Ambushed by Bluecoat pony soldiers near the North Platte River, Running Antelope and his band of thirty Cheyenne braves fought with reckless courage. But they were not painted and dressed for battle—nor were their arrows and lances any match for the soldiers’ carbines and artillery.
The lone survivor of the massacre was Running Antelope’s infant son. The child was taken back to the river-bend settlement of Bighorn Falls in the Wyoming Territory. His Cheyenne name had been lost forever. He was renamed Matthew and raised by John and Sarah Hanchon, owners of the town’s mercantile store.
In 1856, when Matthew turned sixteen, tragedy struck: He fell in love with Kristen, daughter of Hiram Steele, the wealthiest man in Bighorn Falls. Caught in their secret meeting-place, Matthew was viciously beaten by one of Steele’s wranglers. And Kristen’s suitor from nearby Fort Bates, a jealous young cavalry officer named Seth Carlson, threatened to ruin John Hanchon’s all-important contract with the fort unless Matthew cleared out for good.
Thus driven from the only world he knew, the youth rode north to the up-country of the Powder River, Cheyenne country, seeking the people whose blood he shared. Captured by Cheyenne braves from Chief Yellow Bear’s camp, he was accused of being a spy for the whites.
Only the intervention of old Arrow Keeper, the tribal medicine man, saved him from death by torture. The elder had recognized the birthmark, buried past the youth’s hairline, from a medicine vision: a mulberry-colored arrowhead, the mark of the warrior. This tall youth was destined to lead his people in a final, great victory against their enemies.
Renamed Touch the Sky by Arrow Keeper, the unwelcome arrival was hated by Black Elk and his bitter young cousin Wolf Who Hunts Smiling. Black Elk was furious with jealousy when Chief Yellow Bear’s daughter, Honey Eater, made love talk with Touch the Sky instead of him. And Wolf Who Hunts Smiling symbolically announced his intention to kill the suspected spy, by walking between Touch the Sky and the campfire.
Even after Touch the Sky and his white friend Corey Robinson saved the Cheyenne village from annihilation by Pawnees he was not fully accepted as a warrior. Then whiskey traders invaded Indian country, led by the ruthless Henri Lagace.
Not only did the whiskey peddlers threaten to destroy the Indian way of life with their strong water. Lagace and his men had taken to slaughtering white trappers in their sleep, making the murders look like Cheyenne handiwork. Thus they profited when the panicked Territorial Commission declared a bounty on the scalp of any Cheyenne.
Lagace kidnapped Yellow Bear’s daughter and threatened to kill her if the Cheyenne went on the warpath against him. But Yellow Bear could not sacrifice his tribe to save Honey Eater. The only hope was to send a small Cheyenne war party, led by Black Elk, into the heavily fortified white stronghold.
Touch the Sky was told, in a medicine vision, that he must defy Black Elk or Honey Eater would die. He deserted the war party and infiltrated the white camp on his own. He was taken prisoner and brutally tortured. But his courage rallied the other Cheyenne to mount an heroic surprise assault.
They scattered the white devils and freed Honey Eater. Touch the Sky then pursued his enemy Lagace until he killed him, ending the scalps-for-bounty menace. But much of his valor went unwitnessed, and many in the tribe were still unconvinced of his loyalty.
Their suspicions only deepened when Touch the Sky’s friend, Corey Robinson, arrived at Yellow Bear’s camp with bad news for the young Cheyenne: Hiram Steele had conspired, with Lieutenant Seth Carlson, to take over John and Sarah Hanchon’s mercantile store. Now the two had launched a campaign to drive the Hanchons from their mustang spread.
Touch the Sky, badly needed by the tribe and Honey Eater because Chief Yellow Bear lay dying, was torn in his loyalties. Tribal law would not permit Honey Eater to live alone if her father died—meaning she would have to accept Black Elk’s bride-price. But in the end he realized his white parents’ battle was his battle. He returned to Bighorn Falls accompanied by his friend, the battle-hardened young warrior Little Horse.
They defeated their white enemies, but a new battle raged for Touch the Sky, a battle in his heart: Returning to Bighorn Falls crossed his trail with Kristen’s. Seeing her again rekindled his passion and left him hopelessly trapped between two worlds, at home in neither.
Nor did he and Little Horse realize, as they started back to Yellow Bear’s camp on the Powder River, the trouble which awaited them. Spies had watched them during their battle, mistaking Touch the Sky’s meetings with the sympathetic cavalry officer Tom Riley as proof the Cheyenne was a traitor to his people.