - Book - Illustrations
Objects and Artifacts - Communication Artifacts - Documentary Artifact - Photograph
People - Women
Thematic Time Period - Immigration and Settlement, 1854 - 1890
Type of Material - Photographs - Format - Cabinet cards
http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/308801