Dr. Galen's Dilemma — Ruth Burnett

Chestnut-haired Galen Nelson was on her way to the Cremonton Indian reservation when she received the call on the mobile telephone in her van: Holsteins at Andrew Banister's dairy farm were sick. To the diminutive Galen, a veterinarian specializing in large-animal practice, diagnosis and treatment of the cattle were routine. But Andrew Banister himself was a puzzle. His steady gray eyes set in a smooth-planed, scholarly-looking face, the dairy farmer frankly intrigued Galen, more so when she learned that he held a doctoral degree in American history.

After her routine life with two roommates in Washington, D.C., everything about western Oklahoma seemed exciting. Her assignment at the Cremonton reservation, to investigate some problems with the Indians' buffalo herd, would give her a chance to visit with her brother, Luke, also a veterinarian, and his family. Meeting Andy Banister deepened her conviction that her sojourn in Oklahoma would be pleasurable, and even sandy-haired Mike Callahan, the ranger at the Cremonton reservation, was personable and kind as well as handsome.

Such good luck was bound to change, and it was the young Indian chief, Chekita, who proved to be the thundercloud on Galen's sunny horizon. Intelligent and well educated but fiercely devoted to the traditions of his people, Chekita was slow to give his trust and quick to vent his anger. It was Galen who became the target of his wrath when her diagnosis of undulant fever among the herd came to threaten the lives of the buffalo, the Indians, and finally Galen and Mike.