Dances With Wolves.. Blake - A*

                     In the spring of 1863, Lt. John Dunbar's act of bravery so impresses his commanding officer that he is offered whatever assignment he desires.  He asks to be sent to the western frontier. Within a month, he is on his way to re-supply Ft. Sedgewick on the plains east of the Rockies in what will someday be Colorado. Upon his arrival, he finds the garrison gone. He decides to settle in, and realizes there is a Comanche camp a handful of miles to the west. He sees Kicking Bird, and after a few tentative sightings, they slowly build up a friendship, and learn to communicate by sign language. The Comanche are waiting for the buffalo and when they arrive, Dunbar joins in the hunt. He kills a buffalo, participates in the celebration and begins to feel a kinship with the Indians that he never felt in the army. As the summer passes, he spends more and more time with the Comanche and only occasionally returns to Sedgewick. Because the Indians had seen him with a wolf that followed him around the army post, they bestow on him the Comanche name Dances With Wolves. They also have Stands With A Fist, a white woman they had saved from a Pawnee raiding party when she was seven, act as an interpreter for him. He learns the Comanche language, participates in the scouting and hunting with the warriors, and slowly falls in love with Stands With A Fist. He offers to join a raiding party going to Pawnee land, but his request is denied. While the party is away, the Comanche learn that a raiding party is heading toward them. With the best warriors away, this is a very troublesome turn of events. Dances With Wolves returns to Sedgewick to recover a buried cache of rifles. He leads the defense of the village, and is heralded as a hero by all. Upon return of the war party, Kicking Bird consents to the marriage of Dances With Wolves and Standing with A Fist. On the day the Comanche were heading south for a winter camp, Dances With Wolves goes to Sedgewick to retrieve his journal and erase all evidence of John Dunbar. The fort is swarming with soldiers, his horse is shot out from under him, and he is in jail before he knows it.  The next day, the commanding officer sends him east in chains. By noon, he is rescued and three soldiers are dead.  He returns home to winter camp. The next summer is the finest the Comanche would experience. But they know that storms from the east are headed their way. A truly great novel.