Quanah

"Which two characters back in the early 'Sixties would be the least likely to rescue kidnap victims, run off cowboys, outsmart armed guards, and confront racism?"

Dakota Duval grows up limited on the South Side of Chicago--a black youth with no place to go. Thanks to his uncle, he travels to Idaho, meets his Shoshone family on the reservation and learns his tribal heritage. But he wants freedom and enlists in an Air Force Mobile Weather Squadron.

Quanah Winnemucca had no place to go as a girl on the Moapa Indian Reservation in Nevada. She is inspired by her father Bronco with bedtime stories of Paiute tribal ancestors. At last his family of five leaves the reservation and moves to a wild mustang ranch in Warm Springs. Quanah earns and trains her first mustang at age twelve and wins rodeo championships all around the state.

One night in Tonopah, Quanah meets Dakota, an Upper-Winds Operator for nuclear detonations at the nearby Nevada Test Site. She is taken with his admiration of wild mustangs. He is fascinated by the unique combination of her outer Native American beauty and her inner Indian Scout. Quanah loves her life and wants to share it. Training Dakota as a mustang man is a daunting daily task.

At midnight Bronco discovers his favorite stallion Nightwind has been stolen, and sets out to track him, only to be shot. Both disappear. Quanah must transform from an innocent native cowgirl on the family's mustang ranch, to a commando in her father's decorated World War II Squadron.

Against all odds, Quanah pulls Dakota into the exhausting search for her father, only to find three of her underage friends are held hostages by armed guards in nearby brothels. What possible chance of success can she have? And with racists and armed guards set to drive him, the mustangs, and the Paiutes out of Nevada or into prison, what possible chance does Dakota have?