Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-11-13
An indian Captive-Four Years Among
the SavaSes-A Strange Story.

The Colorado Tribune has the following
strange story We saw at the Planter
House yesterday ii woman named Lizzie
Blackburn, native Of Mount Jackson,
South Carolina, who claims to have been 3
prisoner among different tribes OF Indians
about four years. She Is now tWenty-elgh
years old, and is a cripple from the loss Oi
! her limbs which have been amputate(l
twice, the first time at the ankle joints, and
again about three inches below the knee
! Her story OF her capture and i'm IMPRISONMENT
| is about as follows, commencing with how
/ she came 10 be in the Indian country
| When she was five years old her father,
| Thomas blackburn, emlgrated from South
Carolina, and Joined the Mormons at Nau-
VOC, Illinois. He accompanied them to
Florence, Nebraska, and finally emf
grated to Utah, with the earliest
emlgrants, and preached among them.-
In 1868 or 1864, the father, having become
somewhat dlsslpated, and having Cor some
time been accustomed to living among the
Norman Indians, Lizzie and ber mother
and two younger sisters, aged respectively
ten and fourteen years, concluded to run
away from him and the Mormons, and if
possible reach California. They took with
them only what they could pack about
their persons, and with a rifle and some
ammunition started westward from Suit
Lake, wandered for nine months: when
they were captured by the Digger Indians.
LlzZo was suld by the Diggers 10 tho
Foxes. The mother and two remaining
sisters when they learned OF Lizzie's sale
ran away from the DigGers and were pur-
sued. When found tncy had starved and
frozen to death, and were buried on Horse
Greek. The Foxes sold Lizzie to the
Snakes. Then she learned oI tie death OF
her mother and sisters ana saw them bu-
rled. She ran away from the Snakes, bat
WAS captured. She Was badly frozen III the
attempt, and was afterwards again frozen.
She e~}S that two EaiI-breeds, named
I0wautiDu5 and Puchauatah, toes her to
Washington, y. C., where Ter limbs
were "mp1t&tcd. un0 tiIlt ohc was
returned to the Snakes by her fathers
direction, he beiug among them as % kind
Of chief AZ the time. She says that her
father has SO spent most q lis time among
the Indians for seven or eight years, and
Is clc q them now. lie is with the Arapa-
noes OF C!9TeNncS. ne Snakes traded
her 10 the Ar2p&hOe5, from whom she es-
capped about one year, by lie assistance OF
Fred Jones, & Government scout, and was
brought iuto Elijwortl. 81 the time of
her escape the Arapahoes were camped at
the biS head Of the Arkansas. 4 portion
Of the time since ber escape she has been
doing ho"sework ct & stage station down
on the Smoky Hill road. Fred Jones, her
roscuer, was discharged from the Govern
ment employ last spring just before the
outbreak down on the Solomon il Kansas,
and as he threatened to go with the In
dams it was supposed tnat he was with
them al that time. She says she counted
one hundred and fifty white men i'll one
Indian camp she visited while acting in
the capacity Of scout, and that there are
a great many among all the tribes The
Digger5 treated her most cruelty, and al
treated her vcvy roughly. Her father,
though, often protected her from severe
treatment. She says that she has an uncle
living somewhere on the North Platte
River, and she is row on her way to him.
She expected to leave this morning.