I like to be cocky and crazy to keep people guessing. Mostly I’m honest and straight to the point. I just don’t tell you everything. Even my best friends don’t know everything about me. I seem to draw the women like crazy. Sometimes it’s ironic, but I make the best out of it as usual. My heart has been shattered more than once in this lifetime. Another one I wouldn't have been able to handle. My kids seem to be able to piece my heart back together in the littlest of ways. They are my life, and I would do anything, and everything for them. My heart which I never thought would heal started piecing itself back together a little at a time. Maybe one day I will be whole again, but something else keeps popping up to interfere with my life. I take my responsibilities seriously. Always the protector to my babies that I brought into this world.

The Shoshone can be divided into three different groups: the Northern Shoshone, who were largely concentrated in Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming; the Western Shoshone, who lived primarily in Oregon and Idaho; and the Eastern Shoshone, mainly found in Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana. Each group ranged quite a bit from where they lived, and members of each group passed through Montana in its early history.

The Western and Eastern Shoshone adopted horses early, and utilized them to their fullest. They moved out of the mountains and onto the plains, and adopted many of the traits associated with the Plains Indians, such as hunting buffalo, using tipis, and raiding other tribes for horses. The Northern Shoshone preferred to only use the horse as a draft animal, and they didn’t become fully mounted until the mid-19th century.

Still, the Shoshone’s push east onto the plains didn’t last long, for by 1750 the Blackfeet had arrived, pushed west by the Europeans, and they drove the Shoshone back. The Shoshone were no match for the Blackfeet, for they had no guns to match those the Blackfeet had gotten from the Europeans.

To add insult to injury, a smallpox epidemic struck in both 1781 and 1800. These double intrusions, of Blackfeet and smallpox, reduced the Shoshone numbers so much that by the time Lewis and Clark came through the state, they had no permanent presence, and did little more than scout in single-person or small groups.

The Shoshone, a nomadic people, traveled annually between the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana and the Unita Mountains of northern Utah along the western slopes of the Wind River Range in Wyoming. It is believed that the Shoshone in this area acquired horses in the early 1700’s from their relatives the Comanche giving them somewhat equal footing with their mortal enemies, the Blackfeet. Due to the isolation of their territory, the tribe was spared any contact with the whites until they met Lewis & Clark in 1803. Before the white men reached their homeland in the beautiful Rocky Mountain valleys, the Shoshone people lived for nearly 100 years in a life improved by the horse.

In June of 1868, the government called the Bannock and Shoshone to Fort Bridger to propose a new treaty which would keep both tribes away from the Union Pacific railroad and the Oregon Trail. As the treaty talks continued, Washakie hoped for the land south of Fort Bridger. This area still had game on it and was close to Fort Bridger where Washakie felt secure. He soon realized the land the government had in mind was the Wind River Valley. The Bannock, however, insisted on being given a reservation of their own.

On July 3, 1868 the Wind River Reservation was established, and on July 30, 1869, the Bannock were given their own reservation at Fort Hall. The Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868 turned out to be the last treaty in which the Indians took an active part.

The Big Sky band of Shoshone though did not attend that gathering, and never went to the reservation. They were a small village where their descendants still live in Big Sky River today. They made friends with the White People that came in to settle the land. With the chief's daughter Morning Star joining the first white settler of Big Sky in marriage. That was Clovis Deveraux who adopted a lot of the Shoshone ways, and lived the white man's way building his ranch into the dynasty it is today with his descendants.

Three of the founding families of Big Sky were of Shoshone heritage. The Falcons, Moretti’s, and Thomas’s. Fierce Heart and Morning Dove were a young Shoshone couple that were one of the families. They took on the surname of Thomas. They had twelve children, some of whom moved away, and some who stayed in Big Sky. Fierce Heart and Morning Dove were my great grandparents. Their eldest son was my grandfather.

At one time the Thomas’s owned a lot of acres right outside of Big Sky, but it’s dwindled down over the years as generation after generation moves away. Not ranching as they did all those years ago or farming the land. Our land borders the Deveraux’s which is three times as big as ours. My grandfather made a deal with the Deveraux’s. Their herds were combined, and the agreement is still today. So even though I have cattle they are in with the Deveraux’s cattle. I am no rancher. I leave that to the Deveraux’s. They used some of our land to run the cattle or horses.

My kids have horses and so do my sisters and their kids that are here on the ranch. The barns here are definitely used. As for me, I'm terrified of horses, and stay far away from them! Got stepped on when I was around six and it broke a couple of bones. Haven’t gone near them since that day. My horse is an Iron Horse that I love.

