This book is an incredible account of the life and times of Mary Jemison, a white woman taken captive during the French and Indian War and adopted into the Seneca tribe of the Iroquois in western New York. This tale covers her more than 70 years living among them through many of the most vital years of the long history of the Iroquois Confederacy.

In November 1823, when she was in her 80s, Mary Jemison, at the urging of many of the friendly local inhabitants, gave her amazing life story to James Seaver to publish for posterity. Though his truthfulness in some details of that account has often been called into question, this book is one of the most important and complete of any of the Indian captivity narratives to come out of the period between the French and Indian War and the War of 1812, which most historians mark as the end of the period of influence of the Eastern Woodland tribes. This account gives unequalled insight into the Seneca Indians and their ways including religion, food, hunting, warfare, culture, etc.

Mary had many opportunities to leave the Indians and return to white civilization but chose not to do so and thus was witness to some of the most amazing events in the history of her adopted people. Her tale is important to not only historians and ethnologists, but to the general public itself as it is a truly amazing story of triumph and tragedy for a proud people struggling to survive in the face of overwhelming odds as a young United States continued to expand, forever extinguishing their way of life.

Book is fascinating reading, in terms of the history that's revealed in the words of Mary Jemison, but also in terms of James Seaver who gave us his own version of her story. This book is a layering of historical periods, and with the help of the editing, you can peer through and see not only the period of Mary Jemison's captivity, but also the prejudices of the period directly following. An interesting example of the simultaneous respect and loathing with which the early settlers viewed the native inhabitants.

They say if you visit New York State you will find her descendants; many native-americans have her last name. Taken captive; her parents killed - Mary becomes part of a native-american family. She married a Delaware (Lenape) warrior, with whom she was very content and has many children. This is a dramatic, true story, told in her own words. She is in her 80's, and reminisces about her unusual life.

Tired of the same old stories? Fed up with people always recommending Grisham, Patterson, and Clancy novels to you? Break the mold with West River.

This collection of capitaviting stories from the American West retraces history in an honest and accurate fashion. The beatuy of this book is the wide spectrum of perceptions expressed within its pages. Reading stories about the interactions of settelers and Native Americans from different perspectives enlightens the reader in a way that few other books do.

However, I am even more impressed with the level of documentation in this book than I am with the stories told in it. I feel as though I have been given a special looking glass that provides me with an honest, impartial view of the past--truly a great gift.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone seeking truth and beauty within American History.

West River is a wonderful book filled with interesting stories and anectdotes from the early history of the American West. Its treatment of Native American and White Settler relations is refreshingly honest and extremely well documented.

Simpson's West River brings to light many exciting, thought-provoking, and poignant stories of the American West that have not made it into our traditional history text books. The more I read about them in this book, the more I wished that I had been able to learn this side of history earlier. They are great stories and an important part of our country's heritage.

Simpson's unique style of writing also makes you feel as if you are hearing the stories being told by the people who lived during the time. And his careful documentation is equally impressive.

I would recommend this book to anyone - especially those who are interested in the forgotten stories of our western history in the great plains.

West River is a wonderful book filled with interesting stories and anectdotes from the early history of the American West. Its treatment of Native American and White Settler relations is refreshingly honest and extremely well documented.

Simpson's West River brings to light many exciting, thought-provoking, and poignant stories of the American West that have not made it into our traditional history text books. The more I read about them in this book, the more I wished that I had been able to learn this side of history earlier. They are great stories and an important part of our country's heritage.

Simpson's unique style of writing also makes you feel as if you are hearing the stories being told by the people who lived during the time. And his careful documentation is equally impressive.

I would recommend this book to anyone - especially those who are interested in the forgotten stories of our western history in the great plains.

As an American living in the southern Amazon basin, near the Xingu Indian Reserve, I unfortunately can attest to the truth in Mr. O'Conner's writings. He manages to give one a glimpse of what it is like to exist in this lawless, confusing frontier. To capture the flavor of this land of anarchy truly is difficult but the author does a superb job in transforming the vagueness of this bizarre and mystical frontier into words.

Mr. O'Conner, thank you for putting my thoughts into print. The grand Amazon is under serious attack and ,in my region especially, is being leveled at an exponential rate. Someone please do something.

