Agonito, Rosemary & Agonito, Joseph. Buffalo Calf Road Woman: The Story of a Warrior of the Little Bighorn.

AGONITO, Rosemary & AGONITO, Joseph. Buffalo Calf Road Woman; the story of a warrior of the Little Bighorn. Globe Pequot, Two Dot. 242p. bibliog, c2006. 0-7627-3817-0. $12.95. SA

Rosemary and Joseph Agonito, drawn to "An intriguing reference to a Cheyenne woman fighting at the 1876 Battle of the Rosebud in Dee Brown's Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee," set out on an impressive quest that took them to libraries, museums, galleries, the National Archives (which hold the records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the War Department), secondary sources, and knowledgeable Natives over a wide area. The result of these researches is a novelization of the life of Buffalo Calf Road Woman, a story set during the horrendous Indian wars that followed the Civil War. Buffalo Calf Road Woman may have been elusive, but she was a strong woman who has been placed at quite a number of massacres and battles. Through the lens of her life, readers will gain a feeling for what life was like for the Indians as their hunting grounds were destroyed, their living area was taken over by white settlers, and their free-roaming way of life was reduced to existence on reservations. The Indians were a proud people with many enemies: the land itself with its harsh terrain and weather; other tribes; marauding soldiers; ordinary settlers, hunters, and miners; and a faraway new government, working through its Indian agents and soldiers who seemed to care little for the welfare of the Indians. "Peace! On whose terms?" is a mantra that runs through the story. This is not an especially strong novel as a novel, and the authors say they filled in blanks, but they have done so in an educated way. A useful glossary in the back of the book helps with chronology and the English names of persons referred to by Indian names in the Story. Edna Boardman, Libn., Bismarck, ND