Captive at Custer's Washita Fight: Clara Blinn
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- Опубліковано 26 сер 2024
- Clara Blinn and her two-year old son, Willie, are captured from their wagon train on October 9, 1868. Her desperate husband does everything in his power to find her, but as LT COL George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh Cavalry close in on Chief Black Kettle's Southern Cheyenne camp, time is running out.
Using eyewitness accounts, newspaper articles, photos, and conflicting historical conclusions, we'll discuss Clara's tragic captivity.
(And I apologize for my dreadful pronunciation, especially the mangling of Kiowa warrior Satanta!)
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For more about my current work-in-progress or my published books (The Confusion of Languages and You Know When the Men Are Gone, both with Putnam/Penguin), please see my author website:
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It was not uncommon for Native Tribes to trade around white captives amongst themselves. Due to the proximity of these camps, it would not be unreasonable to believe Clara was seen in all 3 camps on the Washita. What gets me is the different descriptions of the dead body of Clara. One says she was nude, one describes Native garb & the third says she was wearing her own dress.
Right!? I know! That's why I try to go with the earliest sources but even they are wildly different!
Not surprised it very common for witnesses to describe things differently our minds fill in details that we actually don’t see.
This is a stunnin Liberia analysis of the whole Clara bin story. You're researchers have done their job admirably. I am not familiar with other than the most superficial aspects of the story . You have turned it into an epic that brought tears to my eyes.
Oh thank you!! Her story really struck a chord with me, and I am bothered that we do not talk about her and Willie whenever we discuss the Washita fight. She was so close to escape. And her poor desperate husband tried so hard to find her.
I had to do something to share their story.
Thanks for your lovely comments, Barbara!
Great job Siobhan, very well researched!
Thank you, Joe!!
Great job! I live 40 minutes from Perrysburg. I am reading Nathaniel Philbrick's "The Last Stand". On page 132-139 he covers The Battle of the Washita. Philbrick makes no mention of Clara and her son. There is nothing in the notes in the back of the book either.
I felt like the book was pretty even handed till I got to this chapter (chapter 8). Allegations of dishonorable troop behavior concerning Monahsetah and the Cheyenne women gets attention, but there is not one word about the Blinn family.
I also saw an recent interview of Nathaniel Philbrick on the Chris Hedges report concerning Custer. Based on the interview it seems Philbrick has lost any semblance of fair treatment concerning Custer. He has adopted the opinion that Custer is "a monster" used as a poster boy for American Impirialism and perpetuation of systemic racism. 🙄
That is really disheartening that Philbrick would slide into easy cliche's rather than delve into the difficult grey areas that actually make up history.
Thanks for commenting, Dustin. I always look forward to hearing from you!
This is very well researched and narrated! A+
Oh thank you!!
I’m Marc with the rabbits. 😃🐰🐇
Had me almost biting my nails!!!!!! What an amazing storyteller!!!!!!
Hugo, what would I do without you? 🙏🤗
Thanks as always for watching!
@@SiobhanFallon7
You would continue to be "Creative, Witty,
Intelligent, Strong, Charming, Wise,
And if I may be bold
"Breath taking"
I will be sending you more comments later on. Fair Lady
@@hugonarvaez2944 You are the best. Thank you!
Thanks for bringing us this story. Heartbreaking. To be so close to freedom and reunion with her husband and yet to be so far. If this was a movie, people would say..."That's Hollywood", but it was real life.
Thank you. I agree. Such a series of tragedies that could have been triumphs.
Her poor husband, living with this for the short remainder of his life.
Very very enjoyable. They were hard times back then . It's great research, and your narration is always fantastic. I love your voice . Love and respect from Dublin Ireland 🫶🇮🇪☘️
Thanks so much, Sean!!
They were hard times and seems like, no matter where you were, life was difficult and you were just lucky to keep your family alive.
I bet you have a lovely voice and accent yourself!! 🍀
This one was tough to get through. Almost went into tears listening to you very skillfully resurrect these folks. Hemingway sais that every true story ends in death. I believe you may have proved that point.
Thank you. It was hard to research and present too.
These lives are so often overlooked that I felt like I had no choice but to try to share their story as best as I could.
I appreciate you watching and being moved by what they went through 🙏
@@SiobhanFallon7 I live on the trail of tears in south east Tennessee and so researching the history of that time has become a passion for me, It is difficult to uncover treasured stories like the one you related but when you find one it is a golden nugget and ties the reader to the people like ourselves yet from another time. I have a profound appreciation for people like you that dedicate so much time so that you can give us the gift of our heritage. Thank you.
