People of the Whistling Waters

Medawar's expansive first novel of life among the Crow Indians has large ambitions but succeeds merely in giving a Native American patina to a generic example of the historical, multigenerational saga. Born to a pioneering family on the Montana frontier in 1854, Egbert Higgins is adopted after his parents' deaths by Renee DeGeer, a French-Canadian who married a Crow woman and chose to stay with her people. Renamed Nicolas, Egbert is raised with Renee's son Jacques, both following the ways of the Crow. The narrative traces the family's adventures through the Indian Wars; in keeping with genre conventions, numerous historical figures--including Generals Sherman, Crook and Custer and Chiefs Santana and Crazy Horse--parade across the pages. The author manages to weave in some Crow oral history, detailing changes in the tribe's life as the buffalo are driven from the plains by increasing numbers of white people, but neither her clumsy writing nor the two-dimensional characters spark much interest as the story drags toward its close at the end of the 19th century. (Aug.)