The historical fiction novel “Shadow of an Indian Star,” written by Bill and Cindy Paul, is more than a story about the Indian Territory or the Wild West. Bill and Cindy Paul have written a story about life, using real people and events to explore the deep divide of what it means to be both warrior and survivor. During this exploration of that “divide,” the Pauls expose how those of Native American descent helped to shape American history.
Throughout this novel, the reader has a chance to travel back in time and to walk next to characters such as Smith Paul and the Negro, Hezekiah Burkitt. Images that read like great paintings flood the reader’s mind:
“The lead ball took Burkitt just to the left of his breastbone. He wavered precariously on the edge of the ravine. Smith tried to steady him, keep him from pitching headfirst. But the shot had shattered the big man’s balance. Like the mighty oak at the hands of a lumberjack, Burkitt listed forward, slowly at first, then gathering an unstoppable momentum, tumbled into the dark ravine. Smith watched in horror as his friend fell, bouncing against outcrops of rock and root, scudding through snowdrifts, finally coming to rest on the icy fringes of a snow-choked stream.”
Images such as these not only provide a beautiful picture of what happens in the wilderness, but also one can see the lengths a man would go to help a friend regardless of color.
Smith, Sam, and Joe, three generations of Pauls graciously share their battles with anger, personal demons, and the bottle with the reader. It is through these tales that the authors shed the greatest light into life on the frontier. In doing this, one is able to see men, “pure-breeds” and “half-breeds,” constantly and consistently push what was culturally acceptable for that time.
“Shadow of an Indian Star” tramples the Hollywood stereotype of life in the “John Wayne West,” along with those images that we have come to recognize as being American Indians in the Wild West, like a herd of buffalo on a stampede. New interpretations of both United States and Native American histories can now be made with the help of Bill and Cindy Paul’s story.