A Full Circle

In 1878, two years after the Greasy Grass Fight that some called Custer’s Last Stand, U.S. soldiers and government contractors rounded up 270 Arapaho people. From the very young to the very old, they were forced to walk from Fort Robinson in western Nebraska across half of what is now the state of Wyoming. Their destination: the Shoshone Indian Reservation. The new home of the Northern Arapaho was a wilderness, but it was theirs and they were glad. Then came a second and tragic event.

Within weeks, the Takers arrived to capture confused and terrified Indian children. The young were shipped to boarding schools back east where they were to be stripped of their tribal identities and assimilated into white culture. Families were torn apart.

Against this historical backdrop, A Full Circle gives a fictional account of several generations of Arapaho and their experience during this time. Horse-whisperers, a green-eyed girl, brave young men and women, and fierce grandmothers are among the characters that reveal glimpses of a people and a culture that survive today, and a part of American and native history that has long been hidden. A Full Circle is a story that needs to be told.

Professor Tim Rush, author of American Lion (2015,) teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in literacy education, humanities education and linguistics at the University of Wyoming. Working closely with the tribes of the Wind River Indian Reservation, he has helped develop UW programs for certifying teachers of American Indian children. He was awarded the University of Wyoming Outreach School’s Holon Family Award and was recognized by the International Reading Association with its Jerry Johns Outstanding Teacher Educator in Reading Award. Grandfather of a girl's volleyball champion and two young men serving in the US Air Force, Tim Rush lives on the high plains west of Laramie, Wyoming with Alice, his wife of nearly 50 years, and an array of horses, dogs, cats, and regular guests from the wild kingdom.