Bearstone

Walter Landis owns a ranch in southern Colorado. When Cloyd first meets him, “The old man’s hands were in the pockets of his striped overalls, his shoulders were slumped, his bald head bowed. Purple veins stood out on his skull” (7). Short and elderly, and still in mourning over the recent death of his beloved wife, Walter lacks purpose and resolve until he takes in Cloyd, who becomes the son he never had.

Much as Cloyd must overcome his insularity, Walter must open up his struggling heart to the boy. At first, he isn’t sure how to mentor Cloyd, and he makes mistakes and misses cues that lead to Cloyd’s angry sabotage. Walter regrets those mistakes and works as hard as Cloyd to mend the breach between them. His words to Cloyd on the boy’s return—“the hurt you get over makes you stronger” (70)—inspire Cloyd to rise up from his anguish and begin to build a better life.

Their experience together tests Walter’s ability to be a father as much as it challenges Cloyd to become a caring son. Working together on the ranch and at the gold mine, they form a foundation for enduring love and respect. Walter becomes the father and mentor Cloyd needs, but it’s both their doing, which makes it all the sweeter an achievement for both of them.

Cloyd’s grandmother always welcomes him when he visits. She asks no questions but showers him with affection and fills him with food. Grandmother is “a Ute woman in the old style, she was dark, earthy, and large, the mainstay of her diet being frybread” (64). Her knotted hair, green blouse, and skirt suggest the influence of the nearby Navajos. Where school officials want Cloyd to be orderly and scholarly, his grandmother lets him grow up wild, free to explore the canyons or hitchhike. She teaches him about Ute culture and beliefs and reminds him that it’s important to “live in a good way” (65). Her advice guides Cloyd during his quest to improve his life.

Blueboy is the name Cloyd gives to the horse he chooses to ride at the ranch. Blueboy is a blue roan gelding, its pelt a bluish-gray color. Strong, spirited, and capable, the horse steals Cloyd’s heart, and he loves to ride him for hours along the river near the ranch. Rusty says horses don’t care about their owners, but Cloyd discovers that Blueboy is willing to risk himself to protect his rider. Blueboy is part of Cloyd’s journey into the mountains and into the heights of spirit. In learning to care for and respect the horse, Cloyd receives the animal’s respect and love in return. This teaches Cloyd an important lesson on how to treat everyone in his life, especially those he cares the most about.

No one would have thought it possible, but late in the summer of Cloyd’s apprenticeship with Walter, the boy encounters a grizzly bear in the midst of the San Juan Mountains. Grizzlies are supposed to be extinct there, yet Cloyd finds himself facing one of the great predators of the wilderness. The bear, a member of a species revered by the Ute people, observes Cloyd and, apparently recognizing the boy’s nonviolent intentions, walks away peaceably. It’s a startling and inspiring moment for Cloyd, whose visit to the high country in search of spiritual uplift rewards him with the gift of the bear’s presence.

Things don’t remain happy for either boy or bear. Hunter Rusty pursues the grizzly across meadow and ridge and, in a terrifying confrontation, kills the creature for sport. The grizzly’s death horrifies Cloyd, who stands a vigil over its corpse, apologizes to the bear, and promises to remember him always. The bear symbolizes for Cloyd the spirit of the mountains; its death represents the slow extinction of much of Native America’s culture at the hands of white people, many of whom treat wilderness, and indigenous culture, not as objects of respect but as resources to exploit. 

Cloyd’s housemother in Durango is Susan James. She cares about him but can do little about the boy’s “half-wild” nature, so she drives him to the ranch of her friend Walter Landis, where Cloyd is to spend the summer. She hopes this experience in a beautiful mountain canyon will benefit Cloyd. She also helps Cloyd get an invitation from the White Mesa Ute council to return there for school. When the boy and rancher bond and become a family, Susan realizes that Cloyd may have more important tasks at the ranch, and she helps clear the way so that he can take care of Walter while continuing to attend school in Durango.

Susan represents the many adults who work with at-risk Indigenous youth to help them overcome obstacles that impede their opportunities for growth and achievement.