A Woman of The People

The Old West #11

by Benjamin Capps

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 66-12607

Genres: Historical Fiction, Westerns, Historical, Fiction, Native Americans, Novels

242 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Benjamin Capps was an award-winning novelist and chronicler of western life. Among his works are The Trail to Ogallala, The White Man's Road, The Warren Wagontrain Raid, Sam Chance, and The Indians and The Great Chiefs (Time-Life Old West Series).

Capps was also the author of numerous published short stories, articles, essays, and book reviews. In 1991 he won the Western Writers of America Spur Award for one of his short stories, "Cimarron, The Killer." He wrote on many subjects and did not consider himself only a western writer, even though his greatest successes were western novels.

However, he was primarily interested in the past and its influence on us today. Much of his writing's appeal lies in his knowledge of the Old West's folklore. According to Capps, his writing's aim was to be authentic and "to probe the human nature and human motives" involved in his stories. His works were painstakingly researched for historical accuracy and generally explored lesser known facets of the American frontier. The Western Literature Association honored Capps with the Distinguished Achievement Award in October 1986.

Reviews

[Chrisl · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic tale from the 1960s. The one Ben Capps book I really connected with.
(Mentally, I have long blurred some of the contents with a Douglas Jones version of the same story, young white girl captured by Comanche and adapts to, embraces the culture as it is being destroyed by Euro-Americans.
Season of Yellow Leaf
***
Quoting from mid-book, the start of chapter 8. "The Wide Mouth Raid to Mexico
"She found it both easier and harder after her deed during the Lipan Attack. Every member of the band now accepted her in the way that the members of the Lance Returner lodge had accepted her before ...

"But all that could change nothing. They did not know the depth of her long determination.

"She had gained some of the things which through the years had seemed necessary for escape : strength, the ability to find food, the ability to travel a long distance on horse or foot, a considerable knowledge of the land, without the knowledge of the definite direction to go to find white people. She still had the puzzle of the white people, of what they had done to themselves with the war they had fought; though the rumors that passed among the Kiowa and Comanche bands were beginning to suggest that the whites had changed little ... Then she had the puzzle of Sunflower, for her duty to escape included the duty to take her sister, and she found it difficult to think of it in any other way. Also she had the puzzle of the baby girl, as yet unnamed, who was half white even though she did not appear to be."

Found the ending less destructive, more positive, than expected.
***
quoting from the Afterword (Spoiler?)

"Much of the novel, then, explores the psychology of the stone-age band attempting to live the life they have always known even in the face of massive change. Helen/Tehanita slowly learns that her new family is not all that different from the family from whom she was taken at the age of ten. Lance Returner is a kind father; Story Teller is a wise mentor; Burning Hand is as good a husband as she could have found had she remained among the whiles. What Capps wants us to is see is that people are essentially the same even thought they have different customs and different languages. What Capps is telling us differs from many attitudes about Indian versus Anglo life that we have seen over the past century or two. Indians are not more noble than whites, nor are they less so. The only good Indian is not a dead Indian. ..."

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite books the year I was 12. (My very favorite - from age 12 on - was probably To Kill A Mockingbird.) The book was a Christmas present that year. I reread it multiple times, and have reread it periodically over the years.

It was unique for its time, of telling a story about Native Americans where they weren’t portrayed as perfect or as evil, but simply as human beings.

I still have my original very worn copy. Just checked and it is in print and that's great because it’s a terrific story.

It’s about a nine year old girl and her five year old sister and how, after their family is killed by members of a tribe of Comanche Indians, they’re kidnapped and adopted as members by different families in the tribe. The story is told from the older girl’s viewpoint. It’s a real epic as her story, and that of the tribe, is followed well into her early adulthood. Both the characters and plot are very well developed in this book.

