Sam, My Warrior — Robert M. Johnson

The winter of 1826 finds young Sam Ogden living with the Mandan Indians in their village on the Missouri River. Life in the Slanted Village is built on the traditions of several hundred years. Sam and his mentor, Clyde Patterson have gradually become part of this complex network of practices and ceremonies. Sam has taken a wife, the daughter of Chief Rolling Thunder, her name is Little Fire. In the few months that they have been married, the young couple have successfully made a home of their spacious mud hut on the prairie. The Slanted Village is comprised of more than fifty of these solidly built log and mud homes. But living so close to the great River, the Missouri, brings with it the danger of the white man's illness. Already, the Mandan have been decimated by these fierce epidemics and another is now upon them. “Sam, my Warrior,” is the fifth volume in the Sam Ogden Mountain Man Series. The story traces the evolution of the early Rocky Mountain West, marking its origins in the beaver trapping, fur trading period, through the gold rush phase and then into the cattle-raising period. The excitement of these simpler and nobler times continues to inspire us all! The series is as follows: 1. Hard to Kill 2. Winter Down 3. Rendezvous Prize 4. The Deerslayer's Destiny 5. “Sam, My Warrior”