Last Frontier, The

Last Frontier, The, historical novel by Howard Fast, published in 1941, in which Captain Murray is the only purely fictional character.

In 1878, 300 Northern Cheyenne, resettled in an unhealthy Indian Territory, are virtual prisoners, many of them sick. When the local agent, unable to supply medicine or food, summons military aid to force them to give ten hostages for three of their number who escape, the entire band flees for its northern homeland, led by Dull Knife and Little Wolf, a philosophic old chief who understands that the white men “must do whatever they have to do,” but that his people are doomed in their attempt to regain freedom and livelihood. Colonel Mizner at Fort Reno dispatches two cavalry troops commanded by indignant but disciplined Captain Murray, to capture the Indians. During the chase, more than 50 whites are killed as the Cheyenne battle with buffalo hunters, posses, and various army units. Through the fall and winter their flight takes them north through Kansas and Nebraska; Dull Knife leads part of the tribe into the Sand Hills, only to be captured, starved, and massacred. Little Wolf brings his group to the Powder River country, where, with the only understanding displayed by the government, they are allowed to remain. The epic of the Indians' struggle for freedom against the might of the U.S., intent on their slavery or extinction, is realized only by Captain Murray, who, sickened by what has happened, feels he must resign from service.