Showing results by author "B.N. Rundell" in All Categories

The Osage, Kansa, and Otoe were all tribes west of the Mississippi and dwelt directly in the path of the two friends determined to escape the bounty hunters from Philadelphia and to explore the uncharted wilderness of the West. But when they encounter former French Voyageurs turned slave traders who take Pawnee women captive, their purposes take a turn. But slave-traders are nothing compared to the Omaha and Ponca tribes that have the market cornered on all trade from the Missouri and North Platte Rivers.

It started as a brother defending the honor of his only sister, but it led to a bloody duel and a young man of a prominent family lying dead in the dirt.... Gabriel Stonecroft, along with his lifelong friend Ezra, the son of the pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal church, at his side, begins the journey to the far wilderness of the West. One man from prominent social standing, the other with a life of practical experience, are soon joined in life-building adventures.

The power of a promise made and a promise kept is realized when Jeremiah Thompsett comes of age and accepts the responsibility of fulfilling his mentor's long-held dream. Raised by an escaped slave in the midst of the Arapaho nation in the Wind River mountains, he now must track down the slave catchers that killed his adopted father and stole their cache. The Vengeance Quest takes him and his companions through the mountains and across the nation to fulfill the promise of freeing the family of slaves held dear to his mentor and adopted father.

After spending most of five years in the Rocky Mountains, Gabriel Stonecroft finds it necessary to return to civilization to settle some long-past accounts. He sets out from the headwaters of the Missouri River, with his only companion a wolf, navigating the wild river through the lands of the Blackfoot, Gros Ventre, Assiniboine, and more. But an attack by a renegade French voyageur and his rebel Blackfoot companions is just one of the obstacles in his way.

After a friendly encounter with the Yapudttka Ute, their journey would take them into the middle of a fight between the Mouache Ute and an expedition of gold-hungry Spaniards. The prospectors traveled across the southern tier of the land known as New Spain in search of the Seven Cities of Cibola—the same cities of gold once sought by Coronado—now thought to be in the headwaters of a river in the Sawatch mountains of the Rockies. When the leader of the Spaniards tries to enslave the band of Utes to dig for gold, it starts a bloody battle.

Their dream and goal had always been to explore and discover land unknown by white men, the land that lay within the territory known as New Spain or Spanish Louisiana, land that had been known as French Louisiana and that had only known the presence of Spanish Conquistadors and a few French voyageurs or coureurs des bois. Now, with their new wives, Gabe and Ezra set out to discover and explore the mountains and wild country to the North, land that was full of mystery and tales of the natives that told of indescribable wonders.

What started as a joyous reunion of friends, soon became one of the most challenging periods of their lives. Chosen as scouts for the Kuccuntikka village of the Shoshone for their trek to the grand encampment of the Shoshone, their encounter with the scouts from the Tukkutikka band would set them on a different course altogether.

Jeremiah returns from the wild mountains of the west to keep a promise to his adopted father and mentor, Ezekiel. The journey allows for a visit with Jeremiah's only living relative, his sister. Jeremiah finds himself obligated to make and keep another promise that sets the trio on the trail West, and that journey sees them join up with a wagon train of settlers and missionaries searching for a new land and a new life.

It was supposed to be a cozy winter in their new cabin, but it started with a cantankerous grizzly wreaking havoc on everything. After a trading foray to visit the Salish, everything seemed to get turned upside down. They found themselves in contested territory with a band of young bucks from the Siksika band that sought to gain scalps and captives from their sworn enemies, the Salish. And that wasn’t enough to upset their peaceful plans, but when Gabe found out the Blackfoot had stolen the mares bred by his stallion and were carrying foals that belonged to him, it became personal.

