When the Legends Die by Hall Borland a Native American in the 1930s Thomas Black Bull is orphaned at a young age and left to live alone in the old ways in the wilderness Toms life changes drastically when a fellow Ute Indian Blue Elk comes finds and tricks him in coming to live at a reservation school to learn the way of the white people From this point forward all the people in his life force him to abandon his Indian way of life Throughout the book Thomas struggles to forget his meaningful ch