It’s the book that sparked my interest in Native American history.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read A WOMAN OF THE PEOPLE for an assignment in my 7th grade English class in San Antonio as part of our Texas literature unit. I loved it then. I really did. And I wasn't expecting to. I had recently moved to the Lone Star state from the island of Sicily and things were . . . a little different. Which is a really understated way of saying I was hopelessly unequal to the task of handling the differences between living in Italy and living in Texas. On top of that it was 7th grade, and 7th grade, as you know, is hell. I wasn't comfortable in my own skin. I wasn't comfortable back in the states. And I certainly wasn't comfortable at the middle school with its walls that felt as though they were closing in on me a little closer and a little tighter every day. So a book set on the Texas frontier didn't exactly have my engines racing, you know? Fortunately, I started it anyway. And that was all it took. Just starting it. I've re-read it a couple of times over the years since. For awhile there at work, I was conducting quite a bit of research on the history of Native American tribes and their interactions with early settlers. That research reminded me of this book and I discovered my old copy had gone walkabout. But I couldn't shake the urge to pick it up again, so I managed to find a copy to reread. It was as wonderful and heartbreaking as I remember it being. I feel like I say this more than I'd like, but I don't think I've talked to a single soul (outside of that 7th grade class) who's read this book and that's a shame. It deserves a wider readership than a handful of reluctant 7th graders.

Helen Morrison is nine years old and her little sister Katy is five. Living with their parents and their older brother George near the Brazos River on the Texas frontier, Helen and Katy's lives are practical but airy. They play and work and dream, and when Helen can't sleep at night she keeps herself up with stories of the scariest thing she can imagine--the Comanches. But while she believes they're real (even though she's never seen one), her young mind cannot really conceive of the terrible warriors her Aunt Melinda whispers of so threateningly. Then one fall day the Comanches come. The tribesmen destroy the Morrison homestead, killing the parents and older brother and carrying the two young girls off captive. In shock, angry, and determined to escape and return back home, Helen puts all her energy into taking care of Katy and not giving an inch to the people who have shattered her life. She soon becomes known among the tribe as Tehanita, or Little Girl Texan, and over the course of the next fourteen years she slowly (almost unbeknownst to herself) becomes assimilated into the Comanche tribe, finding family, companionship, and love among the people she once feared and distrusted.

I love Helen's story. I think my 12-year-old self, struggling to bridge two different cultures, found a lot to resonate with in her anger, fear, and uncertainty. I had read several traditional captivity tales around that time (Calico Captive comes to mind), and this one held the allure of being based on a true story. Interestingly, re-reading it as an adult, I relate to the story just as well as I did then, albeit this time more along the lines of the pain associated with actually being a grown up, leaving the world of childhood and home behind, and the wonder and joy of finding family where you didn't expect to and people who take you in and love you when they don't have to. I especially appreciated the emphasis on transformation and the many different roles we fill over the course of our lives, whether we go in willingly or not. Helen goes from scared young girl to Tehanita to a woman of the people, but her final role as Story Teller for her people may be my favorite. And I will always love the ways in which she is loved and taught by her adopted family Lance Returner and Come Home Early, Old Woman and Blessed. And of course by one unusual young man who falls in love with the outsider and the grand gesture he makes. I was and remain enchanted by the beautiful chapter titles: Mountains That Wander Away, The Winter of Living in Graves, and West Toward the Setting Sun. Strong and bittersweet, A WOMAN OF THE PEOPLE is a beautiful narrative and one that should not be forgotten.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read and adored this book in high school, then sketched the cover in charcoal over several years (not the cover of this version, my ninth grade self would wish you to know). Returning to it in my sixties was fraught, as so many revisited experiences are. Would the tale of a pioneer girl captured by Comanches hold up? Would it curdle into racial stereotyping and ugliness? Or would it, instead, break my heart and engage my mind all over again? (Spoiler: the latter, most definitely.) Ten year-old Helen and her five year-old sister Katy are kidnapped from their Texas farm in 1854. Helen's dread is that these are "dirty" Comanches, killers who are barely human. And because we as readers are inside the terrified Helen's mind, this tribe grunts and threatens, and we almost throw the book down in disgust. But Capps has artistry and deftness well worth experiencing. We see both girls folded into two family groups within this band, as Helen vows to survive in order to bring Katy back to the white world. Katy is renamed "Sunflower", but of course Helen refuses to call her that. And here's that deftness: as the years pass we hear Helen refer to "Katy"; then to "Katy Sunflower"; then finally to "Sunflower". Helen, older and spikier, earns her role as Tehanita, a worker haunted by duty both to her white "tribe" and to the Comanche tribe she comes gradually to value, then love. A further strength is that this book yields the richness of ALL its characters, not just the two white girls we first meet. There is no gilding of the lily here, no pussyfooting about survival for settlers and those whose lands they claim. And because we're reading in 2022, we have even fewer illusions about the future for Tehanita, Sunflower, or the families where they now belong.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to my GRs friend, Chrisl for introducing me to this book. It is an interestingly-told story of a young girl who is captured by a Comanche band, and learns to live with them. Helen/ Tehanita (Little Girl Texan) grows up to become “a woman of the people.” At first, Helen, resists accepting the people in the tribe because she is sure that she will escape and take her younger sister back to live with the whites, even though she knows their own family was killed. I found it fascinating to learn about the way of life among the Comanches as Helen/ Tehanita slowly assimilates. The afterward by James Ward Lee is every bit as interesting, and the audio version I listened to was excellent. And, as a native Texan, I was glad to learn about the author, Benjamin Capps, a knowledgeable and respected author whose extensive writings, diaries and research papers are held by the University of Texas at Arlington. I hope to read more of his books. I will share a quote from the afterward of this book that Chrisl also shared:

