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 a second and 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 experience during this time. Horse-whisperers, a green-eyed girl, brave young men and women, and fierce grandmothers are among the characters that reveal glimpses of a people and a culture that survive today, and a part of American and native history that has long been hidden. A Full Circle is a story that needs to be told.
