NE Golden Sower Award Nominee

	Bass Reeves was a real man, born into slavery, who became a successful rancher and U.S. Marshall ordered to help “clean up” the Indian Territory that would later become Oklahoma. Gary Paulsen uses what little is known about the lawman and creates a three-part book that shares the fictional account of what Reeves’ life might have been like. The first part of the book is the longest and gives the reader a glimpse of what childhood was like for Bass as a young man and slave.	"The Comanche Touches Bass With the Point of His Spear" Artwork by Mark. Grade 7 Nebraska City Middle School, Nebraska City Public Schools
	It shows the lessons he learns from his master, his mother, and the land that would become Texas, and how he becomes the honorable man he is in the future. The second part is about his time living with the Native Americans where he learns the skills to make him the great U.S. Marshall that is the third part of his life. Examples of his many searches, arrests, and even some killings make up the last and shortest part of book. Paulsen’s forward shows his contempt of the other “heroes” of the time, and his book shows what he thinks a real hero is like.
	Summary from the Golden Sower Award 2008-2009 Manual
	Visit the National Cowboy Museum. Learn more about author Gary Paulsen.