I started American Indian fancy-dancing when I was just a young boy with the Minniconjou Indian Dancers in Akron, Ohio. We performed quite often and I won several competitions, even against Native American dancers. When my buddies and I played cowboys and Indians, I always wanted to be the Indian and studied American Indian lore all the time. I wore moccasins all through grade school and carried a beaded headband in my pocket and put it on when out of sight of my house. I started bow-hunting while still in elementary school. I had no Native American blood, but it was in my heart. I was like a cherry cupcake with vanilla frosting. I was white on the outside, but red on the inside.
I also grew up in a racially mixed neighborhood until middle school and always got along with everybody, never really understanding the reasoning behind or sense in racial prejudice. To me, it was stupid, pure and simple. By the time I was twenty years old, I was commissioned as second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, a product of Infantry Officers Candidate School, and after Jump School, I found myself at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, earning a Green Beret. It was 1967, and I voluntarily took part in racial seminars for soldiers at Fort Bragg. I was the only white soldier standing with the black soldiers arguing for integration, and I was the only officer in the room.
This novel deals with the Indian Ring, one of the most unfortunate and shameful things that ever came out of Washington, D.C. It deals with racial prejudice, especially for the true Americans who were here when the white men first arrived. The Indian Ring was real and so was secretary of war under President Ulysses Grant, William W. Belknap, and so were the incidents involving him and his wives mentioned herein. Belknap was the head of the Indian Ring and was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives after resigning in disgrace, but what about all those in the Indian Ring who were never brought to justice? The character Robert Hartwell is fictional, but could have been a real person. There were many in the Indian Ring who sought personal gain on the backs of the American Indian. That is what is so sad about our nation’s history. There have been those throughout history who want power, fame, and riches; without caring a whit about those they hurt in the process. We should learn from our mistakes, not repeat them.