The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 107, July 2003 - April, 2004 Page: 106

Comanche camp scene, c. 1867-1874, the late pre-reservation period, in a photograph
taken by William S. Soule, who was appointed post photographer at Fort Sill, Indian
Territory, in 1869. On September 14, 1866, Bianca Babb, age ten, and her fourteen-year-
old brother, Dot, were captured at their home by Nokoni Comanches during a raid
through Jack and Wise Counties that left their mother dead. The siblings, who were taken
to separate camps, lived with the Comanches until the middle of 1867. Dot Babb's 1912
memoir, In the Bosom of the Comanches, is a classic captivity narrative, which has been cited
by numerous sources. Bianca's separate, short narrative has been almost universally over-
looked. Bianca's account of her seven months with the Nokoni Comanches is a unique
addition to the literature. It represents possibly the only first-person narrative of a girl cap-
tive's time with any of the Southern Plains tribes. While the boy captives' narratives
focused on their rowdy, violent adventures on the warpath and the buffalo hunts, Bianca
wrote mainly about her peaceful, contented life in a Comanche village as the foster daugh-
ter of a young widow. Her anecdotes about Comanche hfe are remarkably tender and
human. For Bianca Babb's complete account of her captivity, as well as a discussion of her
life and how her narrative fits into the hterature, see "'Every Day Seemed to be a Holiday':
The Captivity of Bianca Babb," edited by Daniel J. Gelo and Scott Zesch, which begins on
page 35 of this issue. Photograph courtesy of Caldwell (Frank) Collection, Center for American
History, Unzversity of Texas at Austin, CN Ioz86.