Regular print version originally published in the U.S. by: Houghton Mifflin.

"Copyright ©1958 by Henry Wilson Allen in the British Commonwealth under the title Dull Knife".

"On the night of September 2, 1878, two men died. One was Colonel James McAllister, the commander of Fort Robinson in northwestern Nebraska. The other was Iron Mountain, chief of the Cheyenne living in exile on the Darlington Reservation near Fort Reno in Oklahoma Territory. As Dull Knife becomes the new chief of the Cheyenne, he considers the condition of his people. Once strong, they are now ravaged by hunger and disease. With only a few muzzle-loading rifles, less than two days' food supplies, and a miserable remuda of grass-thin ponies, he decides to lead his people on a march of eight hundred miles across an alien territory of three states and four army departments to return to the mountains where they were healthy. Major Howell Weston arrives at Fort Robinson to take command from Captain Jackson, who had assumed command on McAllister's death and believes he should rightfully have been allowed to keep it. On the same day, they learn that Dull Knife's Northern Cheyenne have broken away from the reservation. Jackson claims they will never make it, but Weston is sure they will. The government wants them stopped and returned to the reservation. The Cheyenne have vowed they would die rather than return to Oklahoma."--,Provided by publisher.