Bøker av Leon Taylor

In 1877, one year after the Sioux and Cheyenne defeated General George Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Talking Elk, a prominent war chief, rides in with Crazy Horse to surrender at Fort Robinson but turns back before getting there. He can't live as the U.S. Government demands. He turns, instead, to driving the gold miners out of the Black Hills who are there illegally. The Black Hills, Paha Sapa, sacred land to the Sioux, was promised to them in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 "for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Indians." However, after General Custer entered the Black Hills illegally and discovered gold there in 1874, miners rushed in, violating the treaty. Small mining camps grew into larger camps, like Deadwood and Custer, with merchants, saloons, and brothels, all in contradiction to the treaty. Rather than remove the miners, the government decided to take the Black Hills from the Sioux, which it did illegally, passing the Congressional Act of February 28, 1877.Other warriors join Talking Elk to form a war party. Together, they raid the miners' operations, bringing in soldiers to protect the miners. The Sioux are commanded to surrender to the reservation or be branded as "hostile" to be hunted down, captured, or killed. It didn't matter to the government that the Black Hills belonged to the Sioux. Gold was there.

In 1850, fifteen-year-old Jonas Abrams signed on with Captain Will Johnson to sail his fifty-seven-foot cutter, Wander, from the Chesapeake Bay to St. Thomas Island in the Caribbean Sea where Captain Will wanted to establish a boat repair business. For Jonas, this is the adventure of his dreams, but, after five days at sea, they are overtaken by a violent storm, giving Jonas his first encounter with rough water sailing, and creating doubts for him about adventures at sea.Upon arriving to the islands, they come across an uncharted island where they encounter Swabbies' Revenge, a ship overtaken by mutineers. Even though the days of pirating in the Caribbean Sea are long past, she is flying the skull and crossbones and threatens Wander with a cannon shot across her bow to get out of their anchorage on this island.Jalani and his men had mutinied, overtaking Captain Wilhelm Wagner and his ship, renaming her Swabbies' Revenge and subsequently using her to plunder the cargo-hauling ships of the greedy plantation owners. Captain Wilhelm had been a cruel and abusive captain who had treated his crew, descendants of plantation slaves, as if they were slaves of his own, and they had mutinied against him for their survival.While looking for Blackbeard's lost treasure on St. Thomas Island, Jonas and his shipmate, Spike, stumble upon crew members of Swabbies' Revenge guarding a cave. In time, they learn these men are hiding gold and silver in this cave. It is their shipmate, Benny, however, who foolishly decides to steal this treasure for himself, even though an ancient Indian woman warns him against doing so.

Sailing from Lahaina, Maui to their homeport of Honolulu aboard their cargo-hauling schooner, Island Lady, Kaimana, and his father, Slim, are attacked by a large humpback whale. She puts a hole in the bow of their small ship, breaking several of the planks and damaging some of the ribs, causing water to pour into her. Frantically, Slim and Kaimana make emergency repairs to save their vessel from sinking and taking them down with her. Once temporary repairs are made and they save their ship, they return to Lahaina for permanent repairs.While in Lahaina repairing Island Lady, Kaimana feels the spirit of the whale calling him. This is 1856, and it has been reported the whale has a harpoon in her side, the unsuccessful attempt by whalers to take her. Kaimana knows he must go to her. After repairs to Island Lady are made, father and son sail to where the whale had previously attacked them. There, Kaimana, the powerful son of his English father and Polynesian mother, sets out in their ship's dinghy to await the whale.Eventually, the whale warily approaches Kaimana, her calf by her side, but not before he dreams of being a whale himself, one harpooned when coming to the water's surface for the precious air he needs to survive.