Well done nice to see a story showing why the 7th was there to begin with.
Thank you!!
Superb as always 👏👏👏 Keep up your excellent work 👍
Hi ! Thank very much for your hard work in all your presentations ! I love history ! ❤
Thank you for watching and commenting!
For months, I thought I was the last person to ever care for Mrs. Clara Blinn and her son. I never known what happned to her husband, now I can rest well with the knowledge of what happned. Ms./Mrs. Fallon, thank you! You have helped answer my prayers for knowledge. If ever you see this, how exactly did you come to learn of Mrs. Blinn?
I have been studying the Washita fight a great deal. And Custer mentions her in his memoir my Life on the Plains. Then I came across Judith Justus' excellent article about Clara's life.
Clara holds a special place in my heart. So happy to hear you also keep her memory alive 🙏
@@SiobhanFallon7 I have been brought to tears, I have spent too long thinking myself the last to ever care for her!
This brings about to my next question, Richard did not remarry? What else is known about him?
@yanceyricks2601 he did not remarry. He lived with his brother and then his dad and died of TB just a few years after Clara died.
He did convince his brother to name his daughter Clara, so the name, and memory, lives on 🙏
Ms. Fallon would have made a great history teacher at any level. A disturbing similarity to Jeff Broome's book entitled Dog Soldier Justice: The Ordeal of Susanna Alderdice in the Kansas Indian War. A compelling read.
Yes! Jeff Broome is an expert in this subject and done research no one else has.
Thank you, Michael!
That was amazing. In reality, we cannot be sure who is in those two graves
I don't know if the family pressed for details or requested the bodies be moved or DNA tested 🤷♀️ It is a very sad and almost-forgotten end for them both.
@@SiobhanFallon7 with the conflicting accounts of how Clara was found it is possible the military had doubts about who was in those graves. Otherwise why would they not place their names on the headstones? There was no DNA testing then. As to now maybe the current family don’t want to know as there would be no way to locate Clara and willie now
@@aa64912 gosh, I don't know. That could be a project of it's own-- why indeed are they listed as Unknowns? Hmmm... thanks, Walter, you gave me a new mission!!
PEOPLE NOWADAYS CAN'T FATHOM THE SCRIFICES MADE BY THE WOMEN OF THE OLD WEST!!!!!
Hey Siobhan, Aces! Presentations keep getting better and better, and more scholarly (in a good way). And heartrending, e.g. your reading of Richard Blinn’s journal. … IMHO, as you become accomplished historian right before our eyes, with novelist’s touch, may I dare expect arrival of our new Evan S. Connell Jr. ?😁 👍
Oh Eric, you are the best!! Thank you. I learn so much as I go 💕
Really enjoying your you tube series on LBH, please keep it up, your enthusiasm makes them even more interesting, compared to some of the 'staid' lectures that are on here.
So good of you to let me know. I actually have been trying to rein in my enthusiasm because I thought I looked like a lunatic 🤣🤦♀️ so very happy to know I didn't scare you away! Almost put a new one up today but it wasn't quite ready. I will try to get it live when Easter break is over and I have the time to finish.
Thanks again, Steve, and I hope to hear from you again!
Very informative. You present stories not much known in Europe. My US relatives have told me about what happend with some of their ancestors and family that arrived from 1850 - 1900. So in my family three we have persons killed by indians and during the Civil War. I need to do some research on them. Thank's for sharing these stories.
Wow, thank you for the kind words and yes, I bet you will unearth an incredible story if you research those American family members who were killed 🙏
Bless you for your research.
Thank you! 🙏
I know what it's like. I'm researching a wagon train "massacre" in SW Alberta reportedly involving people from one of the Fisk wagon trains from Minnesota to Montana. Same thing where the dates given and the events don't match up. So frustrating knowing it will never be clear.
Oh, fascinating! Good luck with the research-- IT NEVER ENDS!!! ;)
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment and I hope to hear from you again!
Excellent Video. I could´nt imagne how many times this happend during this times.
More that I expected 😥
Terrible in so many ways.
Thank you for the comment and for watching!
The photo on the right is most often is attributed to Rachel Plummer, captive of the Sioux.
Thank you!!! I will research Rachel Plummer. I have seen that photo attributed to someone else as well before but couldn't remember the her name.
I would think most people would not expose their families to the Indian raids at that time in history
The pioneers of the Oregon trail left this credo behind: "The cowards never started. And the weak died along the way. Only the strong survived." I once read an essay by a man who was doing work with indigents for Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA). He had interviewed so many down and out people that he came to the conclusion that they were the stock that the original pioneers came from. They were people who could only function under the conditions of either 1.) failing completely and dying, or 2.) surviving against all odds. They couldn't function under any other conditions. These are the kinds of people that pioneers are made of. They pave the way for you and I.
