Section 1 Summary

This section begins with the sentence, "When the boy's father arrived at Six Rivers Camp..."

The novel opens with Howard Marshall, a politically well-connected man, going to Six Rivers Camp because his son has been kidnapped from the facility. Marshall's family is in the Washington State logging industry and is known for treating their Native American workers fairly. A Native American man, local college student Charles Hobuhet, is suspected of kidnapping David Marshall.

A newspaper report reveals that Hobuhet uses the alias "Katsuk" and left a note threatening to sacrifice David Marshall in a Native American ceremony. The note says the innocent Marshall boy should die for all the innocent Indians killed by white men over the centuries and is signed by Hobuhet.

Flashing back to the day David leaves for camp, the point of view shifts to that of David Marshall. The...