Winter Shadows

by Will Henry

From the very beginning of his long and illustrious career, Will Henry wrote from the Native American viewpoint with authenticity and compassion. This volume collects two of his finest short novels, each focused on the American Indian. The title novel finds a band of Mandan Indians facing the harshest winter in their history, while having to deal with an unscrupulous medicine man. Lapwai Winter is set in Northeastern Oregon at the time of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce. A treaty has been violated, the territorial rights of the tribe have been revoked...and the threat of war hangs ominously in the air.

Genres: Westerns

204 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Also wrote westerns as Clay Fisher.

Henry Wilson Allen (September 12, 1912 – October 26, 1991) was an American author and screenwriter. He used several different pseudonyms for his works. His 50+ novels of the American West were published under the pen names Will Henry and Clay Fisher. Allen's screenplays and scripts for animated shorts were credited to Heck Allen and Henry Allen.

Allen's career as a novelist began in 1952, with the publication of his first Western No Survivors. Allen, afraid that the studio would disapprove of his moonlighting, used a pen-name to avoid trouble.[3] He would go on to publish over 50 novels, eight of which were adapted for the screen. Most of these were published under one or the other of the pseudonyms Will Henry and Clay Fisher. Allen was a five-time winner of the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America and a recipient of the Levi Strauss Award for lifetime achievement.

Henry Wilson Allen was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Allen died of pneumonia on October 26, 1991 in Van Nuys, California. He was 79.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Winter Shadows is a delightful book. Will Henry is one of my favorite writers, and he was always able to capture the American West in a historical context better than most other authors. In this book, there is one short novel, Lapwai Winter, about an Indian boy who is sent to a white man's school. This story is brief and interesting, as it shows the strength of character of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe. Overall, this was a good story, but it seems it could have been developed more. It may have been written for a magazine or other publication where space was limited.
As suggested by the book's title, the second story, Winter Shadows, is the real reason to read this book. This is a delightful story about a young Mandan native boy who has an indomitable will and goes on an epic adventure, all while traveling not very far from home - although he thinks he does. Little Raven, the protagonist, is magically drawn by Henry, and his travails and how he gets out of incredibly difficult and dangerous situations reminds me of The Call of the Wild or other similar stories. Little Raven's primary antagonist is the medicine man, who has hoarded food and cheated the Mandan tribe out of their rightful property by using whiskey to ruin many of them. Little Raven's uncle dies, and he is taken in by a compassionate older native man, Cheyenne Man, who tells him of his bloodline - which include Sacagawea and Captain Clark's slave York. The Mandan are starving, and Cheyenne Man also tells Little Raven of a virtually impossible way in which the tribe may be saved. Having heard the story of his bloodline, Little Raven is inspired and bravely sets out on his adventure to save his tribe.
Henry makes his characters move effortlessly through the novel, and Little Raven is one of the better characters I've had the pleasure of meeting in a long time. His trials and tribulations are many, but his escapes and rescues are amazing and yet somehow believable, and although I will not ruin the story for anyone who wishes to read it, I can only say that I was moved to tears at the end. I highly recommend this book to lovers of the Old West, especially those who desire to learn of the Native ways. It is without a doubt a tale very well-told.