Children of the Storm: The True Story of the Pleasant Hill School Bus Tragedy
Ariana Harner and Clark Secrest
On a clear, sunny spring day in 1931 the bus driver, Carl Miller, made his route to bring the twenty children to the Pleasant Hill school house, a one room building located on the plains of Kiowa County, Colorado. Upon arriving, a terrible storm cloud came up from the north. Carl Miller and the teachers decided they should send the children home, instead of keeping them at the one room school house without food or water. The bus started out in what was then a blinding blizzard. It was not long before he was lost, finally ran off the road, and the bus was stranded.
Finally, Mr. Miller thought that it would be best for him to try to find help. He asked the oldest child on the bus, Bryan Untiedt, to make sure the other children do not go to sleep. Do whatever he could to keep them from freezing to death. Some of the children had very little for coats. Mr. Miller was soon lost and later found frozen to death. There were no phones and the only help was from families and friends, who were unable to find them until the second day. They found three children had already frozen to death and seventeen were still alive. They were all taken to the hospital for treatment of frostbite on their hands, feet, etc...
The Denver Post interviewed the children and families. Bryan Untiedt was promoted as a "hero" by the Post. Other newspapers were interviewing and photographing the survivors, as well.
Nineteen days after the tragedy, all the survivors and their families were invited to Denver for one week to see different sites. Mr. Bonfils, the owner of the Denver Post, presented all the survivors with some cash and a gold-plated heroism medal. Bryan Untiedt was also invited to Washington, D.C. by President Herbert Hoover.
This story was very informative about what can happen in a short time with spring storms and how dangerous they can be on the plains of Colorado. I did not like how the media made Bryan Untiedt a hero more than the other survivors. I feel that you should read this book called Children of the Storm. Ages 8 to Adult. Talli, Eads Middle School, 6th Grade

I am the author of "Rivers of Wind: A Western Boyhood Remembered," another story of life on the Colorado High Plains in an earlier time. While growing up in southeastern Colorado, even as a child I remember hearing of the Pleasant Hill school bus tragedy. Knowing that a definitive account of this historic event had never been written, when this book came out I was pleased to see what a fine job Ariana Harner and Clark Secrest had done. "Children of the Storm" is a finely-researched and well-written account of this tragedy. Along with telling the story of the unfortunate victims of a devastating High Plains blizzard which trapped them for thirty-three hours in a dilapidated school bus with pieces of cardboard lodged into the frames of its broken-out windows, the book tells of the subsequent exploitation of the survivors by a greedy media mogul and a United States President seeking reelection. "Children of the Storm" tells, at long last, the true story of the twenty children and one adult who were trapped in the school bus, the tragic deaths of six of them, and both the short-term and long-term effects the event had on the lives of the survivors.

Having grown up in Colorado, I found this book informative, poignant, and a genuinely great read. I remember people eluding to a bus tragedy in Colorado ages ago but never was able to learn the circumstances, until now. That so tragic an event could have been exploited by so many unconnected to its events speaks volumes to the age we live in. I found the details and timeline remarkable given the generations that have passed and the silence so long held by the tragic participants. Well researched!

Cynthia Haseloff has written a great western that very much deserves the 1998 Spur award recieved from the Western Writers of America.
The Kiowa Verdict is based on the trial of two Kiowa Indians, Satanta and Adoltay also called Big Tree, for taking part in the "The Warren Wagon Train Massacre." Satanta led about 100 Kiowas and Comanches and attacked a wagon train with only a dozen white men. This took place west of Fort Richardson, Texas, in the spring of 1871. There was little doubt who was responsible, for Satanta himself bragged to Quaker Indian agent Lawrie Tatum at Fort Sill:

"Remember this. If any other Indian comes in here saying he led the raid he will be lying, because I, Satanta, led it."

Satanta and Big Tree were the first Indians to be tried in a white man's court in Texas for crimes committed against Texans.
Historically both Satanta and Big Tree were convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. Governor Edmund J. Davis commuted their sentences to life imprisonment. Later Satanta committed suicide by leaping headfirst from a second story window at the Texas State Prison in Huntsville and smashing his head on stone paving.

