These Sacred Lands - Paperback

by James Harold Kelly (Author)

Historical Fiction Company Five Star Award - Highly Recommended

"These Sacred Lands" is a story that captures the imagination, portraying valor and courage evoking empathy for cultures and characters.

When the Civil War ended, "Manifest Destiny" crashed upon the frontier like a massive wave, promising new life and a fresh start for thousands of settlers. The Black Hills, "Paha Sapa" to the Lakota, and the river region extending from the Bighorn Mountains to the Yellowstone River are sacred lands from which the native culture emerged. It is the land where the guiding spirits dwell. The Lakota watched the American migration with increasing concern, then anger.

Thousands of Indians gathered for treaty negotiations with the U.S. government and military representatives in 1869. A chance meeting of two adventurous youths, Shadow Hawk, the son of a Lakota chief, and Joshua Tremaine Mackenzie, the son of a cavalry officer, grows into respect and friendship over the turbulent years when they become men.

Shadow Hawk, a respected warrior and follower of Crazy Horse, believes, like most, that a significant defeat of the U.S. Army will drive the soldiers and the settlers away from the land for good. The Lakota will return to life as it was in years past. Over time, the realization that they are fighting an unwinnable war grows within Hawk. A future confined to a reservation is repulsive. Hawk's wife was lost in childbirth, and he considers what would happen to his young son should the warrior fall in battle. He makes a momentous decision that surprises even Joshua.

Lieutenant Joshua Mackenzie, a West Point graduate and newly commissioned cavalry officer, carries out his orders to drive the Indians back onto the reservations. The brutality executing those orders concern him while he profoundly respects the tribes and his close friend. At the heart of the government policy is the Army's total elimination of Crazy Horse and thousands of followers. Neither Hawk nor Joshua wishes to see the other across a battlefield, but both believe it is destined in the foreseeable future.

"These Sacred Lands" is more than a novel about a clash of cultures. It is a compelling story of two friends and two cultures, Manifest Destiny and the Great Sioux War, in which fate plays a cruel and deadly role too many times.