November 7, 2004: Headlines: COS - Kenya: Writing - Kenya: History: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel : Kenya RPCV Scott Zesch writes The Captured: "It confirmed for me what I learned in the Peace Corps," he said, "and that is that the best way to overcome stereotyped ideas about people of a different culture is actually to live among them and get to know them as individuals.
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November 7, 2004: Headlines: COS - Kenya: Writing - Kenya: History: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel : Kenya RPCV Scott Zesch writes The Captured: "It confirmed for me what I learned in the Peace Corps," he said, "and that is that the best way to overcome stereotyped ideas about people of a different culture is actually to live among them and get to know them as individuals.
Kenya RPCV Scott Zesch writes The Captured: "It confirmed for me what I learned in the Peace Corps," he said, "and that is that the best way to overcome stereotyped ideas about people of a different culture is actually to live among them and get to know them as individuals.
Kenya RPCV Scott Zesch writes The Captured: "It confirmed for me what I learned in the Peace Corps," he said, "and that is that the best way to overcome stereotyped ideas about people of a different culture is actually to live among them and get to know them as individuals.
BOOKMARKS A lesson in history, cultures
Nov 7, 2004
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
by Geeta Sharma-Jensen
A lesson in history, cultures
Scott Zesch was wandering through a neglected corner of a cemetery in his hometown of Mason, Texas, one June afternoon when he caught the name "Adolph Korn" on a plaque.
That was a relative, he realized, noting the date of death, 1895. But why was there no other information on the tombstone?
"It's shameful," he wrote later. "My family has let this pathetic chunk of concrete stand as his only monument. As if we're embarrassed to claim him."
That thought led Zesch on a long search that eventually unfolded in a fascinating story, a story he tells in his new book, "The Captured: A True Story of Abduction by Indians on the Texas Frontier" (St. Martin's Press).
The book, his second, is not just the story of one white child taken by Comanche Indians and raised by the tribe for three years. It also is a record of this country's history and of the many white children whom Indian tribes took home with them in the Texas hill country and on other frontiers.
For me, the book also is evocative of other, larger issues -- assimilation and culture and human interaction and environment.
When I reached Zesch one evening at his hill residence in Art, Texas, (population: 3), he mentioned similar emotions.
"It confirmed for me what I learned in the Peace Corps," he said, "and that is that the best way to overcome stereotyped ideas about people of a different culture is actually to live among them and get to know them as individuals.
"These children grew up with Indians in an era when there was great prejudice, especially in Texas, against Native Americans. And they were changed. . . . There were a lot of common characteristics I found among these children."
Zesch, a lawyer who abandoned the practice of law to write, became determined to understand how a timid farm boy like his great- great-great uncle became Indianized in such a short time, even fighting alongside the Comanches against the encroaching settlers.
His research took him to Washington, D.C., Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas as well as to several descendants of children who had grown up in tribes. He also talked to Comanche elders.
The Indians, he said, "captured children of settlers because they wanted to build up their own numbers and they hoped they would like their ways."
In the 1850s and 1870s many children were captured. Two were from Reedsburg and were taken when their parents, who had been close to the Winnebago Indians while they lived in Wisconsin, moved to the Texas frontier.
Zesch found that after these children were released they generally disliked staying indoors, wandered off into the woods for a few days, moved around a lot and, as adults, had trouble holding on to regular jobs.
"They were between two cultures and heavily influenced by the two cultures," he said.
Adolph was especially changed. He never forgot his Indian ways and never really found a place in white society. He spent his last years living alone in a cave.
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E-mail: gjensen@journalsentinel.com
When this story was posted in November 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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Story Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Kenya; Writing - Kenya; History
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