A Full Circle

"I recommend A Full Circle. Dr. Rush (Niieihii Nenookeit) captures the spirit, customs, and values of my people in a story straight from our history."

—Burnett Lee Whiteplume, Sr. (Nowoo3), Arapahoe, Wyoming

In 1878, two years after the Greasy Grass fight that some called Custer’s Last Stand, U.S. soldiers and government contractors rounded up 270 Arapaho people. From the very young to the very old, they were forced to walk from Fort Robinson in western Nebraska across half of what is now the state of Wyoming. Their destination: the Shoshone Indian Reservation. The new home of the Northern Arapaho was a wilderness, but it was theirs and they were glad. Then came another tragic event.

Within weeks, the Takers arrived to capture confused and terrified Indian children. The young were shipped to boarding schools back East, where they were to be stripped of their tribal identities and assimilated into white culture. Families were torn apart.

Against this historical backdrop, A FULL CIRCLE gives a fictional account of several generations of Arapaho and their experiences during this time. Horse whisperers, a green-eyed girl, brave young men and women, and fierce grandmothers are among the characters who reveal glimpses of a people and a culture that survive today, and of a part of American and native history that has long been hidden.