Show of hands: who here was taught in school that the portion of the Donner party which struck out from the rest, seeking to find help and bring it back, were ultimately saved by Native Americans?

Because nobody ever told me.

And that's the story of how a famous Black guide and a bunch of Native Americans (whose names I'm not sure we even know, which is so deeply frustrating to me) saved a bunch of white settlers from otherwise certain death.

This book is the first I'd ever even heard of any of this, and it's a side story about how dangerous the Oregon Trail is.

Moses Harris and the native volunteers then walk/carry over everyone who can cross on the bridge. Then they go back over the bridge and caulk up the wagons to float them across this (again) incredibly treacherous river.

They load the really sick people who can't be carried into these makeshift boats and swim-tow and pull-tow the wagons across the river to safety. It takes two weeks to get everyone across.

The Native Americans are used to fishing from this river from scaffolding suspended over the river, that's how dangerous this river is.

Moses Harris and the native volunteers build a suspension bridge over the river to reach the sick and dying settlers. Just going to repeat that: they BUILD A SUSPENSION BRIDGE. On the spot with their tools.

Moses Harris organizes a group of Native American volunteers who know the river and they rush south with equipment: block and tackle, pulleys, ropes, and axes.

Because this river? Is a BITCH. Deep, swift, cold, and deadly.