FIRE VALLEY is part 4 of my THUNDER OVER THE PLAINS saga about a certain Lakota Sioux tribe in the Black Hills of South Dakota called the Big Bear band. This story takes place after Yellow Fox's husband and parents die. She is trying to find answers as to what to do next. She visits her Shaman of the tribe, Moon Dancer, and experiences a Vision in the sweat lodge. There she is touched by the Great Spirit Wakantanka and is transformed into a spiritual being. Everyone is in awe and afraid of her including the white chiefs. Yellow Fox leads her tribe and teaches her children how to deal with the world around them and the Bluecoats. She is helped by her cousin, Monty Harrison, who is the brother of her dead husband and is also the new Indian agent of the Dakota territory stationed at Fort Defiance . Together they have talks with the great Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Red Cloud in order to prepare for the historic 1868 treaty at Fort Laramie. Yellow Fox's children, Raven and Rising Sun, grow up and experience many things during this time. Rising Sun falls in love with the new fort commander at Fort Defiance named Thomas Sterling. They have a very romantic rendezvous in the Black Hills. They eventually get married and have a child. In between all this, the United States is growing. Wagon loads of people are moving west trying to find a new life for themselves and trying to escape the horrors of the Civil War. One of these explorers is Mountain man Morgan Rivers. He and his Indian wife are leading a small wagon train west to California. They discover a new world and experience many obstacles along the way. Everything erupts for Yellow Fox in the end. She must fight the Bluecoat army and face her fate in an epic Spiritual battle that will determine the fate of the Big Bear band and her People.
