Little Bear has been taken. Sent from his Cheyenne family, the ten-year-old is forced onto an “iron horse,” his sacred braids cut, and a new name pressed upon him—Gabriel. Sent to a mother he barely remembers and a stepfather he quietly calls White Bear , he must learn to survive in a world that asks him to forget who he is. But Gabriel is a warrior. When pushed too far, he answers with a sacred act of his people— counting coup —and discovers that what his people call courage, others call defiance.