When Freedom Was More Than a Word In 1828, the Rocky Mountains were wild and treacherous. Anyone daring to travel there faced unknown dangers and adventures at every turn. On a hunting trip, young Nathaniel King stumbled onto a disgraced Crow Indian. Attempting to regain his honor, Sitting Bear placed himself and his family in great peril, for a war party of hostile Utes threatened to kill them all. When the savages wounded Sitting Bear and kidnapped his wife and daughter, Nathaniel had to rescue them or watch them perish. But despite his skill in tricking unfriendly Indians, King might have met an enemy he could not outsmart.