Sand Creek By Kevin Cahill (Author House, $22.99)

The white settlers of Kansas and Colorado have their guns at the ready. Everybody has heard the stories, or been a victim themselves. Supply trains and stage coaches attacked and looted, farmers and ranchers butchered and scalped, women and children taken as slaves or brutally murdered. The Indians are amassing for war.

What the settlers don’t hear are the voices of those within the tribes who want peace. True, there have been warriors who are killing out of anger for wrongs committed and promises broken, but their actions are not condoned by all the Indian nations or their chiefs. Black Kettle, the leader of the Cheyenne nation, tries again and again to convince the leaders of the white army that his people do not want war. But tribal political structures mean nothing to most white men. To them, all Indians are the same.

Misunderstandings on both sides escalate tensions and bloodshed until history is tragically determined by their fatal encounter on the banks of Sand Creek.

Brilliantly written and thoroughly researched historical detail comes to life with novelistic flair in Kevin Cahill’s Sand Creek. Informative without being boring or dry, this novel is remarkably unbiased in its presenting of the story of the Sand Creek Massacre, revealing in detail how fear, misunderstanding, and a few violent men on both sides led to so many lives being lost. For an entertaining and intelligent read, find this self-published book at authorhouse.com.