Saturday, September 8, 2018

Frank Baldwin captures mysterious "white Indian" Tehan

Lt. Frank Baldwin
Lt. Frank Baldwin
(TDbD) On this day in 1874, Lt. Frank Baldwin and three scouts captured the "white Indian" known as Tehan in what is now Hemphill County. Tehan was taken by the Kiowas when he was a child. They called him Tehan ("Texan").
He was subsequently adopted by the medicine man Maman-ti and grew up to become a fierce warrior. Except for his red hair, fair skin, and bull-like neck, he was pure Kiowa, and he reportedly committed several depredations on whites as an apprentice brave during the early 1870s.
Tehan was about eighteen when the Red River War broke out in the summer of 1874. Baldwin left Tehan with Capt. Wyllys Lyman's wagontrain, which was subsequently besieged by the Kiowas. During the siege, Tehan escaped from his guards and rejoined his adopted tribe, sporting a suit of clothes the troops had given him. Little more is known of his fate. Continued

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