Four 1st person accounts of American colonists taken captive by Native Americans:
James Smith, adopted by the Delawares 1755-1759, provides an insightful view of his adoptive family's culture
Jesuit priest Father Bressani, captured and tortured by the Iroquois, 1644; amazingly, after healing from this ordeal, he returned to Canada to continue missionary work
Mary Rowlandson, minister's wife, captured and enslaved by the Wamponoags, 1676
Mercy Harbison's heroic and amazing escape from Native Am warriors, 1792

From James Smith's story - During part of one winter, Smith lives alone in the woods with his old, crippled uncle, Tecaughretanego, and a small boy. Smith is their only source of food, but a time comes when Smith has been hunting for 2 days without catching any game and without eating more than broth cooked from bare bones. His adoptive uncle advises him:
"'Brother, - As you have lived with the white people, you have not had the same advantage of knowing that the great Being above feeds his people, and gives them their meat in due season, as we Indians have, who are frequently out of provisions, and yet are wonderfully supplied, and that so frequently, that it is evidently the hand of the great Owaneeyo that doth this. Whereas the white people have commonly large stocks of tame cattle, that they can kill when they please, and also their barns and cribs filled with grain, and therefore have not the same opportunity of seeing and knowing that they are supported by the Ruler of heaven and earth.
"Brother, - I have been young, but now am old; I have been frequently under the like circumstances that we are now, and that some time or other in almost every year of my life; yet I have hitherto been supported, and my wants supplied in time of need.
"Brother, - Owaneeyo sometimes suffers us to be in want, in order to teach us our dependence upon him, and to let us know that we are to love and serve him; and likewise to know the worth of the favors that we receive, and to make us more thankful.
"Brother, - Be assured that you will be supplied with food, and that just in the right time; but you must continue diligent in the use of means. Go to sleep, and rise early in the morning and go a-hunting; be strong, and exert yourself like a man, and the Great Spirit will direct your way.'"
The next morning, Smith's hunt again is futile, and in despair he decides to run away and abandon the old man and young boy. As he is starting his flight, he comes across buffalo tracks and succeeds in killing a cow, which he takes back to his adopted uncle.