Joe High Elk and his sister, Marie, are caught in a raging storm and seek shelter in the cave of their ancestor, Steps High Like and Elk. It was here that this first High Elk had hidden his palomino mare from the thieving white soldiers. Joe knew that High Elk had started his famous herd with this mare, even though she was lame. Sneaking into the corral on the hated Sioux reservation, High Elk had bred her to the best of the soldiers' stallions.

Now Joe's father dreamed of starting the herd again though only one fat old mare was left from the original stock. He had bred her to a fine palomino, and she had produced a perfect filly. But when the storm broke out, the terrified filly had run away from Joe.

In his anger at his own carelessness, Joe smashes his fist into the wall of the cave and unearths High Elk's treasure, wrapped in moldering leather, now almost a hundred years old. When Joe shows it to his grandmother she hides her face and mutters, "Tehinda," forbidden. What dread secret does it hold? Joe does not find out until the end of this fast-paced story when the fate of the new herd and of the mysterious package are woven together.

From the dust jacket