In the beginnig of the book Winnetou a German immigrant comes to America where he stayed with a German family that took care of him for a while while he tutored the family kids. When Bud makes friends with the town gunsmith, the gunsmith who wants him to practice with the heaviest gun he in the shop because Bud always says how he used to shoot back in Germany. When the gunsmith sees how skill full Charlie “Bud” as everyone calls him is at shooting, riding unriden horses and using measurment instruments. The gunsmith wants Bud to become a surveyor of the new Western lands where the government want to make a train to go from the East to the Western part of the United Staes.

In the middle of the book Bud and the Survey crew including hs mentor Sam Hawkens and thier freinds survey the land that they were supposed to until, they get attacked by a wild Grey mountain Grizzlie bear. Bud kills him with just a knife. They meet an Indian Winnetou, Inshu-Chuna, and Kilki-Petra who was a white man turned Apache Indian. The Indians tell them that they have to stop measuring the land or they will be killed. When Kilki-Petra gets killed by one of the crew party men becuase the son of the Chief Winnetou punched him. And Kelki-Petra too kthe bullet intended for Winnetou. This makes the indians mad. They go back home to come with a bigger army. But the crew makes friends with another indian tribe on the war path with the Apache an so they ambush the Apache. The Tribe Chief of the Apache and his son Winnetou are taken prisoners and are freed by Bud because he promised Kilki that he wou