Indian Captive: The Story Of Mary Jemison (1995) - Plot & Excerpts
“It don’t matter what happens, if you’re only strong and have great courage.”Molly’s life at home before being kidnapped: “There was always a load of anxiety there, reflected in her mother’s face and her father’s stern words. A load of worry which pressed down up on her naturally light spirits and brought sadness to her heart.”Her father’s behavior after having been taken captive: “…her father walked like a man in a dream and if he heard, he gave no sign. Outwardly he looked the same…but his forceful, fiery, boastful spirit—that was gone.”“Long afterwards, there was one thing that molly was to remember—the tender beauty of that fair spring morning on the Pennsylvania meadows—April 5, 1758. More than the terror of the Indians’ war-whoop, more than the shock of sudden death and capture, the pain and suffering of rushing flight—or by very contrast with these horrors—the beauty of that April day stayed always with her. The beauty of that sweet April day, when all the buds were bursting, was shattered by what happened and cried out in protest against it.”“But now she gave no thought to her appearance. She forgot that people washed their faces and combed their hair. All she lived for was to push on, ever on—to sleep for a while and eat sometimes to gain strength to push on again.”“Corn! All their life was bound up with corn. Corn and work. Work to grow the corn, to protect it and care for it, to fight for it, to harvest it and stow it away at last for winter’s food. So it was always, so it would be always to the end of time. How could they live without corn?” This is as true a statement today as it was in the days of the first settlers. Not that most of us grow our own corn, but corn has found its way into almost every part of our diet.Interesting information on the Native American tribes of the Finger Lakes, my current home: “They are like families living together in one great Long House, with a door at each end. The Mohawks are the Keepers of the Eastern Door and the Senecas are the Keepers of the Western Door. The Oneidas and the Cayugas are our younger brothers; while in the center, the Onondagas keep the council fire always burning. The Senecas have the power of swift feet. They can outrun any animal in the forest. And so, beside their camp-fires they are never content to remain. Far and wide over the face of the earth they roam, protecting their people, putting down their enemies, and searching always for good hunting-grounds. The Senecas have built villages by the River Ohio because here the soil is black and rich. In the winter they sometimes go as far south as the mouth of the River Sciototo hunt, because there the hunting is good. Always there are Senecas making the long journey from Genesee Town to the River Ohio and back again.”“The Indians lived closer to growing things and to the animals than the white people did. They knew and understood them better. They accepted them as friends to be cherished, not enemies to be destroyed or conquered.”“She was living in two places at once, her body with the Indians, but her spirit where she wanted to be—at home with the white people.”“The days passed slowly after Josiah went away. The sun seemed to have lost its brilliance; the sky was no longer blue.”“Perhaps the Englishman was right—she ought to hate the Indians for the crime which they had committed against her—but in her heart there was no feeling of revenge, no hate. It was only war that she hated—war which set nation against nation; the French against the English, and the poor Indians between them both. It was war which had deprived her of her family. As she had suffered once in losing her family, so did the Indians suffer like losses, over and over. Her loss was no greater than theirs. No, by coming to the Indians, she was the richer. She had learned much that she might not otherwise have learned. No matter what lay in store for her, she was willing now to go out to meet it. All that she had suffered in coming to the Indians would make the rest of her life easy by comparison. No pain, no sorrow which the future held, would be too great to bear...Washed clean by pain, she faced the future unafraid.”
