Thunder over the Ochoco

the long version

Gale Ontko's Thunder Over the Ochoco is literally the work of a lifetime. Ontko spent 40 years combing historical records and interviewing dozens of descendants of pioneer settlers and Native Americans who shared oral traditions that have been passed down through generations. What emerges is history as it has never been told before. A history of conquistadors and fur trappers, of merchants and missionaries. The history of an Indian war that was one of the longest and bloodiest conflicts ever fought on American soil, but which for political and economic reasons was covered up for decades. Above all, the history of "those first settlers of the Ochoco--men, women, and children--who were left to wander and starve in a land they thought belonged to them through eternity, a people who in their final glory cried out: 'Nimma ne-umpa!'--'We too are human!'".