"The creek course traced its course over a pebbly bed and leisurely meandered, winding through a narrow valley, densely timbered, and luxuriantly grassed. "
 |
The Golden Fox by Frank R. Kowalski Trafford Publishing
book review by Russell Roberts
In the middle of the 19th century, thousands of Americans made the perilous trip to the western region of the country by foot, horse, or covered wagon. John Stafford is one of these people. He encounters a Native-American woman whom he eventually marries, gets assimilated into her tribe, and leads a successful assault against a rival tribe, for which he is honored with the name The Golden Fox. Eventually he makes his way to Washington, D.C., where he meets President Abraham Lincoln. He then returns to the west as Lincoln's advocate and pursues fair treatment for Native-Americans.
That is the essential plot of the book. A cross between the television mini-series Into the West and the film Dances with Wolves, the book covers much ground, even touching on Red Cloud's defeat of the United States military in the later 1860s. Kowalski has a knack for setting the scene and describing people/landscapes vividly, and the writing is at its best depicting the vastness of the unsettled west.
Those looking for an historical account of these times will not find it here. The jury is still out on Lincoln's real feelings toward Native-Americans, and events like the Fetterman Massacre of 1866 inflamed the passions of ordinary citizens toward Native-Americans. The author may have missed an opportunity to examine the complexity of feelings and attitudes about and toward the natives, instead choosing the cliched route of mistreated people and white-knight rescuers. Overall, as a novel, The Golden Fox is good reading.