Two friends committed to one another and their destiny of exploring the wilderness known as French Louisiana. A land that would soon become the Louisiana Purchase and a part of the growing nation of the United Colonies. But another man, wealthy, influential, and vindictive, is determined to see Gabriel Stonecroft pay the ultimate price for the death of his son, a ne'er-do-well troublemaker who surrendered his life in a duel with Stonecroft. After a perilous journey down the Ohio River aboard a flatboat, the two friends now set out to explore the West.

A man is only as good as his word. A man's word is the cornerstone of his character according to Ezekiel, Jeremiah's adopted father and mentor. Raised among the Arapaho with values according to their culture blended with the standards of a runaway slave and the remnants of the memory of his natural father, Jeremiah must now take the measure of his own character.

It was nothing more than a resupply trip to Santa Fe, but an encounter with the Tabeguache Ute and the Caputa Ute changed the course of their journey. It wasn’t until they came upon the massacre at a Mexican Hacienda and the subsequent attack from a rampaging band of renegade Jicarilla Apache that they would uncover a prospering trade in captives and slaves that would raise the ire of both Gabe and Ezra.

The making of a man is a challenging metamorphosis by any standard, but when it's in the wilderness and among the Arapaho people, the standards are raised. Such was the challenge of Caleb, the adopted son of Jeremiah Thompsett and Laughing Waters. With his Pa, a proven warrior and leader for the people, and his Ma becoming the new Shaman for the village, Caleb naturally wonders about his future and the possibility of marrying his sweetheart and spending their lives living in the wilderness with his people, the Northern Arapaho.

By any measure, they would be considered old-timers in the mountains of the uncharted territory. The two old-timers were young men that had spent the last two years in that uncharted territory and had taken women from the Shoshone people as their brides. But when renegade coureurs des bois of the Hudson’s Bay Company and trappers of the Northwest company decide to abandon the fur companies and seek their fortune by raiding the native villages, the two young friends and their women stand in their way.

When the Salish war leader Spotted Eagle appeared in the clearing before their cabin, lifelong friends Gabe and Ezra weren’t sure what to think. This man had shown himself to be their friend, and now he invited them to join him and the village on a buffalo hunt. With winter just around the corner, it seemed the likely thing to do, but had they known what the journey would bring, they might have had second thoughts. Gabe and Ezra’s discovery of the massacre of the Paiute village and the three survivors was just the beginning of the fight against the warring Waiilatpus.

Driven by grief over the loss of his beloved wife and child, Tyrell Thompsett left the home of his childhood in the Medicine Bow mountains and started south in a quest for a new life. With his long-time friend Grey Wolf, a warrior of the Yamparika Ute who was on his own quest, the two start the long trek to the Sangre de Cristo mountains and a new beginning.

The bloody waters at the lake’s edge told of the destruction of the Kutenai village. Dead bodies were strewn about, smoke curled from burning lodges, and the war cries of screaming Blackfoot warriors followed the war party from the scene of death and destruction. It started as a rivalry between two war leaders of the Piikani Blackfoot. Friends since their youth, they both wanted the same woman and were on a quest for honors and loot. Together with his battle-hardened friend, Black Buffalo, these two were determined to become the personification of vengeance.

Louisiana Territory had been the exclusive domain of Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, seeking to fill their larders with the riches of the uncharted wilderness. But into that territory came two friends, determined to explore and learn about this vast land, land that had seldom if ever had the footprint of a White man. With their journey already taking them through the lands of the Shawnee, Osage, Pawnee, Omaha, and more, they have finally come within sight of the Rocky Mountains, but their way is blocked by the Plains tribes of Arapaho, Ute, Shoshoni, Crow, and others.

Gabe and company spent the winter with the Mouache Ute, but the buffalo hunt was watched by a hunting party of Yaparuhka Comanche. That hunting party soon became a raiding party, and the blood began to flow.

The Overland stage line had become the target of raids by the Dog Soldiers, a confederacy of Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota, that sought to regain the land stolen from the Indians by the new government of Colorado Territory. A bitter cold winter added to the danger of the continued assaults on wagon trains, stage stations, and stages.