Thirteen-year-old Lewallen Collier lives with his parents, old uncle, two brothers (one older, one younger) and his 3-year-old sister in west Texas as the Civil War begins. His father and older brother join the Confederate Army and go off to war, leaving the homesteading family under the protection of an old man, a woman, and a young boy. Soon after they leave, a Comanche raiding war party storms in, burns all the buildings, and kills Lewallen's mother, uncle, and younger brother. They take Lewallen and his young sister captive. And all of that is in the first chapter of the book!
(spoilers follow)
The story tells of Lewallen's adventures, first as a Comanche slave, then as a trusted member of the tribe, then he escapes, sending word to his little sister, "Wait for me, watch for me, Eula Bee." His return to rescue his sister is long delayed, as he spends time in a Confederate fort, manned only by those unable to fight in the war, tagging along with a grumpy Indian trader, whose children were also kidnapped by the same raiding party, tagging along with a Union troop, and then being led to the tribe by a group of Indian traders related to the one he had teamed up with earlier. And during all this time, Eula Bee becomes more and more a Comanche and less and less a white settler.
The story is action packed and plot centric, and written in 1977, holds a nice spot in Native American historical fiction. Many books written earlier would have viewed the Native Americans as "savages" and portrayed them as all bad. Many more modern books would take a politically correct, but also inaccurate view that Native American's have to be the heroes and that they are all good. In this book, the Comanche and Kiowa tribes are portrayed in a more historically accurate manner, as a people whose ways and ways of thinking are so different from those of the white settlers, that they cannot relate to each other at all. They are not portrayed as savages to defeat, nor as an oppressed kind and benign people. They are portrayed as being filled with love, compassion and honor, but also capable of murder, violence, and theft. Likewise, the settlers are portrayed as saints nor villains either.
But Lewallen is portrayed as a fine child-hero. Capable of great bravery and action when necessary, but filled with compassion for others, no matter their race, when he is allowed to feel that way. ( )