Civil rights and equality have made a lot of headway against racism in the last century. "Well, duh," some might say."But there's still so far to go!" others might protest.I personally grew up without any particularly scarring incidents of racism. Sure, I got made fun of for my small eyes and flat face, but so did the white girl with the big nose and, personally, I think she took it a lot harder than I did. It's great that the social norm is no longer racism and that we're seeing more diversity in media, arts, and culture. It no longer amazes me to see unbiased news reports about minorities or television shows featuring more ethnic characters.What amazes me is when I find fair treatments of minorities from books written over fifty years ago, before the civil rights movement was in full swing.Lois Lenski wrote and illustrated Indian Captive in 1941. The new cover makes it look all modern (and kinda creepy, actually), but the story is old.It's based on the true story of Mary "Molly" Jemison, who was captured and then adopted by Seneca Indians. Her family was killed in that very raid. Instead of fighting against her captors and hating them and escaping at the first opportunity (although she certainly did try), she learned to love them and appreciate their culture. After a while, she adopted the Seneca right back.The real Mary Jemison lived with the Seneca for the rest of her life. She married twice, to Indian men both times. She finally gave an interview at the age of eighty to describe her capture and eventual assimilation into the Seneca tribe.The book is a pretty faithful treatment of Seneca life. The Indians that adopted Molly were mostly kind, but there were certainly some exceptions. There were parts of their culture that Molly learned to love, but other parts with which she was unable to reconcile herself.It's a children's book, so don't expect to see any gory scalpings, and some might argue that the book is biased toward Native American culture. But considering when it was written, I'd say that it's pretty remarkable that a book this kind to an Indian tribe that kidnapped a young white girl and killed her family was even published.Is it the most compelling book ever? Probably not; it was a little plainly written, even for 1940s children's lit. But it was interesting and educational and a darned entertaining read.Mary Jemison would approve.
What do You think about Indian Captive: The Story Of Mary Jemison (1995)?
I read this historical fiction book for the first time when I was in the fourth grade. This novel is based on the life of Mary Jemison who was captured by the Iroquois Indians as a young child. She was adopted by a family and loved as if she were their own. Many years later, she truly was Iroquois in her thoughts, heart, and in all her being; except, she had blonde hair. When she was finally found by surviving family members, she was a young woman, and refused to leave her new Indian family. Mary didn't know her real family anymore and didn't even remember how to speak English. Mary's relatives did not force her to come back to "civilization" with them. She remained with the Iroquois all her life. This book made such an impression on me; I wrote a term paper on Lenski and her research for this novel, when I was in college. I also bought my daughter her own copy of Indian Captive and one for me, too!
—Debbi DuBose
Bought this book thinking I'd add to my Newbery book list, turned out it was only an honor book not the actual winner for the year. I felt really sad the entire time I was reading it and well after. It is such a sad circumstance Mary "Molly" Jemison was thrust into, having been captured and her family killed. Even the kindness of the Indians when they assimilated the yellow-haired girl into their tribe couldn't erase the sadness of being plucked away from where you belong. As a kid, that is a really hard thing. I also feel for the Indians who, of course, wanted no part in the war between the French and the Englishmen but was nonetheless thrown into the middle of it all. They who were the real owners of the land who were asked to give up their rights to it when all was said and done. But I suppose such is the circle of life, the cost of progress and the rise and fall of civilizations. It is a good book but for a children's book, I'm giving it 3 stars.
—Psychogroupie
I recently found a box of books that I hadn't opened for many years. In it were several books from my youth that I had wanted to read at some point. Indian Captive was one of them.I really enjoyed this story much more than I thought I would. Lois Lenski did a good job of helping me feel a little girl's turmoil at being kidnapped from her family and forced to live among people she didn't look like or understand. Lenski did a lot of research for this novel, and so I felt as though I learned quite a bit while reading. I had no idea that Native Americans used a kind of "eye for an eye" system when it came to human lives: for every Indian the white men struck down and took away from an Indian family, the Indians would capture a white person in exchange. This white person would be scalped with the scalp presented to the lost Indian's family, or the captive would be presented to the family so that they could decide to torture him or her to death or to raise him or her in place of their lost loved one. Mary Jemison was lucky: her Indian family decided to raise her as their own. They nurtured her and taught her their ways. Several years after she first came to the Indians, Mary was offered the choice of leaving to resume living with the "pale-faces" (though she had learned by this time that her family had been murdered a day or two after she was separated from them). But she chose to stay with her Indian family. At any rate, this book made me curious enough to search out more about Mary (Molly) Jemison. Someone was smart enough to get her account of her life before she died, and it is available through the Gutenburg Project online. I read through that as well, and it was every bit as fascinating as this fictitious account led me to believe it would be.
—Deirdre
