Lame Bird's Legacy (Paperback)

A host of characters, real and fictional, help modern day readers see the poignancy of the heroic Nez Perce retreat that came to be known as the Nez Perce war of 1877. Through it all the reader comes to feel the impact of empire-making events on the lives of ordinary people living in historic times. One Boy is orphaned in his infancy. When he undertakes his rite of passage into manhood he receives the name of Lame Bird and his Wyakin. His Wyakin, his special power, helps him live out the great mission Otter, his uncle, and the legendary Chief Joseph saw in their dreams.

Isaac Ramsey flees personal tragedy in Indiana joins the army and is caught up in a war against people he had never heard of a few short months earlier. Sergeant Harry Adkins carries memories of past battles and campaigns into the Nez Perce conflict.

Lame Bird and Isaac Ramsey cross paths high in the Bitterroot Mountains; each of their lives is changed forever. Lame Bird and Sergeant Adkins experience the horrors of war from opposite perspectives until they come to a shared climax on the plains of eastern Montana.

Readers meet General Oliver Otis Howard, Civil War hero, founder of Howard University in Washington D.C., the man who subdued the Apache warrior, Cochise. They see him lay his Christian ethic on the line as he struggles to bring the fleeing Nez Perce back to the reservation.

The treaty Nez Perce, Jeremiah Small Elk, risks the enmity of his fellow tribesman by scouting for the army. The Bannock warrior, Pronghorn, travels north from southern Idaho for the opportunity to collect Nez Perce Scalps. Lame Bird grows up with the stories of Rides Well, his father and a legendary hero among the NezPerce. Visions of Rides Well come to Lame Bird at critical junctures in his life. Otter and Tall Grass, Lame Bird's uncle and aunt, flee with the other non-treaty Nez Perce across Idaho into Montana.

Real people, Looking Glass, Ollokot, Yellow Wolf, Captain Benteen, White Bird, and others; along with fictional characters like Sergeant Tom Taggart, Syringa, Red Bear, and Corporal Hopkins play minor roles that help tell the story of Lame Bird's legacy.