THE STAKED GROUND

THE STAKED GROUND

Book One of THE PEOPLE: A Native Nations Saga

A people fighting for their land. A warrior society sworn never to retreat. A world about to be changed forever.

From the bestselling author of Warriors of the First Nations and The Fearless Fifteen comes an epic historical novel about the Cheyenne and the legendary Dog Soldiers.

They called themselves the Tsėhéstáno. History remembers them as the Cheyenne.

Across the Great Plains, American expansion is gathering pace. For the Cheyenne, the struggle is no longer simply about territory. It is about whether their traditions, identity and way of life can survive.

At the heart of the resistance stand the Hotamétaneo'o — the Dog Soldiers, one of the most formidable warrior societies of the nineteenth-century Plains.

Their code is absolute.

When a sash wearer drives his stake into the earth, he gives up the right to retreat. He will hold that ground until a brother releases him — or until he dies upon it.

Three men come to embody the choices confronting their people.

Black Kettle believes survival lies in negotiation and peace. Tall Bull believes some things must be defended whatever the cost. And George Bent, born between the Cheyenne and American worlds, becomes witness to both.

From the horror of Sand Creek to Beecher Island, from the death of Roman Nose to the Washita and Tall Bull's final stand at Summit Springs, The Staked Ground brings this extraordinary period of American history vividly to life.

Based closely on the historical record, this is more than a story of war. It is a story of courage, loyalty, identity, resistance and a people fighting to preserve their world.

The Staked Ground begins THE PEOPLE: A Native Nations Saga — a sweeping new series telling the stories of the Indigenous nations of North America through their worlds, traditions and perspectives.