It was 1850, and Johnny James, an orphan to the streets of Boston, decided to go to the goldfields of California and leave the desperation of the slums behind. He'd heard the stories told in the saloons of Boston about the forty-niners who'd gone there and struck it rich and determined he could as well.Along the way, Johnny picked up Jasper, another orphan, to go with him. Jasper brought his best friend, Billy, whose father was a drunk and didn't want him, along with them. It was Joshua, who tried to steal some of their food late one night, and because he was hungry and desperate, a runaway from his own home, the three boys fed him. All three knew what it was like to be without hope, and when Joshua begged to go to the goldfields with them, they let him.The boys were lucky enough to join a wagon train led by the legendary mountain man, Bearcat Bob. He took them on as scouts because they were a scrappy bunch, and he could see they would be useful, even though they were greenhorns. Along the way, the four boys met mountain men who were former cohorts of Bearcat Bob's. Mean Badger Bill was aptly named, Cherokee Jim had a penchant for cheating people, but Jim Bridger was a stand-up man, much like the prospectors, Old Henry and Big River Ben, whom they would encounter once in the goldfieldsIt was a dangerous journey across the Great Plains, but Jasper was the only scout to be captured by Indians. Bearcat Bob traded coffee and a few pots and pans to get him back and threw a small feast for the five Cheyenne scouts who'd taken Jasper for just that purpose. Bearcat Bob knew the sign language of the Plains Indians and was already friends with many of the tribes, to the welfare of the travelers who had trusted their care to him.After reaching the Willamette Valley in the Oregon Territory, the four boys struck out south for the Sacramento Valley where gold had been found at Sutter's Mill. The four found the American River already overcrowded with miners, but after two years of hard mining, they found enough gold to sponsor their dreams.Johnny and Jasper returned to the Willamette Valley, where Annie awaited Johnny, to claim farmland for themselves. Billy opened a dry goods store in San Francisco, where Joshua built his luxury hotel. He'd never live in another cave.In time, Bearcat Bob found his way to San Francisco, as well, cleanly shaven and wearing finely tailored suits. His secret, he shared with the four boys, was that before he'd gone out West as a complete tenderfoot, he'd trained as an investment banker, and had used that knowledge to create a small fortune for himself for his retirement. They were to tell no one of his secrets, he made them promise, it would spoil his reputation as a tried-and-true mountain man, which he considered his greatest accomplishment in life.

Why was he sleeping on the floor, Jack asked himself when he woke up, and why did his head hurt so bad. They were in jail again, Billy answered. They were getting out of this town, Carrot Stick added, whatever its name was, as soon as they got out of jail. That is what they did, but not before Kate caught a ride with them. She'd seen the bar fight the night before that had gotten them thrown in jail and knew they could protect her from her biker boyfriend who was demanding she marry him so she couldn't testify against him and his many crimes.Heading south out of Montana in Billy's worn-out 1947 Ford pickup truck, it was in Wyoming where they came upon "Indian." He was standing alongside the road lost and in a daze. Skinny from not eating, his clothes were matted with weeds from sleeping on the open prairie. He didn't know who or where he was, but they gave him a ride, anyway. They couldn't leave him, even though they thought he was crazy, he needed help, something to eat, a bath, and clean clothes.The three men and Kate were headed south. They wanted to get someplace warm for the winter, but they decided instead to help Indian by finding his family and home. They knew they could do nothing for him, not as lost in his mind as he was. Indian looked Lakota to Jack, who was half Cherokee, half Apache, and half Irish, by his reckoning. Jack knew there were Sioux reservations in North and South Dakota, not far from where they were in Wyoming. They could go through the Black Hills on their way there, he proposed, it was a special place he'd always wanted to visit. If they couldn't find his family elsewhere, Jack considered, maybe Indian would reclaim his sanity there.As it turned out, Indian wasn't crazy, and the Black Hills were the sacred land of his Lakota people, where he needed to be, along with these four who had found him.

A small tourist town on the Oregon Coast, Beach Town is the descendant of the once-thriving logging and fishing industries which have since fallen into decline, giving way to the vagaries of tourism.The mayor of Beach Town, Jasper Williams, owns the one approachable watering hole in town, The Whaler Bar and Grille. He bought it from the widow Cindy Hawkins for fifteen-thousand dollars and a month's worth of screwing. The Whaler was worth more than a month, Cindy complained after the completion of their agreement, but Jasper's defense against an extension was that he had his wife, Sally Marie, to consider.Cindy didn't care about Jasper's wife, but Chief of Police Jerome Willis did, he was having an affair with her, which complicated his business relationship with Jasper, who was selling all the weed Chief Willis confiscated. Deputy Thomas "Johnny" Johnson sold all the other drugs the police force acquired, an arrangement which met Chief Willis' approval. He didn't like waste, and drugs unused were a waste to him. Deputy Johnny Johnson had been an altar boy in his youth and had wanted to become a priest, but his service in Vietnam destroyed him. He now stayed drunk and stoned to kill the pain of what he'd done and seen in Vietnam.Jane Colburn had fled to the Pacific Northwest to escape the drugs and alcohol of San Francisco, but, unfortunately for her, the drugs and alcohol that had led her into prostitution for their profitability eagerly awaited Jane's arrival to Beach Town. An erstwhile suitor of Jane, James "Fishy" Boyd, one of the few remaining crab fishermen on the Oregon Coast, didn't care that Jane had once been a prostitute. A small and wiry man with a university education, his virtual headquarters was The Whaler where Jane found employment.A new arrival to Beach Town, William Williams was Jasper William's long-lost cousin from England. William had once served in Her Majesty's clandestine services. He wasn't retired as he sometimes said, but, instead, now secretly worked for the United States Government after a bad incident in Hong Kong had brought about his fallout with Her Majesty's men.An old and broken-up, but legendary logger, Harry Hansen, couldn't abide men like William Williams in his town. But then, Harry couldn't abode anyone who wasn't or hadn't been a logger. It was the filter through which he valued all men, if they hadn't endured the rigors and demands of logging he held them in contempt. A state investigation into the corrupt dealings of the Beach Town Police Department turned Deputy Jordan Coghill state's evidence against Chief Willis. Jasper fled, the specter of his involvement with a seventeen-year-old girl chasing him out of town. The investigators found the men of Beach Town were morally deficient, and the women took advantage of that fact. The investigators concluded the incessant winter rains turned decent people to a life lived questionably.

