Don Diehl’s historic fiction novel is set to run in several newspapers across the Muscogee (Creek) Nation beginning as early as next week. That is the anniversary of The Wounded Knee Massacre. A subtitle on the cover reveals the connection: “Tomachichi’s Journey to Wounded Knee Creek in 1890.”
Wounded Knee has little to do with the history of the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma, sourced throughout the book, but it was the unplanned destination of the book’s hero Tommy Jon Harjo. Known quietly as “Tomahawk” by his classmates at Eufaula Indian Mission School, the 15-year-old Creek Indian from Oktaha, Indian Territory takes his grandfather’s challenge to “go see the world’’ in lieu of other schooling in the fall of 1890. The school attended by the Harjo children and their neighbors had been destroyed by fire and wasn’t expected to re-open any time soon.
Tomachichi and Little Rosa are being reared by their grandparents Jon and Rose McSchmidt after two separate tragedies take their mother and father. McSchmidt—known as “Uncle Jon” in the Oktaha settlement—had been a drover on the Chisholm Trail. He helps map out the adventure and the young man sets out. His dog Bramble Boy is discovered following him on that first day and becomes part of the interesting entourage—an Indian teen, his horse, and dog. Along the way, they meet some true-to-history characters including members of Chief Sapulpa’s family, the outlaw Cherokee Bill, Pawnee Bill and Cheyenne-Arapaho Chief Left Hand. On the train from Kingfisher into the Northern Plains, Tomahawk befriends writers and photographers covering the turbulence on the reservations and the Ghost Dance phenomenon.
In the book’s introduction, Diehl also explains its title: “INVASIONS: ‘Killing of the Indian.’” It’s not what you might think. As for the Wounded Knee massacre of nearly three hundred Lakota people by soldiers of the United States Army on December 29, 1890 on the Pine Ridge Reservation, Diehl offers bare results of an invasion in which neither side wins but eventually comes to terms. “INVASIONS: ‘Killing of the Indian’” considers the history of America’s first occupants — the American Indian while centering on the Muscogee (Creek) tribe. The setting of the story is the Muscogee Nation as it developed after the Indian removal to Oklahoma.
Unlike a lot of what has been written as history and commented on by secular writers, Diehl approaches the subject with a Christian worldview. The young adventurer while on a journey across Indian Country via horse and train, becomes a defender of the faith but at Wounded Knee Creek where he becomes an eyewitness to a historic massacre, his faith is challenged. There are some surprises about who’s won over to Tommy’s faith and why.
Available through Barnes and Noble and Amazon the book is 400 pages and features color art illustrations by Sapulpa artist Russell Crosby. At $19.95 on B&N and $25.42 on Amazon, the paperback is sort of pricy, but considering all of the color and reference material is still a bargain.
Following initial feedback, future plans call for publishing an abridged edition early next year that will carry only the adventure story and less bibliography. That basically is what is being offered to readers of the newspaper series. The abridged edition will be less expensive and perhaps get wider distribution. “Of course, we would love to sell the manuscript and movie rights,” Diehl said, citing the current movie about the Osage murders in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” But serious history buffs and those interested in the Christian worldview also will see the value in the original edition as its protagonist defends “the faith” and (kind of timely) advances the truth of “one race, one blood, one Creator God and one family made up of tribes, clans, languages, and nations.