“What Capps wants us to is see is that people are essentially the same even thought they have different customs and different languages. What Capps is telling us differs from many attitudes about Indian versus Anglo life that we have seen over the past century or two.”

[Gerri Leen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that I loved as a kid. My experience as I've grown up both in age and as a writer (and therefore, sometimes unfortunately, as a reader) is that the things I loved as a kid don't always hold up. This, happily, does not fall in that group. It's as engaging, moving, and fresh as it was when I was in my early teens back in the 70's. Yes, 70's. LOL.

The book itself was written in 1966 in a style that translates perfectly to today: spare, no book saidisms, no POV breaks, minimal adverbs. It's prose just the way I like it. But aside from that, the story holds up as well. It's about a young white girl who is captured by the Commanche and taken to live with them. (This premise was redone with a bit of a fantasy twist by R. Garcia y Robertson's American Women, which is also a great book.) What's beautiful about the story is that it's an even look at native life, and although you're meant to feel for the Comanche in this, as opposed to the whites, Capps does not shy away from the more brutal aspects of Indian life. This is not Dances with Wolves, although if you loved that movie, you'll probably love this book.

Rated: A+

[Cindy Dyson Eitelman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of a girl whose family was massacred by the Comanche in Texas; she and her little sister were taken as slaves and ended up living as Comanches for the rest of their lives. For most of the book the girl's thoughts are consumed with plans for escape--she works hard to be trusted, learns to live from the land, practices running fast the better to run away...but the People treat her as one of her own, until at the end, maybe she is.

This is a work of fiction and while it seems to parallel the sad story of Cynthia Ann Parker, the author deliberately did not read a history of her capture until after he wrote this. He did his research and he clearly knows the lands and the times--he's known as "one of our country's most respected writers of Western Americana"--and in this tale he attempts to put himself in the mind of a 10-year-old girl growing into a woman.

He got it. It's an awesome story. The writing is flat, unemotional as newspaper prose, and sometimes it's easy to put down--until he does this:

The sounds of locusts in the late sumemr nights were a thing one did not hear without listening for them. They were there for a lonely person: high and keen, low and buzzy, many of them. Some of them came in broken chirps, even and patient and never-ending. Others were a constant, steady background from all directions. Behind the clear sounds were others, more distant. Behind those, still others so far away and faint that they seemed not so much insect sounds as a sigh of the living earth itself. Sounding of locusts was like standing of grass, or spreading of sunlight, or moving of leaves, or blowing of wind, a thing that went everywhere far out across the boundless land and lay ready before the People for them to feel wherever they went; or before such a one who was lonely, for her to feel whenever a quiet time came. It was a help, a familiar thing, a source of wonder. For her thoughts could not follow them to their end; they spread on forever, to strange people, as far as the endless earth herself.

