Synopses & Reviews
John Buffalo, a Lakota Sioux, is taken from his family and his home as a young boy and is forced into the White man's world.
Buffalo's teachers soon recognize his extraordinary athletic potential and push him to train for track and field events. Accepting this as a way to integrate into the White man's world, Buffalo sets his sights on competing in the Olympics.
Along the way Buffalo meets a variety of early-twentieth-century celebrities including Theodore Roosevelt, James Naismith, Tim McCoy, and even Jesse Owens, the African-American gold medal winner snubbed by Hitler at the 1936 Olympics.
The Long Journey Home is beautifully written historical fiction that is sometimes heart wrenching, sometimes hilarious, and always poignantly accurate. It is a heartfelt story about love, self, and the reality of home.
Review
"Coldsmith is a master storyteller."-
Publishers Weekly"The Long Journey Home is the often sad, but nevertheless compelling story of [a Native American] who does his best to fit into his New World."-The Sunday Patriot-News, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
"[An] engrossing historical novel. . . . John's adventures in this vibrantly drawn historical period will keep readers engaged throughout."-Library Journal
Synopsis
Taken from his Lakota Sioux family as a young boy, John Buffalo grows up in the White man's world where his athletic abilities are recognized. On his way to competing in the Olympics, Buffalo meets and interacts with a variety of notables of the early twentieth century, including Theodore Roosevelt, James Naismith, Jim Thorpe, and Jesse Owens. (May)
About the Author
Don Coldsmith is the Spur Award-winning author of more than thirty-five books. After serving as a combat medic in the Pacific during World War II, Coldsmith served as a physician in Emporia, Kansas, until 1988, when he closed his office to devote himself to writing. Coldsmith and his wife, Edna, maintain a small ranching operation, and have raised cattle, Appaloosa horses, and five daughters, not necessarily in that order.