Synopses & Reviews
Bighorn sheep graze on the last of the green grass on Gets-Struck-By-Lightning Mountain in the late fall. Two Hawkand#8217;s father and older brother, Night Heron, set off through newly fallen snow to hunt with their dogs. Two Hawk is sad to be left behind, but he has heard the bull elkand#8217;s mating call for only seven seasons, too few to be old enough to hunt.
So begins another day for a boy of the Tukudika (Sheep Eater) Shoshones, living in the traditional ways in what will one day be known as Yellowstone National Park. Two Hawk is learning those ways, accompanied by his dog, Gypsum, and a talkative magpie whose secrets only Two Hawk can hear. His adventures, beautifully illustrated by Davand#237;d Joaquand#237;n, show Two Hawk, and the reader, the meaning of rituals and responsibilities and the mystical origins of Two Hawkand#8217;s name. Only the appearance of the hairy-face man who crosses paths with Two Hawkand#8217;s family suggests the vast changes that are soon to shake the Shoshonesand#8217; world.
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Review
“An excellent story that invites the reader into a time and place far removed from twentieth-century America.”—Historical Novels Review Historical Novels Review
Review
and#8220;This story of a boy named Two Hawk, his family, his dog, Gypsum, and an outspoken magpie on their seasonal journey down from the heights of Yellowstone is a magical tale full of adventure and wisdom.and#8221;and#8212;Jake Page, author of
In the Hands of the Great Spirit: The 20,000and#8211;Year History of American IndiansSynopsis
In 1822 Elijah Mounts, barely eighteen, shoulders his rifle and walks from his uncles Missouri farm to Saint Louis to seek his fortune in the fur trade. Frank B. Lindermans 1922 novel is a first-person account, based on a true story and his own trapping experience, of a young mans coming of age among the trappers and Indians in remote Montana, on the upper reaches of the wild Missouri River. Befriended by Wash Lamkin, “Dad” to all who know him, “Lige” learns to live on the trail, trap the beaver, hunt the buffalo, speak the Cree language, and observe the customs of the country and its people. Enamored of the freedom, wildness, and beauty of the high plains and tied to the people at whose hands he has experienced kindness, welcome, and acceptance, he must ultimately decide whether he will return to civilization or choose the life of a plainsman.
About the Author
Frank B. Linderman (1869-1938) was a Montana miner, trapper, newspaperman, politician, and chronicler of Indian life and culture. His many works include The Montana Stories of Frank B. Linderman, Indian Why Stories: Sparks from War Eagles Lodge-Fire, and Indian Old-Man Stories: More Sparks from War Eagles Lodge-Fire, all available in Bison Books editions. David J. Wishart, a professor of geography at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is the author of An Unspeakable Sadness: The Dispossession of the Nebraska Indians and the editor of The Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, both available from the University of Nebraska Press. Sarah Waller Hatfield is Lindermans granddaughter.