Category: Young Adult/Teen Publisher: BookSurge
ISBN-10: 1439211396
Type: Fiction
Pages: 222
Copyright: Oct 2008
ISBN-13: 8781439211397
Harry is challenged with bringing two tribes together without destroying the integrety of either. The ancient tribe is very fragile and must be allowed to connect with the outside world very carefully and slowly
In each book Harry moves to another level in his quest for solving the problems of moderization for his floundering Indian tribe. He has gotten some very professional help from the outside by his old friends showing up. It seems they might have been part of Harry's calling.
Harry juggles the lives to two distinct and very different tribes as he becomes chief of one and king of the other. He has royal blood and this comes about in a very strange and surprising way. All through this series Harry has help from the spirit world in a form that represents a person that is written about in book one of the third series. A young man who immigrated from Ireland and by circumstance also became the leader of the Wisnook Indians. The same tribe that Harry is helping now.
Excerpt
We have learned a lot about Harry and how he was transformed from a computer wizard to the great chief of the Wisnook Indians. He was called back to his Indian heritage by the medicine man of the tribe known as Rain Bird. Harry was given the name of Soaring Eagle when he completed the trials that made him eligible to become chief. Special forces led him to the area of Donkville, a sheep-ranching district of a mountainous and previously volcanic state. His natural instincts and inclination have been aided by various special powers that often accompany one of his calling.
He was led into the purchase of sacred land that had been sealed off by the federal government after a riot at the mine and the death of many of the participants. Harry’s own father, Swift Bird, was involved in the uprising in the mine and fled this area with his wife, Heavenly Dove, who later gave birth to Harry when they were further west, near Seattle. Harry spent about a year with his biological parents before they returned from Canada and they were forced to leave Harry behind for adoption. Fortunately, he was adopted by a very kind and loving couple. They were middle-aged when they adopted the baby and died when he reached his early twenties.
During the transition, Harry not only changed mentally and emotionally, but physically as well. He grew closer to nature, became a more sociable person, lost excess pounds, and toughened up to look like an Indian. He made many new friends and other individuals are coming along all the time. He found himself attracted to two young ladies who, after his birth father was identified, turned out to be his second cousins. Harry discovered that his father, Rain Bird and Samuel’s father were brothers, with his father being the youngest. The family tree was stitching itself together.
Harry found a lost tribe back in the extinct volcano on the inside of Spirit Mountain. The family situation has not been revealed to them yet, but there is a connection, and one of the two people who left that place long ago will be found to be his maternal grandmother. There are several other people in the tribe here in the ranching community who know they are related to the two people. Harry suspects these people lost their way and became separated from the tribe in the volcano. No one, except Harry, knows about the tribe in the extinct volcano and he has sworn to protect their secret until a time that would be advantageous to them. He spent about six weeks with the people there and found them to be wonderful, amusing, and very gentle. The tribe can no longer reproduce and their numbers are steadily dwindling. Other than one young lady and two children, all the others in the extinct volcano are middle age and older. Harry developed a great attraction to the young lady in the volcano, more so than anyone he had ever met and was rather confused about how to go about getting to know her better.
Due to Harry’s instigation and persistent movements, the town of Donkville is starting to come alive. Harry first recognized a need to change through his dreams back in Seattle and set out to make those dreams a reality. The medicine man had been using his powers to pull a leader from the modern world who would take a grip on tribal politics and lead his people into modern times. Harry’s dreams have gone far beyond what the medicine man had to offer and the medicine man’s own great-grandfather, White Panther, has stepped up to the plate and taken hold of Harry’s spiritual training. While the medicine man works to improve Harry’s ability as an Indian, other forces are working to give Harry the tools he will need to deal with other elements.
We pick up the story with the month-long training that Harry must accomplish. He already finished one day of training, which was a forced march with no drink or food to aid him. He then did a week of training, which taught him to follow a trail and find food along the way. In each case, he carried a regular Indian bow and real flint-point arrows. He took turns trying to hide from Rain Bird and then to find him. All in all, he started to like the training a lot more as time went on. He found himself challenged by Rain Bird and had a strong desire to compete with him. He was also very happy to know Rain Bird is his uncle. Harry left instructions with several of his friends in town to settle the new doctor, and several other people who have decided to move to the area.
On the morning the two men were to start their month long training program, Harry arose before daylight and fixed coffee and biscuits for his last meal. His faithful dog, Rocky, knew that something was going to happen and sensed the excitement of the day. As Harry ate breakfast, he kept looking toward the valley of grass for Rain Bird to come along so they could get started. Rain Bird seldom came from that direction and Harry had yet to find out the secret method that he uses to come and go. Rain Bird’s custom was to walk around the corner of Harry’s old bunkhouse and disappear somewhere into the mountain that loomed just behind the buildings. It was still not quite daylight when Harry heard an approaching horse coming over the rocky flat where his mine is located. He knew it wasn’t Rain Bird, because the only time he saw him on a horse was when they went to Spirit Mountain for the trials.
Then he saw it was Samuel and his daughter Lonetta, one of Harry’s very pretty second cousins. As they rode up and dismounted, he offered them breakfast.
Samuel said, “We will eat breakfast, but you won’t be here. Rain Bird is on his way to Spirit Mountain without you and wants you to catch up.”
This threw a monkey wrench into Harry’s thinking. He had expected they would start out together, but as usual, Rain Bird was making it hard for him. Samuel had brought his bow and a quiver of arrows, which he handed to Harry. On the last trip, Rain Bird had made him leave everything behind, even empty his pockets. Well, this time it was different. He already had his pockets full of things he thought he wanted to take with him, but he had no food packed. That was easy, as Samuel told him he was not to take any food or water, but find Rain Bird as fast as possible.
Harry asked several more questions and with each, he got the same reply, “He’s getting farther and farther away.”
Lonetta said, “I wanted to see you off and to give you a gift from my grandfather.” Her grandfather was Harry’s uncle and Samuel’s father.
She handed him a woolen blanket roll, which had a string running down the middle, so he could sling it on his back. He thanked her, said his goodbyes, and took off at a trot, with Rocky four or five paces ahead. Rocky would be no help in finding the medicine man because somehow Rain Bird always gave instructions to Rocky that Harry had yet to figure out how to override.
