| Abstrakt: |
When the Legends Die opens about 1920, when Native Americans are suffering the shock of giving up a free life to live as white men determine. Thomas Black Bull, or Bears’ Brother, lives his early years in an Indian lodge hidden among the trees on a mountain in Colorado. His family is of the Ute tribe and have escaped from the reservation, where his father was accused of murder. Thomas’ only friend after his father is killed in a snow slide and his mother dies the next year is an orphaned grizzly bear cub, which he found and took to his lodge. He gives himself the name “Bears’ Brother.” When Blue Elk finds him and takes him to the reservation, he is forced to send the bear back to the forest. The teachers and administrators at the school try to get Thomas interested in learning a trade, but he shows no motivation. Finally, though he does not like the job, he spends two years with a sheepherder on the reservation. |
