Bitterroot and Sundance

This volume collects two novels from Richard S. Wheeler's Barnaby Skye series of Westerns, Bitterroot and Sundance, in a single edition. Both feature Skye, a mountain man who is pulled into other people's dangers on the frontier.

In Bitterroot, Skye agrees to guide a party of Quakers to Owen's Fort in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana. It is led by the missionary Dr. William Penn Sitgreaves and includes his wife, Abigail. The Quakers plan to found a mission among the Native Americans there. Skye soon finds that Sitgreaves is far from soft and has a will of steel, which he will need to build a mission in such wild country.

In Sundance, a Lakota Sioux war party raids a group on the Oregon Trail and takes everything Con Brann holds dear, including his daughter Hester. Skye sets out to help Brann just as some 10,000 Sioux gather to hold their ancient Sun Dance ritual and pray for vengeance on their enemies, Skye among them. He is bound by honor to rescue the girl, which means slipping into the sacred ceremony, where being discovered would mean a horrible death.