The Captives

This is the story of Wasser Thomas, who lived with his family on a farm in Kansas until one day when a Cheyenne war party destroys his home and kills most of his family. On that day, ten-year-old Wasser was taken captive and his life changed forever. He could never have imagined that he would soon embrace the ways of the Cheyenne and live among them for the rest of his life. He was given the name "Small Kicking Bear" and adopted by a Cheyenne family. At age sixteen, he is recaptured by the whites-soldiers from Ft. Andrews, where his birth mother resides. She attempts to bring him back into the white world, but Wasser is Cheyenne now. He escapes from the fort and returns to the Cheyenne. Over the years, Small Kicking Bear becomes a valued member of the tribe and a fierce warrior, who survives the Sand Creek massacre and fights valiantly at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Wasser, his brother, and their families spend their last days in peace in their new home in New Mexico.