Beadle's New Dime Novels: Eagle Plume

EAGLE PLUME, THE WHITE AVENGER Albert W. Aiken's dime novel follows a frontier narrative centered on Dakota Nation politics and Mormon expansion in the 1860s. The story opens with chiefs Hole-in-the-Sky and Black-Pan awaiting the young Dakota brave Yellow Wolf, who has been emissary to Mormon settlements near the Great Salt Lake. Yellow Wolf reports that the Mormons—led by "Dan" and a militia of "Danites" or "Destroying Angels"—refuse tribute but seek peaceful passage through Dakota hunting grounds. Rather than attack the militarily formidable Mormons, the chief opts to await future conflict when Mormons accumulate wealth worth plundering. A mysterious white stranger subsequently appears at the village—approximately thirty years old with unusual facial features, bearing rifle, knife, and revolver. The narrative establishes initial tensions between Dakota interests and competing factions of white settlement, with implications of broader conflict to follow.