Walking the Trail — Robert J. Conley

They named him Striker, because the day he was born he was said to have tried to hit the midwife. It's a name the young Cherokee would live up to throughout his early years, carrying with him the anger of watching his parents and best friend die on the Trail of Tears. Landing at Fort Gibson an orphan, Striker spends the next few years with other Cherokee children earning an education, and developing a burning desire to kill white men. This craving builds up inside of him to the point where he runs away from the school and embarks on a journey that lands him as both an outlaw and a lawman. He realizes that killing white men is better when it's legal, but neither way cures the chronic pain in his legs for forever "walking the trail."