Written by a local author, and so difficult to eliminate from local libraries, this book has no redeeming value for current young readers.
An adventure of 2 schoolboys who become scouts for a volunteer brigade during the Black Hawk War, it consistently portrays the Native Americans as murderous, thieving, and duplicitous savages. It shows no sympathy for a people who have been invaded and forced from their homeland. There is one tribal person who is shown as good: a Pottawatomie who also acts as scout for the fighters. Even he is limited to speaking in broken English sprinkled with many "ugh's" and "heap big", and gets a scalp at the end. ( )