The Captivity of John Tanner (Abridged, Annotated)

One of the most extraordinary true narratives of early America—a life lived between two worlds.

Abducted at the age of nine on the Kentucky frontier, John Tanner was taken into an Ojibwe community and spent the next three decades living as a full tribal member. His gripping firsthand account opens a rare window into Native life in the late 18th and early 19th centuries: hunting and warfare, family and adoption, spiritual beliefs, daily survival, and the profound bonds of kinship that shaped ...