What happened to women stolen by the Comanche? In my STEAL ME AWAY...

In my STEAL ME AWAY, Fancy Turner is stolen by a Comanche chief to become his bride. A few Anglos did become willing brides of this fierce Indian tribe of the south Texas plains.

More often than not, these captured women were raped, scalped or skinned and left to die. The Comanche felt they had cause to do such acts. Having their lands taken and their hunting game driven off by the new settlers—Anglo and Tejano—the Comanche were also decimated by the diseases of the settlers from which they had no natural immunity. Cholera and small pox swept through tribes with cruel ferocity.

But some Comanche seized settlers for other reasons.

Women were stolen, as Fancy is, to replace women lost to the diseases or to natural childbirth. Some were taken out of a feeling of attraction, as Fancy is. Was such possible? Yes. Definitely. Here in south Texas, many powwows occurred between the long knives and the lords of the south plains. On many occasions, white men and women met and conversed and traded with Comanches.

Children were taken to replace those lost to raids or disease or natural causes. Many of those children, if given the opportunity, returned to their original homes and families, but more often than not, they left and returned to their Indian families. Acculturation is a strong magnet.

One of the most recent non-fiction books to describe an Anglo child's capture is this one, EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER MOON, about Cynthia Parker who remained with her Comanche husband and gave birth to his son, Quanah Parker, one of the most famous Indian chiefs of the last century.

One reader today wrote to me to ask if there was more to Fancy's story. Oh, yes, there certainly is! MAKE ME YOURS is the second installment in her story, coming soon.

And the person in Bravado who writes her story is none other than the great grand daughter of Fancy, and grand daughter of Blade, the son of Bull Elk and Fancy!  Look for BIND ME CLOSE very soon!