The ending, when Tehanita and Burning Hand have a long talk about white people and their mysterious ways, is shocking. Just a snippet,

Listen, a long time ago the Indian saw the white man coming with wagons, and he said there's a fool, because a wagon is too wide to follow a buffalo trail. But what does the white man do? He makes the trail wider and smooths the rough places; then he carries as much with six horses as we carry with thirty.

Will we ever learn to live in harmony with the land? Is it even possible?

[Nichelle Seely · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a re-read for me, after opening a box of long-stored paperbacks. I remembered that I had liked it (years and years ago), but not really anything about the story.

Not everything can stand a re-read, but I still really enjoyed this story. The main character (Helen, later renamed Tejanita) is a woman who was kidnapped by Comanches as a child. At first she hates the people who killed her family and captured herself and her little sister, but over the many years of her captivity she grows to care for her adopted family and respect the ways of the Comanches, or as they call themselves, the People.

The trope of the captured white woman has been done to death, but Capps never strays into the awful romantic noble savage stereotype. He consistently portrays the girls (later women) and the Indians as real people with their own believable personalities. Family members squabble, laugh, and help each other. The Indians are sometimes cruel, sometimes kind, and always believable representatives of their life and times. Helen/Tejanita goes from being a frightened, angry child to a mature woman struggling with her identity.

When she finally does marry, it isn't a flaming love affair, at least at first. It's more out of cultural necessity. Yet she learns to care deeply for her young husband and admire and respect his character, and it is this relationship which finally reconciles her to her identity as a woman of the People.

[Roger Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing story of a 9 year old girl kidnapped by the Comanche, who because of her age could remember the death of her parents, desired to run away to the whites. As an outdoorsman, I found it interesting her descriptions of all the obstacles to return to the whites. Plains with few landmarks, lack of water, where to find the whites and the list grows.

Facing this reality, she decides to earn the trust of her captors to make escape easier. On this journey she grows to love the Comanche people and eventually becomes one of the people.

Benjamin Capps gives an accurate accounting of the indian way of life. He also gives an insight into the clash between the white european and native american cultures. He also with honest frankness shares the brutal sins of each culture. If you love history or the west this is a must read.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up from the next door neighbors, and found it very interesting. I imagined it to be quite true to life as to how the People lived and that fascinated me. The references to Palo Duro Canyon made it more real as I could picture where it was taking place. The adjustments to Indian life, the learning to finally give in to circumstances you can't change, the arrival of the white folk and the havoc they caused... I found it sad at the end; how they had to give up their life and ways and venture into the unknown.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Woman of the People is story of a girl named Helen who is kidnapped by Comanche Indians at the age of ten. She makes plans for most of her life to run away, but is adopted and loved by the tribe. She eventually learns that she loves them in return.
I liked this book mostly because it shows that people are essentially the same, no matter what culture you are from.
A very well written book that takes you in and helps you look at life and the people in it a bit differetly.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember reading this book as a young boy several times. And I remember why I loved it so much back then. I was born in Texas and raised in Oklahoma. Native American culture was everywhere. Benjamin Capps does a superb job of presenting Native American culture and the Comanche people as any other people. It is a great book. Sadly, it doesn't get the widespread acclaim it genuinely should. As I read it (listened to it as it was on Audible), I wonder how it would be received in today's culture with its desire to cancel certain things that don't fit in to its cultural norms and values. Sadly, I think the core of its story would be missed because the focus would shift to Helen's kidnapping. I highly recommend this book.

[Sofija · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sooooo good. Not sure what's the deal with me and westerns lately. The character development of Helen (Tehanita) is just incredible. And he wrote the characters of the Band of Indians really well. I am surprisingly happy I picked up this book and now I am going to go deeper in the western rabbit hole!

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

An older book and recommended after I finished the novel True Grit.
Rather slow listen. Simple writing. A good narrative. Could be really good for a middl school read, except for one incredibly uncomfortable and graphic part.

