Dine’ Da Hogaa means battles of the people. Jedidiah Jenkins, a young cavalry officer assigned to serve under Colonel Kit Carson in the campaign to round up the Navajo and Apache Indians, brashly rides west mounted on a Steeldust Stallion daring Indians to try to steal him.
Several war chiefs accept the challenge. Captain Jenkins and his cavalrymen drive off would be horse thieves with casualties on both sides.
Captain Jenkins is ordered to ride into hostile Navajo and Apache country and bring in any Navajos he encounters. A reluctant participant in the relocation of the Navajos to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, he captures several hundred Navajos after a bloody engagement. He discovers a secluded mountain range where he decides to start a ranch.
In 1871 Jed, now a major, is assigned to escort a supply train with supplies for isolated mines in the mountains middle of Apache country. He is wounded with poisoned arrows. Loyal Navajo scouts hold a ceremonial for him. Indian medicine saves his life. During his convalescence he returns east and marries his childhood sweetheart.
He retires from the military a brigadier general and with a handful of his fellow officers establishes ranches in the Bullhorn Mountains and brings Hereford cattle to New Mexico. The Bullhorns and surrounding areas are products of the author’s fertile imagination.
