SOARING EAGLE

Blond, green-eyed Julio knows he's not Mexican like the rest of his family. In 1845, he accompanies Pap† to Bent's Fort, Colorado, after hearing that someone there may answer the tormenting questions about his origins. After Pap† is killed by Apaches, Julio—injured, snow-blind, starving—is rescued by Cheyennes. Their generosity and kindness overcome his initial wariness, and he resolves the conflict between his Catholic heritage and participation in their ceremonies to become Cheyenne, follow their customs, earn the name ``Soaring Eagle,'' and eventually learn from his friend Dancing Feather the sorrowful lesson that ``Nothing lives long, only the earth and the mountains,'' while a vision quest helps him recall his early life. Though deeply affected by his new ideas, Julio is bereft when Dancing Feather dies in battle. Alone, isolated in anger and grief and unable to accept ``the Cheyenne way,'' he seeks answers and his future at Bent's Fort. Finley's deliberate pace may challenge readers, but her old-fashioned descriptions of the sweat-lodge ceremony, eagle trapping, and other particulars of Cheyenne life are well-crafted and richly detailed. A frequently exciting, thought-provoking story; a good candidate for social studies lists. (Fiction. 10+)