[Katrina Misley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent historical fiction, set in the Panhandle Plains. It neither romanticizes nor demonizes the Commanche Indian culture. Would be appropriate for ages 12 and up.

[Kate Insley · Rating 5 out of 5]

So thought provoking. So well done. Will return and read again some time.

[KaTie]

This was a favorite of mine during my teen years/Wild West phase

[Donna Hester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a worthy read.

[Michael P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great novel of clashing cultures and assimilation.

[Psalm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite engaging although I was a bit disappointed towards the end, when the main chick finally had a chance to express herself about her past. When she was asked a direct question, she was all like “I dunno” huh?? It was a missed opportunity to bring home the message that there is good nd bad in all people no matter the race or culture.

[Tali Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as a young teen. In fact, I checked it out from the Bookmobile three times in 1967 and have remembered it ever since, and surprisingly well, as I discovered when I re-read it this week for the first time in decades. Helen's story fills the pages with heartbreak, compassion, and joy. She witnesses terrible things, beginning with the deaths of her family, when she and her younger sister are taken by Comanches. Helen is a survivor, though, and her mental toughness and unrelenting spirit as she grapples with her identity inspired my young soul. As an older reader this time, what I found most interesting about the book was not Helen herself but the Comanches who abduct her, spare her, adopt her, and initiate her into their way of life. The history is harsh, but everything about what Helen endures rings true. I lived in that part of West Texas when I first read this book, and descriptions of the setting evoke how overwhelmingly vast Comanche country was.

The narrative voice of the novel shifts from that of a traumatized young girl to the more thoughtful voice of a young woman making life-changing choices. The tone can feel somewhat distant at times, but I feel that reflects how Helen is an outsider--she's a stranger in a strange land for sure. The readers learns the facts, fictions, and truths about her new life as she learns them. Helen's memory of whites becomes more and more distant, paralleling the way whites are portrayed in this book: remote, seen only occasionally, and terrifyingly misunderstood by the Comanches.

The characters are beautifully rendered. As Helen gets to know her captors, they evolve into distinct personalities. Her relationships with them are often beautiful and the romantic in me particularly liked Helen's conflicted response to being courted and how the various characters involved reacted. This is not a romance book, though, so don't expect any insight into what happens between couples.

I recommend this book to readers who enjoy captivity stories, Native American fiction, Comanche culture, and the history of the American West.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main character in Woman of the People> is compelling, and we follow the story with interest. This book pays careful attention to the Native American life, with its dependence on nature and its constant migration. However, the plot is predictable and given that it was originally written in 1946, it isn't very culturally sensitive.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the most memorable books I've read. Helen and her little sister are kidnapped and adopted by "The People" ... it was an awesome read for a scrawny 12 year old in Pittsburgh. This was waayyyy better than Robert Louis Stevenson's "Kidnapped" which my father forced me to read.

[Bcoghill Coghill · Rating 3 out of 5]

There have been a lot of stories of the young white woman captured by the Indians and raised by them. Then they come in contact with the white men. At least one John Wayne movie. I suspect that this book is a cut above in so far as it portrays the Indian cultures in the Texas area.

[Phair · Rating 3 out of 5]

According to my diary from 1966 I picked this up at the library. Found it to be fairly good but overall a bit superficial & distant in tone. I compared it to The Scarlet Plume, also an Indian captivity novel, that I had found to be far more exciting.

[Cheryl-ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this in with other books at my moms house, just collecting dust. I was interested in it just by looking at the cover so I brought it home, read what it was about and just went ahead reading. I was shocked with how much I actually liked it, in my opinion, it was not a bad book.

[Cws]

AI JF

[Toesnorth's mom]

good!

[Stephen D. Cohee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many thanks to Kindle for recommending this excellent novel. I plan on reading all of Benjamin Capps novels. I highly recommend this this novel.





I also recommend, The last stand, by Nathaniel Philbrick, or any of his novels. Another excellent novel is, Little Coyote, by Charles J. me in.

[John East · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book, along with several others, regarding the Comanche and other Plains Indians.