This is a photograph of Julia and Adelaide German, who were taken captive with their sisters, Sophia and Julia, by Cheyenne Indians after their family was killed. On September 11, 1874, the John German family, consisting of his wife and seven children, were attacked by a band of Cheyenne east of Ft. Wallace, Kansas. Only the four youngest, Sophia, Catherine, Julia, and Adelaide, were spared and taken captive. The two youngest, Julia and Adelaide (aged 7 and 5), were subsequently abandoned on the prairie in what is now the Texas panhandle. Sophia and Catherine were kept by their Cheyenne captors. Fort Wallace received word of the killings, and began the search to find the girls, and to negotiate their release. They found Julia and Adelaide, who had survived on their own for 6 weeks, and on February 26, 1875, the Cheyennes released Catherine and Sophia German at an Indian reservation. The two girls were reunited with their younger sisters, Julia and Adelaide, at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. The photograph was copied from Girl Captives of the Cheyennes by Grace E. Meredith.
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