Across the Wide River

This historical novel for young adult readers tells the story of an American Indian boy and his response to his father's death in the Korean War. The major events of the story are true. In 1950 a Winnebago Indian war hero, John R Rice, was killed in Korea. Hewitt's novel is about the family's long wait for the body to be returned to the United States and the disappointment of Rice's son, John Jr, at the refusal of officials in Sioux City, Iowa, to bury an Indian soldier in the local 'whites only' cemetery. As John Jr shuttles between reservation and town, he is educated both in school and by his grandfather's stories of the heroism of Crazy Horse and Geronimo. He tests himself with his own rite of passage, a swim across the Missouri River that confirms his worthiness in the eyes of his peers.