Adoltay, or Big Tree, a young warrior, converted to Methodism while in prison, was eventually released, was ordained as a Methodist minister, returned to the Kiowa-Comanche lands around Fort Sill and was instrumental in converting many Kiowas and Comanches to Methodism.

One of the characters in this novel, Joseph A. Woolfolk, a Confederate and Frontier Regiment veteran, was appointed by the Thirteenth District Court of the State of Texas to defend the Kiowas. The prosecutor was S. W. T. Lanham, who later became governor of Texas.

Transcripts of the trial don't exist, so what courtroom action there is - and of course the thoughts and fears of Joe Woolfolk - are entirely fictional. What is real is the fact that poor Joe Woolfolk instead of putting up a token defense, actually defended his clients in court.

To paraphrase the sometimes Western writer Mark Twain, "the reports of the death of the Western have been greatly exaggerated." The modern Western has been part of the American literary scene ever since - and arguably long before - Owen Wister introduced readers to "The Virginian" in 1902, and it shows no signs of riding into the sunset.

Cynthia Haseloff has captured the spirit of the American frontier in a way that kept me spellbound from beginning to end. Not only did I come away with a true sense of the era, but I also became a new fan of the Western genre, as well (at least the Haseloff Western genre). I can't wait to read her prequel to this book, "Satanta's Woman." I would highly recommend "The Kiowa Verdict" to anyone looking for a great beside-your-bed read.

This book is the winner of the 1998 Spur Award for Best Western Novel (selected by the Western Writers of America).

i loved this book. as did everyone in my family. i borrowed this book from my mom three years ago to check it out and i ended up keeping it and reading it all the time. as a matter-of-fact, i'm currently re-reading it.

for me, this was a great look into the past and at the old ways. it proved to me that the Kiowa are some of the strongest people on the plains. and i am proud to be one.

I stumbled on this book years ago, and I joyfully re-read it each year. It is a wonderful, engrossing look at a long-ago time, beautifully captured through the words of Spear Woman, Hunting Horse, and their families and friends.

Although not a novel, it sure reads like one!

My favorite parts? The chapter where Spear Girl and Hunting Horse elope, the poignant journey of Apiatan and the piece where the grandmother and granddaughter go to visit the buffalo. Truly a wonderful read!

This should be required reading for anybody interested in Indian culture, lifestyles, history. Heck, for anybody who's a student of human nature.

The Ten Grandmothers, required reading for a course in anthropology, inspired a lifelong interest in and appreciation of Plains Indian culture. It is romantic without romanticism, sentimental without bathos, realistic and uplifting.

I received this book several years ago from my father. Andele was married to my grandmother's cousin. My father has told me about his memories of Andele as an old man, and of his gentle spirit and kindness. I finally got the opportunity to read this book recently. It sheds light on native American history I have studied with my children as a homeschool mother. You feel as if you were there experiencing what Andele experienced. I have also seen a copy of the original book written in 1899. It has many original pictures of Andele and others he lived with in captivity. I wish this edition still had those pictures.

Andele, The Mexican-Kiowa Captive is a very factual and interesting book. Andele was married to my Great-Great Aunt. I was raised 3 houses from their home. From my studies and research on my family, this book is a very acurate account of Andele's life. If you are interested in Oklahoma History or Native American History, you will enjoy reading Andele.

Isabel Crawford, a Canadian woman, came to southwest Oklahoma and was a missionary to the Kiowas for ten years. This book is a compilation of her journals which she kept faithfully throughout her years with the Kiowas, with entries that include personal reflection and testimonies from the Kiowa people. Crawford brought a unique perspective to life on a Native American reservation at the turn of the century. Crawford showed that most Kiowas respected her and she also had a favorable view of the Kiowas.

