Modoc Sundance — Sean Belanger

"The Lava Beds War erupts in 1872 near Tule Lake, California, with a bungled attempt to arrest Captain Jack, leader of a band of free-roaming Modoc Indians. Mr. Belanger presents the ensuing conflict as a seminal event in Western history, one of those rare moments that divide history into before and after. Belanger's standpoint is that two conflicting sets of Indian policies dominated in the nineteenth Century. The first policy, influenced by Penn's ideals, sought the evangelization of Natives and their integration into an agrarian ideal. The second policy sought the outright elimination of any people that resisted Manifest Destiny. Little Bighorn and Wounded Knee would never have occurred without the Modoc conflict. The most compelling account of the Modoc War ever written, this action-packed, innovatively written and richly detailed historical novel vividly portrays the collision of two civilizations: one reaching its manifest destiny, one struggling for survival. Mr. Belanger draws heavily upon firsthand accounts â"€ soldiers' letters, Army Museum records and, very convincingly so, Grant's Memoirs. "Modoc Sundance" also draws interesting parallels with Herodotus, as well as The Iliad. It captures the challenge of crossing the murderous lava beds under nourished fire, the xenophobia and racial tensions between red and white and among the whites themselves, and the stark beauty of the Southern Cascades. Scrupulously researched and peerless in its insights on the tragedy that led to the death of the only major-general ever killed during a Indian conflict, Belanger's account is a monument of a book, teaming with unforgettable characters, full of the stark grandeur, violence and vitality of California's Siskiyou County, unrelenting action, poignancy, and sheer energy. Never before had one recreated in such powerful and convincing prose the tragedy of an Indian war." â"€ Wolfhouse