DEATH AT LAME DEER

In the spring of 1890 the Northern Cheyennes are starving. Bureau of

Indian Affairs mismanagement of rations and resources plus a shortage of

wild game lead to acts of desperation. When hungry Cheyenne hunters leave

the reservation to poach white settlers’ cattle and a white settler is killed,

tensions between Cheyennes, white settlers, the U.S. Army, and local law

enforcement quickly escalates.

Twenty-seven-year-old mixed-blood interpreter Willis Rowland, known among

the Cheyennes as Long Forehead, is deputized by a group of prominent white

Montanans and the Custer County sheriff to secretly collect information on

Cheyenne and white criminals operating on and around the reservation. Using

his knowledge of both cultures and languages, Willis begins to uncover clues

about the murder and discovers that a gang of white outlaws with Cheyenne

help are using the reservation as a rest stop. When another white settler is killed

in a butchering incident, the simmering tensions boil over, leading to a violent

clash between the U.S. Army and members of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe.

Based on years of research, Forest Dunning’s Death at Lame Deer is a riveting

mystery that brings a long-forgotten chapter of Montana history vividly back

to life. Previously published as Between Two Tribes, this revised edition has

been substantially updated to reflect new information and cultural insights

surrounding the tragic actual events it depicts.