Savage Mountain — Sean Belanger

Like its companion book Modoc Sundance, Savage Mountain: A Novel of the Yosemite is a historical novel based on actual events in the American West. It offers a vivid portrait of the iconic landscape and what life was like for the Indian and the White Man. Savage Mountain: A Novel of the Yosemite, recounts the decline of the Yosemite tribe and the brutal slaughter of its leader, Chief Tenaya in 1853. The events that ultimately lead to his violent death provide author Sean Belanger with an opportunity to weave a tale of ruthless traders and warring tribes. Here we reencounter Jim Wallace, a trader intent on gaining free access to the Yosemite lands and its gold reserves. Although Wallace cheats the Indians out of their gold, he has no desire to be the catalyst of their destruction. So, when the Yosemite declare war on all white men due to Jim's treachery, he sets out to rescue their noble leader. Savage Mountain is an intensely personal account of the plight of the Native American tribes during the fateful era when they lost their lands forever to the white man. It is an intimate portrait of what it was like, for both whites and Indians, to live on the frontier and the devastating effect the greed of the prospectors had on the Yosemite.