Dances with Wolves

Dances with Wolves, a historical-romance novel by Michael Blake, was published in 1988. It tells the story of a Civil War soldier posted to the frontier who meets the buffalo-hunting Comanche people, learns their ways, and becomes one of them, fighting alongside them against the many threats they face. The book became the basis for a blockbuster film that won seven Academy Awards. The 2002 edition contains a Foreword by the author; the e-book version of its 2013 printing is the basis for this guide.

Plot Summary

US Army First Lieutenant John Dunbar, his foot seriously injured during a Civil War battle in 1863, decides to lead his men in a charge, hoping to die rather than live with an amputated leg. The attack routs the enemy; miraculously, Dunbar survives. As a hero, he has a free choice of any assignment. He elects to be sent to the frontier, which he wants to see before it gets civilized.

His new post is Fort Sedgewick, a hardscrabble collection of mud huts on the prairie, recently abandoned by its soldiers. The officer who signs Dunbar’s transfer papers suffers a mental breakdown and is transferred to the East, while the wagon driver who delivers Dunbar to the fort is killed on his way back. The Army’s knowledge of Dunbar’s whereabouts thus is completely lost. Dunbar is entirely on his own. For many weeks, the lieutenant makes repairs to the fort and enjoys the peaceful beauty of the surrounding prairie. A wolf befriends him and follows him on his rides out onto the Plains. Dunbar names him Two Socks for his white forepaws.

Comanche from a nearby camp discover the new occupant and take an interest in his horse, the fleet buckskin Cisco, but Dunbar confronts them. One warrior, Wind In His Hair, charges the lone soldier, who stands fixed, and the warrior halts, impressed. He merely taunts Dunbar, then rides away. Undaunted, and wanting to learn more about his neighbors, Dunbar rides to their camp. On the way, he finds one of their young women sitting on a hill, bleeding from wounds she inflicted on herself in mourning the death of her warrior husband. She is Stands With A Fist, a white woman who, as a girl, was rescued from the Pawnee by the Comanche and raised among them. Dunbar treats her wounds and delivers her back to her people.

The band’s elderly leader, Ten Bears, takes an interest in the young white soldier. He tasks his medicine man, Kicking Bird, with visiting the lieutenant and learning more. Kicking Bird and Wind In His Hair do so together; Dunbar serves them coffee, and they try to talk in gestures. Dunbar is invited to visit the Comanche camp, where he begins to learn their language from Stands With A Fist, who must struggle to remember her old English so that she can translate. One night at the fort, Dunbar hears the rumble of buffalo, and he races to the Comanche village to alert them. Overjoyed at the news, they bring Dunbar with them to pursue the animals. The first hunt of the year is a great success; Dunbar proves himself an effective, if somewhat clumsy, hunter. Wind In His Hair now greatly admires Dunbar, and they become friends.

Unencumbered with Army duties, Dunbar spends more and more time with the Comanche, riding alongside them, improving his language abilities with Stands With A Fist, and learning the niceties of weaponry from a skilled elder warrior, Stone Calf. Nearby, white settlers kill game animals wantonly, leaving carcasses and trash on the Plains. Dunbar realizes that the whites no longer seem civilized to him; instead, the Comanche have become his adopted people. Over time, he and Stands With A Fist grow closer until they fall in love. Two Socks tries to accompany Dunbar to the Comanche camp, but the lieutenant, fearing for the wolf’s safety, tries to chase him away. His efforts turn into a game, with him grabbing at Two Socks’ tail and the wolf nipping his feet. Kicking Bird happens to witness this odd display and decides that Dunbar’s Comanche name will be “Dances With Wolves.”

News arrives that 80 Pawnee are heading toward the camp, hoping to pilfer it and kill the villagers. Dances With Wolves remembers cases of rifles buried at the fort; aided by a party of warriors, he retrieves them, returns to the village, and arms the Comanche warriors. At dawn, they surprise the advancing Pawnee and rout them, killing dozens. Dances With Wolves is hailed as a hero. He and Stands With A Fist are married by Kicking Bird. Autumn chill arrives, and the village packs up for the return to the winter camp. Dances With Wolves remembers a journal he kept at the fort, a document that will incriminate him and his Comanche friends, and rides to collect it but finds the fort now filled with soldiers. They arrest him for desertion and send him under escort back to the East for execution. On the way, Comanche warriors attack the guards, and, aided by Dances With Wolves, kill the soldiers and escape. The novel ends with the remaining members of the tribe choosing to retreat into the forest, disappearing so well that the attacking army can’t find them.