O'Connor's brilliance is that he combines a writing style that simply engages the reader with a the knowledge that he can't and doesn't know all that there is to know about his topic. He brings together several issues and introduces many intriguing characters (Rauni, Kenny Good, Davi, just to name a few). The combination of the political ineptitude of the Indian organizations and the skewed perception of the Religious affiliates in the Amazon create an overwhelming amount of obsticals for objective journalism. O'Connor reports what happens from the viewpoint of a jounalist that knows he is part of the problem. I have come into contact with Venezuelan Yanomama and have seen first hand the impact that contact has made. O'Connor's unbias journalism is a releif from all of the news specials, and talk-show trash that seems to abound with the "Save the Rainforest" campaign. Read this book if you want a true report of what is happening to the last remaining independent people in the world. The truth is that contact with "white" people has braught innumerable destruction to this once self-sufficient society and Geoffrey O'Connor is not affraid to tell that side of the story.

Certainly this book is "about" the following: Pima Indians Ethnobotany Gila River Valley (N.M. and Ar Native American Anthropology Nature / Field Guide Books Science Botany Native American Studies - Tribes Plants...

...but it is really a glowing absorption of the essences of life as only those who still live in what's left of this earth's eden can truly and fully know. Rea perhaps brings this through to the reader better than any writer, poet, or other artist in history. This book is not just a "gem" or some other catchy adjective from the "How to Review a Book" manual--it is a true treasure, a legacy more valuable to the priceless "things" of life than all the dusty gold from King Tut's tomb. It is a ocean of pearls cast before the multitudes, hoping, perhaps, to snare a fertile, vigorous mind or two... You will laugh deeply. You will cry unrepentantly. You will revel in the invigorating joy of discovery. No matter who you are or how you make your way in this world, the spirit of this book will touch that secret something in you that you thought you would never find anywhere else...

I just want to let people know that At the Desert's Green Edge was awarded the Klinger Book Award by the Society for Economic Botany. This is according to an announcement in the members' publication for the San Diego Natural History Museum, where Dr. Rea is a research associate.

This book grabs your attention in the first few pages and keeps you hooked until the end. Historical facts back up a believable story that you can relate to. Action and emotion are in every chapter and keep the reader up late reading just one more chapter. The heroine, Emma Jordan, is a survivor of the best kind. The book gives us a glimpse of life in the old frontier and the American spirit that made this country great.

I got a copy of this book directly from the author. I read it in just two days! What a great story! The pace of the book was very fast and exciting, while being a very moving story. Now, I want to buy more books for friends and family. I loved the story. It was interesting, unpredictable and most of all, very well written. The characters were the kind that stick with you long after you've finished the book. I recommend this book to anyone who loves GOOD, no, GREAT historical fiction! Buy it and you'll see!

This is the most informative book that I have read regarding the Catawba Indians. My great grandmother was cherokee/catawba and lived on Indian Land in Fort Mill/Lancaster SC.

I have been trying to purchase this book even though it is "out of print". I keep hoping there will be a reprint, AND for those who have Indian heritage, this is a very good book for you to read. Very, very in-depth of Native American sufferings. "The Trail of Tears" and "The Catawba Indians: People of the River" are great books regarding our Native American Heritage.

I found the Kimbrells/Kimballs in it and my Kimbrell heritage is in the book. 5th great uncles were the first white men to speak Souian, Iriquorian, Saponi Indian languages for the early Virginia Colony. I am lucky to have read this book, which inspired me to seek out the Kimbrell Geneology.

I had no idea who The People of the River were, until I read the first page of Mrs. Summers book, she clarified and expanded my knowledge of these great people immensely. A cousin had informed me of my Catawba Roots, and I was desperately searching for some clue, and Mrs. Summers guided me throughout the book, in a historical and personal journey into the trials and tribulations of Indian life in the Carolina's. Her statements of facts, and her historical knowledge of the area and people of this great nation is unmatched. It is my hope that I one day find a copy of this great book, to mark the start of my own personal journey.

Dan Whipple's Click incorporates all the elements of a well-written mystery-suspense novel with a subtle underlying humor that will keep you smiling.
A murder investigation in small town Wyoming induces free-lance photographer/protagonist McClary to raise a skeptical eyebrow at investigator Lt. Oldman. When McClary's best friend joins the growing list of victims, the stakes are raised for this artist/observer.
Along the trail to the solution of these seemingly small town, small time murders, McClary hooks up with a New Jersey redhead currently working as a reporter for the only in-state newspaper enjoying statewide circulation. When the two witness the assassination of a national political figure (from Wyoming, of course), the ante ratchets up and then Reporter Nadia Bzdak is kidnapped by the conspirators.
The tension is appropriately and skillfully balanced by an underlying tone of light amusement which seems to pose the question: "how imporant can anything in Wyoming really be?"
(Mr. Whipple needn't have left the state before publishing this gem- many of us here share the same view.)
The perfect book with which to spend a winter evening by the fireside forgetting-- for a few hours-- the world's tensions.

