Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Long Winter Gone | 1990 | Terry C. Johnston | Buy |
| 2 | Seize the Sky | 1991 | Terry C. Johnston | Buy |
| 3 | Whisper of the Wolf | 1991 | Terry C. Johnston | Buy |
Son of the Plains begins with Long Winter Gone (1990), set in the winter of 1868-1869 following Custer’s attack on Black Kettle’s Cheyenne village on the Washita River. The battle resulted in Black Kettle’s death and the capture of many Cheyenne women. In Johnston’s telling, Custer takes a young Cheyenne woman as a companion during the subsequent winter campaign, a relationship that produces a son. The tension between Custer’s public life and this private attachment drives the first book.
The trilogy follows the consequences of that relationship across the remaining two books, Seize the Sky and Whisper of the Wolf, tracing how it affects both the Custer side and the Cheyenne side of the story as the Plains Indian Wars escalate through the 1870s. Johnston was drawn to the story not as scandal but as a way of examining Custer’s character and the human dimension of a conflict usually told in terms of armies and battles.
Johnston’s research approach gave the trilogy a grounding in the real terrain and timeline of the southern Plains campaigns. The Battle of the Washita, the Yellowstone expedition, and Little Bighorn all appear, filtered through the personal story at the trilogy’s center.