Most of her entries were written from a Christian's perspective and how she tried to share gospel with the Kiowas and in fact, many became Christians because of her. Crawford also with the help of the Kiowas built a church at Saddle Mountain, Oklahoma. Unlike some missionaries who preached to save the "savages", Crawford truly respected their cultural identity and in fact sought a middle ground, where cultural exchange took place. She told them that becoming a Christian would not change their identities.

This book is valuable because it contains speeches, conversations and testimonies given by the Kiowas which can help to increase our understanding of both their culture and the complexity of their relationship with missionaries.

Isabel Crawford came fearlessly among the Kiowa Indians; among the last of the tribes to be confined to reservations. The work of all the missionaries transformed the lives of some of the Kiowa people and gave them a spiritual path that the Kiowa continue to follow. Crawford's recording of the words of these early Kiowa converts have the power to make one laugh and to weep. How poigniant the words of the old Kiowas, the so-called savages.

From beginning to end, this wonderful blend of ethnographic information and personal experiences pulls the reader into the community, into the heart of the Kiowa people and definitely, into the song. For the academic and general reader, through the telling of personal experiences, this book offers an insight into the people and the thread of song and dance that holds them together as a community. Having had the privilege of singing many times with Dr. Lassiter, this book was just one more song well sung. Thank you, Eric, now, lead out another good one.

The most important thing to keep in mind when picking up this book is that it is a "collaborative ethnography." While reading you will get the feeling that this is not a solo project, but one undertaken by a whole community. A community made up of people who express themselves in different fashions, but are still working towards a common goal. It is obvious that this is a very personal work and Lassiter reveals much of himself to the reader which only reinforces the value and importance of song. "Power of Kiowa Song" is very readable and will interest those from various backgrounds. Academics as well as the casual reader will all learn something. Highly recommended.

Ms. Haseloff writes with a spare, fluid, economy of words which is vividly descriptive and without a word out of place. This is a bittersweet and heartbreaking book but one which is WELL worth the time of any fan of Western novels. Or a fan of any novels. How can a woman watch her home be destroyed, her possessions stolen, her children killed or abducted and yet find peace and acceptance from the very people who did it? Read this book and you will know. It's only fault is that it is far too short. Be warned that there is a high degree of violence in keeping with the times and circumstances. This is the first book of Ms. Haseloff's that I ever read and it lead me to read all of her books that I can find.

The two main characters in this book--Kiowa Chief Satanta and a 35-year-old grandmother (Adrianne Chastain)--are based on real people. We come to know them through great dialog and well-researched, well-written descriptive passages that can stand alone but are important to developing the story and its characters. I found reading this book a real treat. For the west Texas business woman (Adrianne Chastain), October 13, 1864 did not seem an auspicious day for beginning a great romance. The woman had been married and widowed three times, but had never known love. On that October day the chief and his warriors slaughtered whites mercilessly. He claimed this white woman as his own, took her to his people's camp, and to hunting grounds beyond. An appreciation for the gentle side of Satanta of the home fire led to respect and love. In this historical novel the reader comes to respect and admire several people from drastically diverse cultures. We, and Adrianne, come to know Satanta and his first wife, Woven Blanket, through their deeds and conversations. "Perhaps it is becoming necessary to make peace," Satanta observes. "But . . . the peaceful Indians are soon starving, while the fighting ones are given talks and gifts and food. If the white men are afraid of us, we can have a satisfactory peace." Woven Blanket describes her people's predicament to Adrianne: "In the past we often have had trouble with (Indian) enemies. . . . Now it is the white man, but he does not just come and take horses or fight warriors. The white man kills us all, even the babies. He does not go away and let us rest from killing. He chases us about, looking for more killing. Why is this?" Unlike a mystery story, this western novel invites multiple readings, first to learn how the story turns out, and second to savor the revealing dialog and gripping adventures. If you read only one western this year, let it be by Cynthia Haseloff. Satanta's Woman is recommended as a great start. See if you can resist another. I couldn't and did not.

