Bianca Babb
Bianca Babb | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 26, 1856 Lecompton, Kansas, U.S. |
| Died | April 13, 1950 (aged 93) Denton, Texas, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Pioneer woman |
| Known for | Former captive of the Comanche people |
| Spouse | Jefferson Davis Bell (m. 1882; wid. 1934) |
Bianca Babb (August 26, 1856 – April 13, 1950) was an American pioneer woman and former captive of the Comanche people. As a child, she was taken captive during a Comanche raid on her family's homestead in Wise County, Texas in 1866. Babb spent seven months living among the Comanches before being ransomed and returned to her father in 1867. She later wrote a memoir that provided a rare first-person account from the perspective of a young female captive, offering insights into Comanche culture and life on the Southern Plains frontier of the late 19th century.[1][2]
Early Life and capture[edit]
Bianca Babb, originally named Bianca Louella and also known as Bankuella, Bianca Babb Bell,[3] or simply Banc, was born on August 26, 1856, during her family's journey from Wisconsin to Texas, in a covered wagon near Lecompton, Kansas. Her parents, John S. Babb and Isabel A. Babb, were settlers and ranchers.[1]
In her formative years, Bianca resided with her family in a cabin near present-day Chico, Wise County, Texas. The region, situated on the outskirts of non-Native American settlements, was often fraught with tensions and conflicts between settlers and indigenous tribes, particularly the Comanche people who dominated the area.[1]
The Babb family experienced tragedy on September 14, 1866,[4] when a band of Nokoni Comanches, led by Persummy, raided their cabin. Bianca's father and eldest brother were away at the time, leaving her mother, Isabel Babb, and Bianca herself, along with her siblings, vulnerable to the attack. Isabel Babb lost her life,[5] while Bianca, along with her brother Theodore Adolphus ("Dot") and a young houseguest named Sarah Jane Luster, were captured by the Comanches.[1][6]
Captivity among the comanches[edit]
After the young houseguest escaped with Dot's help, prompting respect from the Comanches when the siblings defied execution, Bianca was separated from her brother. The warrior Kerno who captured her gave Bianca as a foster daughter to his widowed sister Tekwashana. For seven months in 1866–1867, Bianca lived immersed in traditional Comanche society, learning skills like camp setup, swimming, and cultural practices like ear-piercing from her adoptive mother. Tekwashana also darkened Bianca's blonde hair. The band followed a nomadic lifestyle, frequently relocating camps across the Oklahoma-Texas panhandle region, allowing Bianca to experience the daily routines, customs, and way of life among the Comanches firsthand.[1][2]
Ransom and return[edit]
After Bianca's capture, her father John Babb joined efforts by frontiersmen and Native allies to search for his missing children. Around April 1867, Jacob J. Sturm, a civilian agent from Fort Arbuckle, located Bianca and secured her ransom and release from the Comanches for US$333 (roughly $7,259 today).[7] Sturm then brought Bianca to the fort. Despite her months living with the tribe, Bianca returned willingly to her family. In June 1867, her brother Dot was also ransomed for US$210 (roughly US$4,578 today), with articles of clothing worth US$23.75,[7] and released back to their father.[1]
Later years and memoir[edit]
The Babbs initially relocated to Reedsburg, Wisconsin after the ordeal, though Bianca later returned to Texas in 1881. On June 25, 1882, she married Jefferson Davis Bell, an abstractor of land titles. Bianca attributed her wanderlust and frequent family relocations between various North Texas towns like Henrietta, Denton, Greenville, as well as periods in California and New Mexico, to her nomadic experiences living with the Comanches.[1][2]
From 1897 to 1900, the former Kiowa-Comanche-Apache reservation lands were divided into household allotments. As a former adoptee, Bianca filed a claim seeking her own allotment and restitution for losses in the 1866 raid, including her mother's death. Though she revisited the reservation and had supportive testimonies from Comanche friends, her allotment claim was rejected.[1][2]
In the 1920s, Bianca wrote an unpublished memoir manuscript recounting her seven months living among the Comanches as a child captive. While circulated in typescript form, it did not receive wide publication during her lifetime.[1][2]
Reception of memoir[edit]
Bianca Babb's unpublished memoir manuscript has received scholarly attention as a significant primary source captivity narrative. While the captivity narrative was a popular literary genre in 19th century America, many examples were sensationalized accounts of questionable authenticity. In contrast, Babb's work is viewed by researchers as a credible and insightful first-person perspective.[1][2]
The memoir provides one of the few detailed accounts from the viewpoint of a juvenile female captive adopted into a Plains Indian tribe, differing from the predominant narratives focused on adolescent male captive experiences assimilating into warrior cultures. Babb's recollections center on intimate depictions of domestic life, material culture, and survival skills learned while immersed in traditional Comanche society.[1][2]
Having acquired fluency in the Comanche language during childhood, Babb demonstrated an ethnographic eye for cultural details in her descriptions of practices like kinship systems, religious ceremonies, and subsistence activities. Scholars have corroborated many of her observations against other historical and anthropological sources from this era.[1][2]
Later life and legacy[edit]
Unlike her brother Theodore "Dot" Babb who published his own memoirs to fame, Bianca did not widely publicize her remarkable childhood experiences living among the Comanches when interviewed by journalists later in life.[8] She was widowed in 1934 after over 50 years of marriage. Bianca Babb died on April 13, 1950, in Denton, Texas at age 93, recognized as the final surviving American to have been adopted into a Plains Indian tribe as a child captive.[1][3]
References[edit]
Sources[edit]
Books[edit]
- Gelo, Daniel J. (October 2007). "Babb, Bianca". American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.2001884. (subscription required)
- Tate, Michael L. (1966). Winfrey, Dorman H.; James M., Day (eds.). The Indian Papers of Texas and the Southwest 1825-1916. Vol. IV. Austin, Texas: Texas State Historical Association.
Journals[edit]
- TSHA (2003). Tyler, Ron (ed.). "Every Day Seemed to Be a Holiday: The Captivity of Bianca Babb". The Southwestern Historical Quarterly. 107. Texas State Historical Association: 35–48.