All the items mentioned about William W. Belknap in this novel were true historical facts.
Additionally, Beautiful Woman’s recounting of the Battle of the Little Big Horn was based on research I have done by checking into the true accounting of the battle. Instead of reading remarks from those wanting to fulfill presidential aspirations or rewriting military history, I read an accounting and statements by the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho who actually took part in the battle. They were there, and these were people who did not even have a word in their language for lying. They are Americans, too. Our government has sometimes forgotten that fact. Sitting Bull did, in fact, take part in a sun dance ceremony shortly before the battle, did cut fifty pieces of flesh, and did have the vision described where many soldiers appeared with their heads toward the inside of the circle of lodges, meaning they were killed by the red combatants.
Additionally, George Armstrong Custer did cut his hair short before the battle because his wife had had a nightmare seeing a Lakota warrior holding his scalp high in the air. He carried the shorn locks in his pocket, and the Lakota did not even know he was there until after the battle. Tom Custer’s body was found with his heart removed, and Rain-in-the-Face did cut it out and eat it, as he promised he would.
Zachariah Banta in Cotopaxi was real, and many of his descendants had that same quick wit, dry humor, and ran cattle all around the Cotopaxi area for many decades before finally moving the ranching operation to southwestern Texas in the early twenty-first century via Zach’s great-great-great-grandson Byk Banta. Byk still runs his cattle ranching operation from the back of a horse.
Sheriff Frank Begley was the sheriff of Fremont County, Colorado territory in the 1870s, one of many in a long line of fine lawmen in southern Colorado.
The Underground Railroad was real and enabled thousands of escaped slaves to be channeled into northern cities and Canada.
Except for Brenna Alexander’s home and other obvious exceptions, all the locations and local histories mentioned herein were actual places and many still exist today. I have ridden my horse over almost every piece of land mentioned in this book and in my other westerns, so you will know it is real and not a Hollywood movie set. Please come along and join in sharing with me the rest of the tales about Pinkerton agent Joshua Strongheart in his future adventures also from Berkley, a division of Penguin Random House. Strongheart’s friend Chris Colt was the hero of ten westerns I also wrote for Berkley’s parent company, Penguin, and they have all been rereleased in eBook format by Speaking-Volumes.net. Chris Colt will be featured in future Strongheart novels, too. Watch for the fourth novel in the Strongheart series, The Rider of Phantom Canyon, which will be coming along before you know it.
Family illnesses and the subsequent passing of my wife kept this sequel from being published closer to Strongheart and Blood Feather, but hopefully that is all behind us now and you will be seeing more from Strongheart very soon.
Until then, partner, keep your powder dry, an eye on the horizon, an occasional glance at your backtrail, and sit tall in the saddle. It does not matter if your saddle is a computer desk chair, La-Z-Boy, porch swing, or deck chair on a cruise ship. Many of us grew up with the spirit of the American cowboy and pioneer woman. It is good to keep a door to our past open, so we know where our strength, courage, and tenacity came from. It is the legacy of honor forged from the steel characters blessed by God, who created some of his mightiest warriors in the American west. It is indeed the backbone of America. To this day racism is still a problem in some quarters in America, and it is also a convenient excuse for those who want to stir up trouble for political gain.
If you need me, I will be on my horse up in the high lonesome coming up with more stories for you. That is where I get my tales. They are up there above the timberline written on the clouds, and I swear that handwriting looks perfect.