Indian Captives Dot and Bianca Babb

Duane's take

Now, the marker tells it this way, and I'm just the voice carryin' the story to you. In September of 1865, out near what is now Wise County, Texas, a raiding party of thirty-five to forty Comanches descended on a homestead, and two children's lives changed forever. T.

A. Babb, thirteen years old, went by Dot. His little sister Bianca was nine.

They were outside at play when the raiders came. No warning. Just the world turning upside down in an instant.

Mrs. Babb was killed. Dot, Bianca, and a visitor named Mrs.

Luster were taken captive and carried off toward Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma. Now, on that long, grim journey, Dot managed to help Mrs. Luster escape.

And the Comanches noticed. That kind of defiance, from a captive boy, was not something you let pass. Dot was very nearly executed for it.

But here's the thing, he faced that moment without flinching. So stoic was he standing before death that the Indians, by the marker's own telling, admiringly spared his life. You don't hear a story like that and forget it.

For the next two years, Dot and Bianca lived in different tribes, each adopted into Comanche life. Bianca would later recall that when she arrived, the tribe held a feast, and coffee was served, a genuine luxury on the frontier. They colored her blonde hair with charcoal and buffalo tallow, and she became one of them, at least in the eyes of the camp.

Dot's path was rougher at the start. He spent a winter as the squaws' errand boy, doing what he was told. But Dot Babb was not a boy content with that arrangement for long.

He asserted his male rights, as the marker puts it, and from that point on his days were spent taming horses. He rode on raids against other tribes. He was showing every sign, they said, of becoming a fine warrior.

Then their father came. He ransomed both children, and after two years apart from everything they'd known, Dot and Bianca came home. Now, you might expect two children stolen from their family, forced to watch their mother killed, and carried into the wilderness to spend the rest of their days bitter and haunted.

And maybe some part of them was. But Dot Babb, born 1852, lived all the way to 1936. Bianca, born around 1855, lived to 1950.

They had long years to sit with what had happened. And both of them, when they spoke of that time, spoke with sympathy, of the customs, of the people, of the kindness they had also found there. That's not the ending most folks would write.

But that's the one the marker gives us, and it's the one worth keeping.

What the marker says

Two of Texas history's best-known Indian captives, 13-year-old T. A. "Dot" Babb (1852-1936) and his 9-year-old sister Bianca (1855?-1950) were stolen by Comanches from their home near here in September of 1865. While at play one day, the children were surprised by a raiding party of 35 to 40 Indians. Mrs. Babb was killed and Dot, Bianca, and Mrs. Luster (a visitor) were taken to Indian Territory (present Oklahoma). After helping Mrs. Luster escape on the way, Dot was very nearly executed, but so stoic was he in facing death that the Indians admiringly spared his life. For the next two years Dot and Bianca lived, in different tribes, as adopted Comanches. Bianca later recalled that the Indians held a feast - with coffee, a luxury - upon her arrival and that they colored her blonde hair with charcoal and buffalo tallow. Dot, after a winter as the squaws' flunky, asserted his male rights and thereafter spent his time taming horses. He was taken on raids against other tribes and showed signs of becoming a fine warrior. After two years, the children's father ransomed them and a joyful reunion occurred. Both Dot and Bianca spoke with sympathy, however, of many Indian customs and of kind treatment during captivity.