Finally, a book Wyoming can be proud of. Dan Whipple pays attention and gives us book with the people we know and love in Wyoming. Who would have ever thought Wyoming had personalities and politics worthy of detective novel status?

Better than watching reruns of Northern Exposure, "Click" is full real people and politics revealed to us one snapshot at a time. I loved our sloppy but savvy,loner/photographer/amature detective, he made me laugh out loud and I felt a page turning obiligation to help him get to the bottom of things.

Somehow Dan manages to get every Wyoming joke I ever heard into the book without portraying all of us as undereducated bumpkins. Well, he does work in the famous cookie episode.

And the best part is, he gives us a heroine of magnificent quality. Not easy for a guy. Although Dan says characters in the book are fictional, I like thinking these folks are my neighbors. Thank you Dan. Read this book.

This two-volume series was my inroduction to Paul Horgan who became one of my favorite authors. It is interesting to note he and Frank Waters ('the Man who Killed the Deer') died recently just two weeks apart. They were both 92, and among the greatest authors who dealt with the Rio Grande. Mr. Hogan's dedication to detail set him apart from Willa Cather whose fame rests upon her book 'Death comes to the Archbishop,' using Lamy as her subject. She rejected the aproach of Paul Horgan who at the time was writing his own history, 'Lamy of Santa Fe.' Willa Cather was a novelist; Paul Horgan an historian, and of the two I prefer the truth. Anyone interested in the history of the Rio Grande will be delighted with Paul Horgan's two-volume introduction to it.

One of the major materpieces of American historical writing. The two volumes are a continuing delight, far better than any historical novel. Scene succeds scene, filled with movement, passion and unbelievable heroism. Won the Pulitzer and Bancroft Prizes for History, and is considered the greatest history of the Rio Grande from pre-Columbian time to mid 20th century.

This interpretation of the life of Mary Jemison as written by
Ranya M. Gangi is wonderful. It is one of the few versions that is actually approved by the Seneca Nation, and also features an epilogue by Pete Jemison, who I met along with Wanda Jemison as a small child. This story of Mary Jemison is focused on the harsh reality that occured when she was captured in Pennsylvania and given as a gift to the Seneca's to replace a fallen brother. Gangi's interpretation of this story teaches us many unknown facts about Jemison as well as the Seneca Indians, which people may be unaware of. After reading this touching story, I went to Letchworth State Park where Ms. Jemison is buried to pay my respect to this local heroine. This book is the best version of Jemison's life that I have read, and I strongly reccomend it for all ages.

Underrated and profound! Much more than a children's book. The story, the spirituality, and the simplicity/truth of style make this book a compelling read for anyone from age 9-100.

I wasn't sure if I liked it at first, and almost gave up on it. Instead I kept at it, and once I was past the first couple of chapters or so I found that I began to enjoy the story. I became interested enough in the characters to want to know what was going to happen to them. And interested enough to want to follow the story to see where it was going. I didn't, perhaps, enjoy it quite as much as some of the Tony Hillerman books, but the series does have some very positive possibilities.

You can't go wrong with any of the Margaret Coel books. They are enjoyable to read and you can hardly believe when you've come to the end that it came so quickly. Fortunately, you can buy them all and continue to the next one in the series. These people become as real to you as your own friends. Don't stop at one - get them all.

An unlikely couple of sleuths team up in this mystery to uncover murder and theft. Father John O'Malley, a Jesuit priest at the Wind River Indian Reservation, gets "his nose into other people's business" and so begins a caper that already has three sequels. His alter-ego help comes from Vicky, the Arapaho Lawyer, surnamed Woman Alone. Their disparent skills become all that is needed in finding out the murderer and the one responsible for the great land theft against the Arapaho Nation.

But what makes this unusual novel so likeable is its rich respect for two faiths and cultures: the Native-Americans and the Jesuit priests. Coel provides a synthesis of faith in the midst of an entertaining mystery and that is talent. And it makes the reading of the tale a multi-level experience of pleasure.