A true sense of the raw Oklahoma landscape, colorful Indian folk tales that help authenticate a bygone era, a bittersweet western epic.

I really enjoy reading about the hardships endured when living in a strange land, so of course i loved this book. I thought Mrs. Hurmence plotted it well and she really described the events well. I enjoyed reading it and I well read it again.

Kiowa author Scott Momaday has suggested that the humorless Indian is a ridiculous stereotype, and Cherokee author Mardi Medawar's Tay-bodal mysteries certainly confirm that view. Both Medawar and her hero have a great sense of fun, and this first novel in a series of four is notable for its refusal to take seriously the cliches of white attitudes toward Indians.

It is also an interesting and challenging mystery set in an important moment of American history, when the tribes of the southern plains were being subjugated by Civil War veterans with nothing better to do. Tay-bodal moves among the great heroes of that era--Satanta, Lone Wolf, Satank--who are for him not only great but uncles and cousins, and men with, if not feet of clay, dirty moccasins.

Read it for the mystery, read it for the history, read it for the fresh look at American Indians. But read it. Good book.

Others before me have already conveyed the storyline, so I won't repeat it, but tell you only that if you enjoy reading about American Indian life, written from the viewpoint of an insider, who speaks of his people without self-conscious posturing, attempts to make his people better or worse than they are; if you enjoy a storyteller who finds humor in himself, his situation and in humanity; if you enjoy being immersed in another culture and open to understanding another people's ways, while slowly unraveling a mystery, then you will enjoy Mardi Oakley Medawar's "Death at Rainy Mountain."

This is not a Tony Hillerman style book, which is not to belittle Hillerman, for I love his books immenseley. It is merely to acknowledge that the treatment is very different...but if you enjoy Hillerman because he opens new vistas of understanding to you, then you will enjoy Medawar also.

This book is as much a story of a people,as it is a mystery, as it is a warm, wonderful romance in which Tay-bodal realizes "Being bound to someone you intensely love, somone you trust to love you back, is a man's only true freedom. And it's the one thing any of us ever really owns. Everything else, most especially power, is fleeting."

Tay-bodal is a most engaging and unlikely hero, and joins the ranks of other wonderful characters who have become more real to me with each re-reading than many people living and breathing today.

My only sorrow is that I do not live in his world so that I might one day have the pleasure of sitting across the fire from him; perhaps assist him in his doctoring; perhaps spy on him as he takes his toddler adopted son by the hand and walks him to an appropriate place with lots of scrub trees and as they stand there side by side peeing,instructs him saying "Women don't appreciate men peeing in the doorway." or laugh when he returns with the toddler to where his almost wife, and mother of his soon to be adopted son stands wringing her hands, worried about her son's whereabouts, and listen in on his response to her when she queations where he took the child and why, and how dared he without her permission to which he responds: "Woman, I don't need your permission to go off for a pee with my son."

This author has captured the wit and humor of a man who never lived, who was of a tribe that did, and through him, teaches us that for all our differences, we are all human.

Ms. Medawar is a writer whose talent is to bring laughter, joy and understanding through the medium of fiction, and make this life a more enjoyable experience.

hey, if you aren't reading mardi oakley medawar's books, then what are you reading??? you can't find another author out there who's writing touches your soul in a way you wish your best friend/ partener/ family were able to. mardi oakley medawar understands people- all people; black, white, european, asian, and most notably the native american. but her true gift lies in the fact that she loves people so much you feel as if, not only her characters are talking directly to you as though you were their dearest friend, but that she is LISTENING to your own heart as only one who truly knows, understands, accepts and loves you, whoever you are. be prepared to laugh out loud, cry from your marrow, and ultimately feel freed by the knowledge that there is no color or creed, only the human soul, and but for our accidental birthrights, any of us could be a hero or an outcast, heathan or missionary, and we would still be blessed and cursed with all that comes with being human. if you aren't reading mardi oakley medawar, you are missing out on one of life's greatest treasures- understanding the timeless nature of the human spirit