Sam Houston Leaping Deer follows in a long tradition of American heroes—from Huckleberry Finn to Holden Caulfield—individuals who struggle against a frequently hostile society for psychological survival, for integrity, and for authenticity. Sam is an Alabama-Coushatta Indian trapped between his Indian heritage and white America. Sam is a talented basketball player. He is the best pure shooter ever to come off the reservation. Putting a basketball through a hoop is for him a mystical, even metaphysical event. His skill takes him from a small Texas town and the reservation to the University of Illinois basketball team, where he immediately becomes a star. Along the way he meets a cross section of characters and personalites that his reservation life has not trained him to cope with. His life seems increasingly empty compared to his memories of the Alabama-Coushatta legends. In what might have become a cliche in the hands of a lesser writer, Gerald Duff delivers a powerful work of satire, humor, and tragedy.