Young Tahchee, or Captain Dutch, moves with relatives from the Eastern Cherokee Nation to the Western Cherokee Nation Lands (later Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma), already inhabited by Cherokees led there by John Bowles (Diwali) in 1794 and by hostile Osages, the Ani-Wasasi, sworn enemies of the Cherokees, the “Real People.” He grows to manhood during the troubled times of 1815-16, when raids and battles continually erupt between the two tribes. White settlers are moving in, followed by missionaries, then followed by the U.S. military, trying to keep the peace by building Fort Smith (1817) and Fort Gibson (1824) and by holding numerous peace councils. Treaties are signed; peace is declared. Again and again. During one lull in the battle storms, Dutch marries a beautiful Osage woman, Wind in the Meadow. They have one year together before her own people crush her skull with a war club for marrying one of those “That Thing on Their Heads People,” a reference to the distinctive turban worn by the Cherokees. Dutch retaliates by raiding and burning the offending village and killing as many of Chief Clermont’s Osages as possible.

The Western Cherokees include many mixed breeds, white Cherokee citizens, and other Indians, including the Creeks. Led by chief Tahlonteskee, brother to John Jolly, adoptive father of Sam Houston, they have a system of government and law and a respect for orderly procedures. They send messages and delegations to Washington to plead their case. They want to live in peace. They want schools for their children. They want promises kept. They want to hunt on Lovely’s Purchase (1817), secured from the Osages by the U. S. government for the Western Cherokees. The Osages declare they sold the land but not the animals, and continue to attack Cherokees and others found in that area.

The leaders of neither tribe can guarantee the individual behavior of all of their loosely-organized peoples. Isolated incidents accelerate into larger forays. When Arkansas is organized into a territory in 1820, more peace conferences are called. No one attends. When Mad Buffalo, son of Osage Chief Clermont, goes on a rampage, Old Degadoga, war chief of the Cherokees, seizes this violation of an armistice to organize an army. Dutch is now his captain. Before Dutch can lead his company in a raid, however, his group is ambushed by a large Osage war party. In spite of the surprise attack, Dutch emerges victorious. The Osages report, through their agent, that the Cherokees have massacred women and children, but they, themselves, are, nevertheless, the victors.

Communication between the frontier and Washington is uncertain, erratic, and muddled by conflicting accounts. In August, 1822, another peace treaty is signed. Degadoga refuses to sign with the Osage, a nation of “liars,” and moves to Texas, from whence he returns with only 19 men to raid Clermont’s Town of 1500 residents. Dutch, with 40 men, rides to his assistance. They defeat 60 Osage warriors and make off with 100 horses.

Mad Buffalo continues to raid and kill, including whites. Degadoga, with the blessing of the U. S. government, travels east to urge the Eastern Cherokees to move west. The U. S. government continues to measure and remeasure the western territorial lands, and shift and reshift the Western Cherokees. Dutch refuses to move as directed; instead, he moves to Texas, where he continues to exercise his expertise at stealing Osage horses. The U. S. government places a bounty of $500 on his head, and the Western Cherokee Council disenfranchises him, for he threatens yet another fragile peace treaty.

When Dutch learns that Mad Buffalo has been found guilty of murder but pardoned by the president, whereas Dutch is declared an outlaw, he is furious and attacks an Osage camp on the Neosho River in plain view of Fort Gibson. At full gallop, he races through the encampment, shrieks the wild turkey Cherokee battle cry, kills one man, and scalps him on the run. He screams his identity to watchers at the fort and rides away. As he leaves, an Osage woman succeeds in grazing his right cheek with a rifle shot—the only wound he ever receives in battle.

By now Dutch has become a legend and “a warrior in the age-old tradition of the Cherokees.” It is said of him that, in order to empty an entire Osage village immediately, one need only yell, “Dutch! Dutch!”

The arrival of Galanuh (The Raven), Sam Houston, helps to create some stability in the region. A new treaty creates another move for the Cherokees. Dutch will be pardoned if he returns from Texas within the year. Dutch, who now has a new wife, Susanna, and a son, Wili, returns.

June 15 of 1834 finds Dutch as chief scout of the 500-man Dodge expedition from Fort Gibson westward to convince the Comanches to move farther west to make room for the newer immigrants, both Indians and whites. Other members of the expedition are artist George Catlin, Lt. Jefferson Davis, Daniel Boone’s son, and Pierre Beatte, former scout to Washington Irving when the famous author visited Fort Gibson two years earlier. Some Osage guides invite themselves to join the group, and Dutch finds himself on a mission of peace with people whom he has formerly taunted, raided, fought, and killed. Negotiations with the Comanches are peaceful, but the men and horses are ravaged by scorching heat, vicious prairie flies, and a mysterious, deadly illness, probably cholera. Only 200 men return to Fort Gibson on August 15.

Dutch lives to bear witness to the Trail of Tears survivors as they straggle in to Fort Gibson after President Andrew Jackson defies a Supreme Court decision in favor of the Eastern Cherokee Nation and forcibly removes them westward. Another conflict soon develops between the Western Cherokees (Old Settlers) and the Eastern Cherokees. Chief John Ross of the Eastern Cherokees succeeds in swallowing up the Western Cherokee system of government and law, but is persuaded to include in his administration representtives of the Western Cherokees. Dutch is an elected representative from the Canadian District of the Cherokee Nation. Reluctant to kill his own people, either Eastern or Western, Dutch has remained aloof from the violence between 1842-46, when civil war raged among the Cherokees. Now he is one of their statesman, a plantation owner, a prosperous man. He agrees to serve the new government.

But he never makes it to the October council meeting of 1848. As he starts to mount his newly-broken white stallion, Lightning, the horse spooks, pens Dutch against the corral fence, and crushes his chest. Dutch walks back to the house and lies down to rest. He does not awaken.

Mr. Conley’s style is one of quiet dignity; his approach to his subject, respectful; his handling of complex events, skillful. Hyped-up violence does not romp through these pages. Instead, with Conley’s words there emerges a portrait of Tahchee, reminiscent of the one by George Catlin: Captain Dutch, the frontier survivor—dark, bold, dashing, arrogant, proud, brave.