Gary McCarthy

Wind Warrior Gary McCarthy

A ragged Hualapai boy who plays beautiful flute music is torn from his family and sent to a harsh Indian school where he falls in love with the headmaster's daughter. Banished by racial prejudice, River Thunder learns to fly a biplane over the Grand Canyon and later becomes a legendary WWI aviator winning the hearts of his people and his childhood sweetheart. Many years ago while researching a big historical on the Grand Canyon, I became acquainted with "The People of the Tall Pines." . .the Hualapai. They have a large but sparsely populated reservation on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon just west of their ancestral neighbors, the Supai. During many conversations with the Hualapi, I came to learn about "Indian Schools" and their very serious and often detrimental effect on Native Americans. Moved by these stories, I decided to write a tribute to the thousands of children who attended American Indian boarding schools during the latter part of the nineteenth and the twentieth century. While it is true that some students voluntarily came to these institutions, typically they were forced into leaving their families, friends, culture, and reservations. I repeatedly heard heart-wrenching stories of how families were torn apart and boarding school students were often changed in ways that prevented them from being comfortable adults either in the white society...or even in their own Native American societies. Today, many older Native Americans still recall their years in boarding schools with deep bitterness. WIND WARRIOR is an adaption of the novel RIVER THUNDER which was the recipient of the prestigious Western Writers of America's 2009 Spur Award for Best Western Audio Book. I have chose to call this a "SCRIPT STORY" because it combines the best elements of a novel AND a movie script. As such, the format is quick and easy to read and should prove especially satisfying to those who enjoy visualizing scenes while fully immersing themselves in story, setting and character development.