As for me, I am Thorn Michael Thomas. I was born and raised in Big Sky, Montana. The oldest of five kids that all belong to my father. Only three of us belong to my mother. All four of my younger siblings are girls. Candy is four years younger than me. I nicknamed her Candy Cane when she was born, and that name is reserved for me. Two years later they had Kayla. I called her Kay Kay.

A few years later mom cheated on dad and ran off with her lover. Which wasn’t a man, but another woman. Dad hadn’t seen that one coming at all, and he was thrown for a loop. He was lost for quite awhile. Only coming alive when he was around my sisters and me. He was a High Mountain Ranger, and if he was out for very long on a job he left us with the Moretti’s. My best friends. Dad was in the Wild Wolves MC same as Ambrose Moretti, and they were best friends.

He took time out for motocross taking us to the different races. All of us were in Motocross when we came of age, and having a blast doing so along with our friends. Our dad’s loved the time with us. Once in a while they would get in on a race or two on their own reliving their golden days. Those were always fun to watch. Each family cheered their father’s on when they raced. Our practice track was on the Deveraux ranch after a bunch of us got into trouble when we were young tearing up the yards in town!

I tried out for sports when I hit junior high, and found I liked football. Tried quite a few positions till I found my mark as a Wide Receiver since I was fast and quick. Able to catch the ball too. Tried a few other sports, settling on just Football and basketball during the school year. My best friend Woody was the QB. His brother Python the center. Our good friend Trace was a Wide Receiver like me. As for Grady who was a Sophomore we finally talked him into being the kicker.

Our senior year with Jacob Garard and Tyler James joining us as Running backs their freshman year. That was one helluva year! We went undefeated, finally taking state! Coach still brags about that year to anyone who will listen to him.

I started dating my childhood best friend Nicole Rosewood when we were in junior high. Her older brother Michael only warned me once before our first date that if I ever hurt her in any way I was a dead man. He was definitely a bit intimidating being her big brother. In the long run though he became one of my best friends. He was only two years older than us.

My senior year I prospected the Wild Wolves MC following in my fathers and ancestor’s footsteps. I became fully patched when I turned nineteen. I was already training to be a High Mountain Ranger by the time I was sixteen too. That was definitely in my blood too, and I took great pride in doing a job that came out good. Rescuing people felt good, and I didn’t do it for the recognition. I did it to help others.

My father remarried right before my senior year to my stepmother Cara Rhodes Thomas and right away they had their first daughter. Laura Beth. I was a big brother again at eighteen. Within two years they had Abigail who we call Abby. She’s my baby sister.

Nicole and I were twenty-one when our first son Zachary was born. A year later we had Teddy, and a year after him our first daughter Tabitha was born. Three years later the twins were born. Heath and Heather. It wasn’t for another four years of trying that we had Caleb. A year later another set of twins were born Kayla and Kendra. Unfortunately there were complications that we almost lost the twins. Nicole I did lose when they weren’t able to stop the hemorrhaging. I totally lost it going off the deep end losing her. She was the love of my life.

I went on a rampage, and only Michael was able to stop me this time. She looked so much like him that I stopped dead in my tracks when he got in front of me. He was crying, and I thought he was going to hit me, but instead he pulled me into his arms where I broke down sobbing. If it wasn’t for him and his wife Zoe, my sisters, and brother in laws I don’t know if I would have made it through that time. The twins were in the Neonatal unit for three months till they were able to come home. They were taking care of me during my grief as well as my six kids.

My parents both died shortly after that. In the same freak accident I lost my dad, mom, stepmom and my mom's girlfriend. A truck driver lost control of his rig going through an intersection when he tried to beat the red light. My parents were at different stoplights from one another, but the debris and the explosion took out cars in all four directions killing quite a few that day. I was only a few blocks away, and saw the aftermath not knowing that my parents had been taken in the accident.

It’s been thirteen years and it hasn’t gotten any easier with the grief. Every time I look into the faces of my children I see her. It hurts, but yet it’s so refreshing at the same time. I live for my kids now. There will probably never be another woman in my life. There’s no one that could replace Nicole. Not even a one night stand. Nor the divorced women in the PTA at school. Believe me they have tried, and I run for the hills. I still love being a High Mountain Ranger, but some days it does take its toll on me. I have quite a few years left in me though. Not going to let anything slow me down!