It Just Didnýt Happen

About the Book

When Danish immigrant soldier Hans Olufsen heads west in 1856 seeking land of his own, he meets and marries an Indian woman named Little Feather. They settle in the Sheyenne River Valley of what is now North Dakota. Together they negotiate many disputes and settlements between the white man and the Indians.

Hundreds of whites are killed during the Minnesota Sioux Uprising of 1862. Hans must use artillery skills that he learned in the Danish army to defend Fort Abercrombie. When some three hundred Indians are imprisoned and condemned to death, Hans and Little Feather go to Washington DC with a preacher to plead for President Abraham Lincoln's intervention. Lincoln frees all but thirty-eight of the Indians, of whom one is Little Feather's nephew.

Following the Civil War, Hans and Little Feather return home, where Little Feather teaches prairie survival and English to the immigrant women. But after the massacre of General Custer and his troops in 1876, the community turns against Little Feather and her children. This social upheaval threatens to destroy all that Hans and Little Feather have worked so hard to create. It Just Didn't Happen tells the story of their adventurous and loving life together.

About the Author

Hans Goodwater Olufsen grew up on the family farm that was homesteaded in North Dakota in the 1850s.