Where the River Bends

About the Book

In Buffalo Gap, South Dakota, there still stands to this day an old ranch house from the 1880's. Some say "Sanctuary", as we'll call it, is haunted with the wailing and screams of some of Big Foot's band of Lakota Indians who made it there after members of the Seventh Cavalry, still seeking revenge for Custer's defeat at the Little Big Horn, opened fire on the defenseless Indians, killing many women and children.

This is also the story of tender love between two teenagers, one white and one Indian. It is also about the forbidden, adult love that exits between a widowed rancher and the wife of the local banker.

How the love of these four people and their descendents survive hard times for ranchers and Indians is depicted by faith in God and faith and love for each other.

This is the story of six generations of warriors from the 1880's to the present day who went off to fight in wars from The Massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1890 to Desert Storm Campaign in the present day.

It is the story of the women who gave their loyalty, support and undying love to their men and the friends who never failed in their devotion to the Smyth/Walking Bear family.

Each generation of this fictional family had to overcome hardships and sufferings in their times of existence.

About the Author

There have been many books written about cowboys, Indians, range wars. love, hate, suffering and triumph of the human spirit. How many of these have a haunted house as the core of its theme?

In Where the River Bends the haunted ranch house the author calls "Sanctuary" really exists out on the prairie of South Dakota. What is the crying and wailing that even today is heard and related by creditable people?

Is there a connection with the spirit world there? Are the souls of the Indians who died there after the Wounded Knee Massacre still tied to the earth in some phenomenal way?

In the author's imagination, six generations of warrior/ranchers inhabited the ranch. Each generation had heroes, and women who loved them, overcoming sufferings, difficulties and separations with the help from believing in God and each other.

The Smyth/Walking Bear family is fictitious but the ghosts are not. From the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 to the present day, a member of the family has fought for our country with honor and dedication.

Local readers in Rapid City, Hot Springs, Buffalo Gap, Hermosa and Red Shirt Table, South Dakota might find the book of interest because its setting is right in their neck of the woods. Other folks from far away might be teased to read a different kind of western.