July 2019 20 Oatman continued from page 19 to them. The cloth covering and the wheels were taken from the wagon. The Indians then left, taking Olive and Mary Ann with them. Lorenzo, believed dead by the Indians, awoke to cries from those of his family not yet dead from their wounds but he could not move. He remained still, pretending to be dead. He felt the Indians pull his hat and shoes off and go through his coat pockets. Still blinded from his blows, he felt his body being dragged to the edge of a cliff. He fell 60 feet to the canyon floor and was again knocked unconscious. It was never clear to him whether the Indians pushed him off the edge of the cliff or whether he crawled over it while still half unconscious. Determined to Live He awoke the next afternoon, alone at the bottom of the canyon. He saw his blood trailing down the canyon wall and he knew he could not climb back up to check his family. Lorenzo later recounted, “I grew sick and faint, dizziness shook my brain and my senses fled. I again awoke from the delirium, partly standing and making a desperate effort. I felt the thrill of strong resolution. ‘I will get up’ said I, ‘and will walk, or if not I will spend the last remnant of my shattered strength to crawl out of this place.’” Walking and crawling, he made his way out of the canyon and headed back for Maricopa Wells. A pack of coyotes began to stalk him, attracted by the scent of blood. He fended them off with rocks. After two days struggling along the trail back toward the Pima Villages at Maricopa Wells, a family named the Welders rescued him from the trail. They took Lorenzo to the Pima Villages, where he told his story. Major Without Compassion At the other end of the trail at Fort Yuma, Dr. Lecount and Manuel had arrived afoot. Lecount desperately There is some doubt that the Indians that discovered the Oatmans alone in the desert were Yavapai. Little understood in 1851, the Yavapai were later found to be peaceful and friendly and helpful to whites who entered Arizona Territory in 1863. Such an attack as was to follow was out of character at the time for this tribe. Royse Oatman struggled to appear calm and unconcerned. He had met Indians in his travel through Illinois and was a firm believer in the kinship of all men. He relied on his previous experiences with other tribes and attempted to show friendliness toward the strangers. He invited them to sit a spell and conversed with them in Spanish. The Indians asked for a pipe and tobacco so they might smoke. Oatman’s manner betrayed some nervousness as he supplied the tobacco but the men smoked in friendship. No Food To Trade For Lives The Indians then asked for food. Oatman refused, explaining that the family barely had enough for themselves. The Indians then turned their request into angry demands. Oatman took some bread from the wagon and gave it to them. When the bread was gone the Indians demanded more. Oatman refused saying he could spare no more food. The Indians moved to one side and held council. The Oatman’s continued loading the wagon, keeping a nervous eye on their visitors. The Indians continued talking among themselves, then, according to Lorenzo’s account, they suddenly attacked. “I was struck upon the top and back of my head, came to my knees, when, with another blow, I was struck blind and senseless.” Olive was yanked from her brother’s side as he was attacked. “When I turned around, opened my eyes and collected my thoughts, I saw my father, my own dear father, struggling, bleeding and moaning in the most pitiful manner. Lorenzo was lying with his face in the dust, the top of his head covered with blood, his ears and mouth bleeding profusely. I looked around and saw my poor mother, with her infant child clasped in her arms, and both of them still, as if the work of death had already been done.” The scene before Olive was too much for her to comprehend. Her parents lay dead, her mother with her newborn child in her arms. Also dead or dying was her sister Lucy, her five-year-old brother and her two-year- old sister. Lorenzo appeared to be dead as well. A Sight Too Gruesome to Bear Seeing her family dead or dying, Olive fainted. When she awoke, her little sister, Mary Ann, 7, was by her side crying for their mother. Olive heard moans coming from her mother and tried to go to her. She was held back by her captors. She could only watch as the Indians rifled the bodies and the wagon looking for things of value Olive and Lorenzo Oatman both faced incomprehensible fates. requested the fort commander, Major Samuel Heintzelman, to send help to the Oatmans. The major refused without explanation. Lecount then called for volunteers among the soldiers. Several agreed to go, but the Major refused to give the men permission to leave the fort. Lecount felt he had walked into the fort in time for troops to have rescued the Oatmans if they had been allowed to. After two days, the Major relented to Lecount’s request and allowed two men to go to the aid of the Oatmans. These two troopers found the bodies. Olive and Mary Ann had been marched for three days by their captors and had reached the Indian camp. Olive later described the scene, “We were ushered into camp, amid shouts and songs, wild dancing, and the crudest, most irregular music that ever ranter sung, or delighted the ear of an unrestrained superstition. They lifted us on top of a pile of brush and bark. They ran and jumped and danced in the wildest and most furious manner about us, but keeping a regular circle. Frequently on coming near us, as they would do in each revolution, they would spit in our face, throw dirt upon us or slightly strike us with their hand…” The girls were slaves, put to work at strenuous chores and whipped. Olive remembered, “Several times after cruel treatment, or the passing of danger from starvation, have we made the resolution (of escape), and set the time for expecting it, but we were not bold enough to undertake it.” Cruelty and Starvation The girls found starvation a danger with the tribe as it had been while traveling the Gila trail in the wagon. The Indians believed meat was unnecessary for young girls, their own included. A young female often did not receive any meat until near death, and since the majority of the Indian diet was game, there was little else to sustain her. The camp had a population of some 300, many had come from various tribes of the region. The majority were Tonto Apaches who had broken away to escape attempts of Catholic missionaries to convert them. The diet was deer, quail, rabbits, and roots. When no game was available worms, grasshoppers and reptiles sustained them. After several months of captivity, the “Well, there is one thing. I shall not be taken by these miserable brutes. I will fight as long as I can, and if I see that I am about to be taken, I will kill myself. I do not care to die, but it would be worse than death to be taken captive among them.” – 13-year-old, Olive, before the abduction.