American by Blood A Novel [Paperback]

InAmerican by Blood,three U.S. Army scouts arrive a day late to join General Custer at Little Bighorn. They come upon the ruins of the Seventh Cavalry, a trail of blood and corpses defiled by wild dogs and swarms of flies. It is a scene that will haunt them for the rest of their lives. With the loss at Little Bighorn, the three men find their mission to help clear the land of Indian tribes becoming one of vengeance. As they journey into the dense forests and high plains of the Old West, each man finds more than he bargained for in this epic story that shatters some of our nation's most central myths.Andrew Huebnera former bike messenger, lumberyard man, and professor of English at City University of New York, grew up in New Jersey and North Carolina and now lives in New York City. This is his first novel.Chapter One

They rode up over a trail to a rise with the three scouts in the lead. As they passed through a patch of juniper trees, the sun turned hot and the very air around them, with the sawing legs of the hoppers and the twits of the birds, seemed to hum with heat. Before them was a valley now with dew burning light on the spots of dying, browned grass. Tall sprigs of Queen Anne's Lace caressed the horses' legs and speckled the soldiers' boots with their sex.

Coming over a rise they saw the white things on the hills. Bradley's horse snorted, hesitating, sniffing the air. He kicked it on ahead.

Hah, he called to it.

No one else spoke.

Not even Shit, what in the hell, or Goddamn.

Maybe it was the smell, or the flies, or the wild dogs. The dogs were everywhere, they darted under the legs of their horses. They yelped wildly at their horses and gnawed brazenly at their boots. The soldiers kicked at them and hollered. The dogs had blood on their yaps. Their eyes rolled back white in their heads.

There were so many flies. A fog of them attacked the Private called Gentle, his eyes, nose, in his mouth lSÊ