Old Bear-Paw

# Old Bear-Paw: The Trapper King: The Love of a Blackfoot Queen

By Maj. Max Martine. Beadle and Adams, 1874.

A frontier adventure novel set in the Black Hills. Scouts Lew Kelly ("White Panther") and Jehiel Filkins investigate rumors of gold and abundant game when Kelly witnesses a kidnapping: Red Pine, a Sioux chief, has abducted Snowdrop, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Blackfoot chief Gray Eagle. Kelly rescues her after injuring Red Pine in pursuit, then brokers peace with Gray Eagle—promising to retrieve Snowdrop (already accomplished) and Red Pine's scalp in exchange for the chief's pledge to cease warring against whites and permit trapping in the hills.

Snowdrop, described as the tribe's sole truly beautiful woman, falls in love with Kelly at first sight. Kelly calls his partner Filkins via smoke signal. The narrative emphasizes Kelly's frontier prowess, honor, and physical capability against Native American antagonists while depicting indigenous characters through period conventions of dialect and cultural detail.