Bloody Hand by Matt Braun

Publisher’s summary
He found a people who needed his courage.

Born a slave, Jim Beckwith forged his own path to freedom as a mountain man. But when a wealthy trading company owner offered to pay him to live among the Crow Indians, Beckwith accepted the deal – and discovered another way of life that changed him forever.

He fought a battle that had to be won.

Here in the Wind River Mountains, amidst blood feuds and blood brothers, he became Bloody Hand, a man sworn to take a hundred scalps – and destined to become the People’s greatest warrior – in a life-or-death struggle that shaped the fate of a nation.