Sonja Pretty Flower couldn't understand how her husband, Billy Bad Feather, could be so mistaken. His fights in town only led to one more night in jail. This was 1972, surely, he could see he wasn't going to be able to do what their warriors at the time their Lakota nation had been at its strongest could not.Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull thought together they could drive the white man from their land. With all their warriors they fought and lost. Both were killed after surrendering in peace. How did Billy now think he would win their land and way of life back, Sonja questioned.For Billy, however, he would fight the descendants of those who had committed those wrongs against his people. He believed he would be remiss if he didn't, as he came from a long line of warriors. Their sacred Black Hills had been illegally taken against their treaty rights, and their way of life was destroyed.This was the legacy of their people, which Billy couldn't accept, even though their medicine man, Old Smoke, called for peace with the white man. Billy wouldn't listen, the old men always spoke for peace. He was young and strong and had Jumping Bear to fight with him. Chico would join. It was on their people's sacred ground that the three got drunk, however, Billy and Chico fought one another. Their desecration of this sacred place would have long-reaching consequences.Deputy Black Hand of the Agency Police died while driving his patrol car drunk and too fast. He hit a patch of ice and spun into Eagle Creek where he drowned. In the despondency that had overcome him after his knife fight with Billy, Chico had come to believe Billy murdered Deputy Black Hand and made it look like an accident. Charlie Eagle Streak was Billy's accomplice, Chico told the federal investigators.Billy and Charlie had committed many robberies together, but they hadn't killed Deputy Black Hand. It didn't matter, however, these two were renegades and the federal investigators had Chico's testimony. Deputy Black Hand's murder was a conspiracy involving Billy Bad Feather, Charlie Eagle Streak, and Jumping Bear. Their medicine man, Old Smoke, was the mastermind. An insurrection would soon break out on the Whispering Rock Reservation, and Manifest Destiny would be turned upside down.

That is what they were doing all right. Most other people couldn't believe it either. Those two and their pet cat, who had no name, looking for paradise? It was the wise old sea turtle who told Burt and Clancy that paradise was across the ocean. His friend, the king bullfrog, and his warrior frogs had sailed there on their lily pad raft with sails. It wasn't that easy for Burt and Clancy, however, they had no lily pad raft with sails.Captain Jack told the three he could take them to paradise on his sailing vessel, Utopia. He had been there many times, he said, but he made them run the plank once they were out to sea after robbing them of what little they had. Their lives were in danger, to be sure, but the mighty current called "Swabbies' Revenge" swept the three ashore where they found a strange musician and his pet mongoose. The musician comforted them with his many songs of paradise but said he knew nothing of it when they questioned him as to paradise's whereabouts.Prospector Pete knew nothing of paradise, and neither did his burro, Clem. They were in the desert looking for their lost city of gold. They had found it in this desert long ago, but it was gone when they returned to get its gold. Prospector Pete didn't know where paradise could be found, but he did point the three to the distant mountains that they could pass through to get to the ocean. From there, they decided, they would walk along the shoreline to the other side of the ocean where paradise could be found.It was in those mountains that the Spirit of the Sacred Valleys found the three. She came to them as an old and humble woman in need. Paradise could only be found through transcending their ordinary state, and that would only be if they found favor with her.