In 1860s Texas, a meeting of Indian bands is called to elect a new chief of the Kiowa nation. A murder occurs, threatening to plunge the bands into armed conflict. The healer, Taybodal, hunts for the killer to avert war. By the author of People of the Whistling Waters.

Surveys various aspects of Kiowa culture, including family life and daily activities, hunting and food gathering, clothing, games, religion, and social organization.

In memory of Steven M. Claborn given by Tamela Claborn.

Born a slave on an east Texas cotton plantation, Clay Little Bull was captured by the Kiowa as a child. At the age of twenty, he left the only home he'd known in search of freedom. An outcast among whites, blacks, and Indians, Clay came face to face with the hypocrisy and lawlessness that ruled the West and drew first blood escaping from a band of Kansas slave hunters. With every mile he traveled, Clay moved closer to a truth he was born with: freedom isn't found in a place or a people, but in a man's willingness to love, fight, and die.

Five years after the Civil War, Captain Kidd moves from town to town as a storyteller. In Texas, he crosses paths with Johanna, a ten-year-old taken in by the Kiowa people six years earlier. She is being returned to her biological aunt and uncle against her will. Kidd agrees to deliver the child where the law says she belongs. As they travel hundreds of miles, the two will face tremendous challenges of both human and natural forces as they search for a place that either can call home.