One Against a Wilderness
Series: Kioga 3
Reviewed date: 2026 Mar 5
172 pages
One Against a Wilderness is the third entry in the Kioga series, and it's a collection of short stories about Kioga's childhood. These are boring stories.
I - The Eyes of Mialoka Will Burn Tonight
In far Nato'wa — that new-found land within the Arctic Circle — deep in the still, primeval forest called by the red-skinned natives Indegara, there stands a great rock called Chieftain's Head, supposed to be the image of Mialoka, legendary First-Chief of all the Shoni tribes. When the eyes of Chieftain's Head light up, Two-Star, the little son of Mialoka, will return to take his place among mortal men, so goes the legend, implicitly believed among the Shoni.
Kioga observes shamans Inkato and Kansa sacrifice a young Shoni boy to the Yei river spirits. Kioga and his bear companion Aki rescue the boy from the water, and Kioga recognizes him as Ohali, a boy from Hopeka. Kioga is unwilling to let this injustice stand, so he concocts a plan to return Ohali to Hopeka and take revenge on the wicked shamans.
First Kioga lights fires in the rock of the Chieftain's Head to make Mialoka's eyes appear to glow. Then Kioga disguises himself as a river spirit, takes a canoe and returns Ohali to Hopeka—not just as the boy he used to be, but returned from the dead as the spiritual reincarnation of Two-Star, son of the legendary First Chief Mialoka.
II - The Dire Wolves' Prey
On bazaar-day Kioga curls up in a wicker basket under some feather robes and overhears members of the Long-Knife Society plotting against chief Sawamic. Unfortunately, the plotters buy the basket of robes and carry it off with Kioga inside. Kioga escapes and warns Hopeka-town just in time for the warriors to rise up and defend chief Sawamic against the sneak attack.
III - Unharmed, He Dwelt Among the Forest People
Kioga finds a baby abandoned in the wilderness, and rescues him from hungry dire wolves. He recognizes the baby as the son of a chief, and attempts to return him to his village of Magua. Unfortunately, Kioga is accused of stealing the child, and barely escapes with his life.
IV - Flight of the Forest People
Kioga races against time to warn the Shoni about a flash flood that is barreling down the river towards Hopeka.
V - White Heritage
Members of the Long Knife society have murdered Kioga's adoptive Shoni parents, and as Kioga flees through the jungle he contemplates revenge. The proper Shoni response to a murder is to avenge the death by killing the man responsible and his entire family. Kioga burns with anger against those who have murdered his family and driven him from his home in Hopeka, but something inside him resists the traditional Shoni revenge.
Kioga stumbles across the wreck of the ship Cherokee, which carried his white parents to Nato'wa. In the wreck he finds various useful tools and weapons. He also finds a letter from his great grandfather Lincoln Rand, charging his son (Kioga's grandfather) to "hold life sacred," to "protect the weak," to "never strike except in self-defense," and to "never harbor hatred in your heart." This is Kioga's white heritage. He rejects the Shoni concept of revenge.
VI - The Turn of the Tide
Kioga is once again an outcast from the Shoni. He teams up with K'yopit, also an outcast, and tries to win over the men of Hopeka-town by showing them how to woodworking tools that Kioga recovered from the shipwrecked Cherokee. It doesn't work. Kioga and K'yopit barely escape with their lives. Kioga determines to quit the entire continent of Nato'wa, so he builds a boat. That doesn't work either, and he and K'yopit almost lose their lives--but they're rescued by the men of Hopeka who have used Kioga's tools and had a change of heart.