Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Told in three parts, this fact-based story follows three years in the life of Ute teenager Elk Girl. The first part paints the world of Elk Girl: her kin, her tribal celebrations, her fear of the Cheyenne and Arapaho, her confusion about the White Men entering the Shining Mountains. In the second section, Elk Girl is kidnapped by Cheyenne warriors and spends a year enslaved to the abusive Quill Woman, who [End Page 292] keeps her tied up outside her tepee and cooks her pet dog for dinner. The Cheyenne grow tired of Elk Girl's attempts at escape and sell her to the Arapaho ("This is a no-good Ute . . . but good slave. Good slave") for a sack of flour. As the third part opens, a white soldier takes her from the Arapaho and brings her home to his wife; later, the territory's governor sends an agent to escort Elk Girl back to the Ute people in hopes of getting the Ute chiefs to sign a pending land treaty, and she is reunited with her family just before their land is overtaken by the U.S. government. Wyss' prose is simple and spare, and it successfully carries the story of Elk Girl's trials through the three difficult years of her captivity. The girl's reflections are not described so much as they are alluded to, and the subtlety works to great effect in encouraging the reader to consider the implications of the plotline. Elk Girl's blurred understanding of who is and who is not the enemy forms the backbone of the conflict; while the captures add dramatic impact, it is the girl's struggle with identity and change that prove most compelling. The irony of Elk Girl's being rescued from Indians by established white settlers only to have her people lose their land to newly arriving white settlers is addressed in an author's note, and the somewhat glorified depiction of the white characters is forgiven by the historical grounding of the tale. Unfortunately, while the author's note links Elk Girl's tale to the historical Susan Johnson, no source notes are provided.