Author Description

Gale Ontko's five volume series, Thunder Over the Ochoco, chronicles the history of Oregon: the conflict between Shoshoni Indians, homesteaders, and that new breed of conqueror - the cattle baron. The thirteen year interval between 1866 and 1879 would witness monumental changes in the Ochoco. With the surrender of Has No Horse's battered army, western Oregon had free rein to exploit the Ochoco as it saw fit. In a blind daze, the Shoshoni would witness frontier towns springing up where their lodges had once stood. As thousands upon thousands of bawling cattle and sheep trampled their ancestral hunting grounds to dust, the proud warriors of a bygone year again rebelled. And, for a fleeting moment, shook the state of Oregon to its very foundations. Then it was over. Stripped even of reservation rights the few survivors drifted between the four winds on their final journey into the bitter rain of tears.