Very good video.
There are stories of the scout in this book.
William Streets diary was turned into a book. He was among the foot soldiers who walked from Topeka, La.
Your history, presentation and references are all so good and enjoyable to learn. I am puzzled why so many people who were involved and wrote their own narratives differed so much in detail. Satanta may or may not have been recognized and may or may not have been present during the attack and abduction of Clara and Willie. It is not inconceivable that, being an ally of the Cheyennes, he and some Kiowas participated. It does seem evident that Clara and Willie were captured and kept by Cheyennes. Her statement in the initial note that "We are with them" seemed out of place unless she was being specific that she was not with another tribe that may have been along for the attack (re Satanta and Kiowas). Black Kettle not turning Clara over at the fort could have understandably been Black Kettle holding his Ace card for a strategic trade or concession later. It is fun to speculate some, but only when you have the best information available. A tragic fate for a beautiful pioneer family. Thanks for the history lesson and keep them coming!
Thanks so much. There is still so much to this story to piece together...
I'll be watching your next video concerning the Washout captives sometime today.@@SiobhanFallon7
@jerryjones188 thank you!!
It’s interesting that this is the soldiers all went past your body to identify her. But if you look at the Wikipedia story they say her body wasn’t found till 2 weeks later. Dead body would be unrecognizable I would think
It was freezing cold so she and Willie had not decomposed. 🤷🏼♀️
@@SiobhanFallon7I was actually thinking that after posted this. Makes sense
At around 45 secs, the third photo on right is, I think, Rachel Plummer. Came across inadvertently while scrolling similar topics on UA-cam
Ah, thank you!
This was not an easy account to watch--especially where she is taken captive. A trip with 8 wagons and 10 men was a dangerous undertaking at that time. With the understanding that anything can go wrong in battle, I still have serious issues with how she was taken captive. Each man should have had two pistols and a rifle and ready for attack at any moment. Even in mostly open country, the Indians may have used a ridge or something to help surprise the wagon train. Keeping the wagons together(even if it meant shooting panicked horses) was the key. Even outnumbered 75 to 10, they had a real chance to stop the attack before everything went south if they had laid down heavy rifle fire from the beginning. Lack of planning, not taking taking extreme action without regard for their own lives--they failed this woman and her young son.
Great insights there, thanks for sharing.
And yes, everyone failed poor Clara and Willie.
@@SiobhanFallon7 I did not want to be hard on her husband or make a judgement on too little information, but the red flags on this were all over it. This was another well-selected story that was unknown to me prior to this video.
@webbsamples I feel for her husband. Suffering from TB himself, and a wounded arm, I believe? When he was trying to shoot the horses to stop them from running away with her, the oxen ran him down.
No wonder he died so soon afterward. The guilt must have been unbearable.
@@SiobhanFallon7 The part about the ox confused me. (From 8 minutes to 8 minutes 30 seconds on this video) As I listened to this, I wandered why they were shooting at an ox. My hearing is they did not shoot at the horses. Your imput does put her husband in a better light which I am glad to see. No worries, this is a great story that has all the elements of how real, how hard it was to be out there in those times.
They were poor and not the brightest. It happens.
Its an interesting narrative. I wish that anthropology wash already an academic pursuit at this time because, in my opinion, these tribes were the last of pre history people. We. Always view them as westerners, not that its wrong; we just.lose sight of their world.
Great point.
I would like to do a series on the Southern Cheyenne some time, esp the women. There are some great stories there we don't hear often enough.
Thanks so much for commenting, and please let me know if there are topics you are interested in! Please stay tuned for more 🙏
Thats a very heartbraking story...my first thoughts are: how can Cara Blinn be sure to be in a Cheyenne Camp...she is captured...departed from her hasband...a 2 year old child...i dont want to imagine what they done to her...maybe she was confused...dont understand the language...maybe the Native American Indians spoke a bad English...a great missunderstanding of languages and Cultures...i think that Black Kettle wanted to protect his Peoble...its very tragic what happened to her...i think that she is in a better world now with her shield...
Did you know that the Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Kiowa and Comanche build a great Peace Treaty in 1840...i think that their cultures are melted over the years...a very difficult situation for the white culture to understand everything back in the days...
There's no doubt in my mind that Clara Blinn was in a Cheyenne village. Besides her own letter, you have Cheyenne Jack's recognition of her as well as military documents of eyewitness sightings of her and Wiilie (Captain Alford's records) stating she was in a Cheyenne village just previous to Custer's attack.
