This is the story of Adolph Korn, a ten year old boy who was captured by an Apache raiding party in Texas in 1870. Adolph and his twin brother, Charlie, were out tending the sheep one afternoon when the Apache raiding party came through. Charlie was able to report the abduction to his parents, who were obviously disturbed by the events. His father traveled a great distance to report the abduction to authorities. Eventually, Adolph was traded to the Comanche, where he learned how to live and survive the way Indigenous people did. In fact, he had a hard time for the rest of his life reintegrating back into White society. Adolph was part of a German immigrant community, who were notoriously very strict and worked children as though they were miniature adults. Indigenous communities were much different, and I can see why a child, especially a male one, would be taken with the hunting, riding, fishing, raiding, etc. I can imagine that probably was pretty action packed for a preteen boy. It did strike me as odd that he had such a difficult time being returned to white society at age thirteen. It didn't seem like he was gone long enough to make reintegration hard, but I am no psychologist.

There were a few things that I did not enjoy about this book, one of which being the liberal use of the words Indian and Indianization. I have never liked the fact that Indigenous people were called Indian, because they are not from India. That was a misnomer from a colonizer ages ago, and I just dislike it. Perhaps my opinion as a white person on this particular topic is unwarranted, unwanted, and unimportant, but I am just leaving my honest review and opinion of the book. I thought the book was going to be really good, and while it was a good book, it didn't quite deliver in the way that I want it to. However, I am not trying to discourage anyone from reading it. It was very thought provoking about why someone would prefer to remain with Indigenous tribes with whom they had nothing in common instead of returning to their families.

I did like that the author researched the experiences of other children who had been abducted by Indigenous people, and others who had lived during that time period. I enjoyed that the author researched someone in his family that he knew little about to gain a deeper understanding. I wish that I could do that myself with a few of my family members I have uncovered via ancestry dot com. I thought the book was very valuable for presenting the perspective of people who lived hundreds of years ago and went through this shared experience. I cannot imagine being abducted by anyone. It was a really interesting situation to consider. The book also gave a really good impression of what life was like on the Texas frontier in the late 1800s. Overall, a decent read, especially for the dollar I spent on it.