Lloyd Harnishfeger

Tom Bluefoot and the Westward Quest Lloyd Harnishfeger

Tom Bluefoot and the Westward Quest is the final book in the author's Tom Bluefoot trilogy. Now in his fifties, protagonist Toom-She-chi-Kwa (Tom Bluefoot) travels west in an attempt to locate his special friend, the escaped slave Simon Grant. On the way, he joins the famous Manuel Lisa, founder of the American Fur Company. Adventures and dangers abound as the group roughly follows Lewis and Clark's earlier exploration of the Louisiana Purchase. Incidents with the indigenous people vary from friendly to warlike as the company travels the Missouri River and its tributaries far into the north and west. Action peaks as a combined force of Native Americans threatens the traders at Fort Raymond, near what is now the state of Oregon. Readers will enjoy the story as well as learn much about the considerable influence of the fur trade on the expanding United States of America.