There was much more coming and going between the white and the tribes than we think today. Intermarriage, trading posts, Indian scouts working with the US Army etc. All offered Intel.
Was Clara Blinn in Black Lettle's village? I now think not, but I think she was in the next Cheyenne village over, and that Black Kettle knew she was there as well as captives Sarah White and Anna Brewster Morgan. His hands were tied -- there were other Cheyenne chiefs over those villages and he had to tread carefully on the demands and promises he made.
I think he wanted what was best for his people too, and he hoped he could find a place that upheld his traditions but also allowed for peace.
It ended up being an impossible position at the time 😭
Please take a look at my Black Kettle biography if you have time 🙏
Cbs did a "based on truth" movie covering Anna Brewster Morgan and other true Indian captives, and in typical modern style totally lied just for some political agenda. These women were brutally gang raped repeatedly and beaten. Anna Bewster Morgan + Mrs White had a value of 15 horses at first, but after they were raped and passed around so much their value went do to two horses. Its just horrible when you think about it. And the poor husband who finally got his wife back and she was pregnant with who knows who's child he was forced to raise. Their marriage obviously failed after that and Anna went crazy and died at mental institution.
According to CBS tho Anna loved the Indian Chief and just wanted to be back with him and not her actual real husband.
I so applaud anyone telling the real truth about real history. Only thru understanding the past can we help the future. Our schooling systems have intentionally done tremendous damage to our kids by lying to them about what really happened for a political agenda and inverted reality. How can we confront the complexities of modernity while we dumb down the past to "good guy vs bad guy" and cover up what really happened? 🤔
It is a disservice to hide certain aspects of history while over-emphasizing others. I touch upon some of the harsher realities in my video about the German sisters. They were all horrific captivities, but that one haunts me especially. I don't know how those girls managed to live and have families of their own and even in some way forgive their captors.
I think I would have gone mad like Anna Brewster Morgan myself.
The best part of Anna's "rescue" was how she tried to grab an officer's gun and shoot one of her worst torturers.
Thanks so much for watching and commenting! Please let me know what you think of the rest of my videos!
Sad story, seemingly not uncommon in Native and white interaction. God rest them
"God rest them" is a beautiful sentiment.
Thank you for watching!
Today or recently the Fort Hays Kansas Facebook showed a photo of Cheyenne captives that were brought to Ft Hays, after Washita. Among the Cheyenne was a two years old White Child. Could this be Clara’s little boy? They showed a photo and I think I can see a White child. Your thoughts,
I just checked it out on Facebook, Mary, and responded there (and tagged you!). Thanks for letting me know. I have always wondered about that child.
Nice! But the background music is very distracting
But it's only in first slide for three seconds! There's no other music in Clara except the opening 🤷♀️ thanks for the suggestion 💕
🇺🇸👍
You are on a roll, Boom!! 🎉
That photo is not of clara blinn not the one youre talking about at least. Not even close to looking like her.
The title slide image came from her family. As did the one at the Washita Battlefield with the scrap of her dress. As did the one on the NPS Washita website. Not sure which one you are talking about as I talk about more than one?
What makes you say it is not a photo of her? They certainly claim it to be her at the Washita Battlefield Museum, which I’ve been to. If you’re going to claim that they are incorrect; please explain why.
The historian Judith Justus lives in Perrysburg, OH, Clara's hometown, and befriended her family. They gave her that image and said it was Clara. It also matches the etching that the family gave the Washita Battlefield National Park Service and that is on display there. You can see all of this at the end of my video.
@@M35kriegsmarine thanks! I agree 🤷🏼♀️
This was a very sad story, but had the white people stayed out of Native Americans land, then so many white lives would have been saved.
I feel sorry for the people who were killed, on both sides, I have blood of the Native Americans I also have Irish, Scottish and Dutch blood, so I believe you can see it is hard to take a certain side.
You are right and HIstory has proven devastating to Native Americans. So many voices and lives are forgotten. When I look through the eyewitness accounts, I see people trying to survive and feed their families as best as they can, doing human things, good or bad or desperate, on both sides.
I believe American is as its suppose too be of too cultures who fought for what was and is the best country today...
Having USA navy come up on our enemies would be amazing too see.
Sandi, if they had stayed out of Native American lands; then you would not have been born. It is what it is.
@@M35kriegsmarine maybe or I would have been born another time and place or all N A or something else. I know I have lived before, many times and places and that is why I feel things and know things. It is not easy to explain, but I know.
I’m blown away by the tenacity and grit of your ability to unravel all the different components of these narratives and deliver solid research in your video. Well done!