Four Color #290

In "Buffalo Caller," Pawnee tracker Running Wolf stumbles upon a vast buffalo herd that could sustain his people, but his discovery draws the deadly attention of three Cheyenne hunters. With his bow-string snapped and outnumbered, he barely escapes by diving into the river’s treacherous rapids, hiding beneath the current until the danger passes. He races back to warn his uncle, Chief War Eagle, about both the herd and the threat closing in.

In "The Towers of Death..." from Four Color #290 (1950), Pawnee Chief Wounded Bear leads a desperate quest to reclaim his people’s sacred bundle after it’s stolen by a stealthy Pueblo raiding party. With his warriors ambushed and the Pueblo town eerily abandoned—its streets littered with corpses and the bundle vanished—Wounded Bear must push through sickness and silence to uncover the truth behind the vanished town.

In "Apache Grass Hogan," a quiet, informative glimpse into traditional Apache craftsmanship unfolds across two pages of Four Color #290. Through clear, borderless illustrations and simple dialogue, we follow an Apache family as they build a winter home using saplings and bear-grass, their careful work shaping a dome frame and weaving thatch from bottom to top—revealing the ingenuity behind a shelter that meets both seasonal and spiritual needs.

In the dusty frontier of "Blunt Arrow Boy," young Badger Cub and Little Doe stir up trouble with Auntie Crowfoot’s water gourd, turning her chores into a chase across the plains. Their antics lead them to a tragic scene: a dead mare and her stubborn colt refusing to leave her side, while the silence of the land hangs heavy around the still body of a rattler crushed beneath hooves.