This is one of the most powerful tarots I have ever worked with. Not only is it good for divination, but it also gives you positive affirmations, and even some ritual ideas for getting your own answers. If you are on a spiritual path that favors divination and self exploration this is a must have.

My favorite tarot deck was the OSHO Zen Tarot, but the Sweat Lodge cards are much more powerful. These cards gave me an insight into a meditation and riutal that I should do. It was one to heal and calm. Well I couldn't figure out what it was about, but soon dicovered why I needed it. I highly recommend this deck.

I found this deck in a 80% off bin in a bookstore. How could I go wrong, as an avid tarot and card collector. I had never heard of the deck, but once i got home and opened it, i was in for a real awakening. I had absolutely no idea how intuitive these cards would be. They are a great tool for self reflection and growth, and come with an informative book, and beautifully illustrated. A great tool for anyone interested in spirituality, or self discovery. I am fortunate to have gotten them for such a deal, but with what I have learned from using them, I would consider then a great buy at full price.

When I read Cotton's first Jeston Nash novel, I thought it was the best non-Louis Lamour western I'd ever read. Powder River's content is less graphic than his first, and even more entertaining. One almost begins to feel sorry for Jeston; but luckily the misanthrope manages to let his true greedy nature show through. The two anti-heroes (Jeston Nash and Quiet Jack) are the biggest thing to stagger out of the west since US Grant!

This is the kind of western I always look for but hardly ever find. Ralph Cotton tells it like it is when it comes to the government and what they did to the sioux indians. Once I started reading it and seeing the war from both sides, I realized this was no ordinary western. Sometimes the language is a little strong but that's easy to overlook for a person who enjoys real life like stories

I didn't think another western could top While Angels Dance, but Powder River does. It is more like watching a Sam Peckinpaw movie than reading a book. Cotton is one heck of a writer with a lot to say. These are the kind of westerns that I've been looking for

From her descriptions of the wind, to the grasses, to the hardships, Ann Daum captured South Dakota's reality on paper. Every chapter lends truths to the prairie and our lives here. Thanks, Ann.

My life has many parallels to Ann Daum's; my life could have been hers. I grew up on a farm/ranch in central North Dakota, went out of state for college, came home to try to make a living, enjoy traveling and the wonders of the rest of the world, but am always drawn back to the northern Great Plains. Nowhere is the phrase "Hope springs eternal" better personified than in the lives of farmers and ranchers on the northern Great Plains. Daum captures this. Despite devastating losses of livestock, hail storms, floods and grasshopper plagues, farmers and ranchers believe next spring will be better, there might be a bumper crop and the next winter can't be so harsh. This hope strains marriages, finances and families. Daum also wonderfully and painfully captures the contradictions between the love of pets and baby calves and the war against predators and ultimate demise of all farm animals. I, fortunately, did not have some of the negative experiences that Daum did, but I saw them in others, heard of them and empathize. Walt Whitman wrote, "The Plains, while less stunning at first sight, last longer, fill the esthetic sense fuller, precede all the rest and make North America's characteristic landscape." Daum supports this statement. Anybody who enjoyed this book might want to read "Dakota: A Spiritual Geography," by Kathleen Norris. Also, for a different, more fact based, perspective of the Great Plains, "Where The Buffalo Roam: The Storm Over the Revolutionary Plan to Restore America's Great Plains," by Anne Matthews.

Minneapolis Star-Tribune Regional Round-up, June 24, 2001: "Daum's writing is lyrical, haunted by mortality, and so detailed you can almost feel the dust and heat. With great feeling, she captures a place where 'loneliness is just another disease.'"

Forward Magazine, July Issue: "This land, the prairie is not just in her eyes-it's in her soul in this slender but weighty first book."

If it were possible to give this one more than 5 stars, I would. This author actually gets BETTER with each sequel! Carrie Brown, affectionately called "Red Bird" by her old friend Soaring Eagle (that was the second book in the series -- read that one first, or "Red Bird" will lose you), has dreamed for years of marrying Soaring Eagle when she grows up. But is that GOD'S plan for her life? The reader asks that question over and over, as Carrie tries desperately to "maneuver herself" in a position to marry Soaring Eagle, all the while praying that he remains single until she's old enough. But what should she REALLY be praying for?

This one is truly the best in the series.

Number 3 in this series is the best yet... and I thought the other 2 were great! Don't read the end first, but it touches the soul. I have read it over and over. Godlyness (if there is such a word?) makes the romance even better than expected. Must Read!

Little Carrie Brown is a young lady with plans of her own. Soaring Eagle is an educated, dedicated Christian Indian man without a wife. Life is hard, smallpox wipes out a town and a dream. In the end, many memories are revisited! This series is superb! Stephanie, you did a great job! Is there more coming?

Latza's "Back on the Farm" is a terrific piece of work! Whether you grew up on a farm or just admire the lifestyle, this is a book you won't want to miss. Beautiful, thought provoking photos, combined with creative and informative captions and a fantastic foreword by Terry Woster, this book has it all.

I would like to thank Greg for taking me back to the farm. I grew up about 10 miles from Greg's farm. Having lived on the farm as a young child and then selling the farm as the prices dropped in the '80's, was not uncommon. Living in Mitchell was still not close enough to the country. I worked at my uncles Dairy farm whenever I got time. It did not matter if he paid me or not. I just enjoyed viewing God's Country. I am now living in Houston, TX and miss the smell of fresh cut alfalfa in the morning or a calf's first wobbly step. This book took me back for a moment in time. I want to thank Greg once again for the beautiful book. The pictures do justice to our beautiful state and people. You can put a man in TEXAS but you can't take the South Dakotan out of him.....

This book not only rivals most of the Day in the Life books but could be compared to anything that you see in National Geographic. Mr. Latza has an eye and a heart for his state. Bravo Greg, when is the next book coming out.

Mangum, the Superintendent of the Little Big Horn (LBH) battlefield writes a portrayal of the Crook's campaign against the Sioux that culminates in the Battle of the Rosebud 8 days prior to Custer's attack. Since the LBH is roughly 30 miles southeast of the LBH, Mangum is extraordinarily familiar with the battlefield that still looks like it did 134 years ago. The book covers Crook's earlier March campaign where he was first in the field which peaked at a failed attempt to destroy a predominately Cheyenne village which also included some Sioux on the Powder. Crook again restarts in June with almost 200 Shoshone and Crow allies. As Mangum expertly retells the battle, Crook is surprised while encamped leisurely along Rosebud Creek on June 17. Mangum notes that Crook was similarly surprised also with great consequences in the battle of Cedar Creek in 1864 where he was surprised by Jubal Early. In the description of the battle, Mangum points out that if it wasn't for the Shoshone and Crow who spotted the Sioux and Cheyenne first relatively distant from camp while also absorbing the initial attack, Crook's command may have been destroyed. The allies gave Crook's troopers a chance to prepare for the attack. Crook's forces, which included mule mounted infantry and miners, stemmed the attack but as Mangum points out, the Sioux seemed to come at Crook from three sides from the high ground to the north. After Crook seems to control the battle, Colonel Royall with his calvary battalion rolls up the Indian right so successfully, his enthusiasm isolates himself from Crook allowing the Sioux and Cheyenne to consolidate against him requiring a furious battle of retrograde movements causing the most severe casualties of Crook's forces. Mangum states that Crook was in peril with Royall's potential collapse because Crook sent off another battalion to the Indian's left in search of their village that was not in the immediate area as perceived. Only the recall of Mills saves the day but the Sioux and Cheyenne have initiated enough casualties and psychological harm to cause Crook to retire and take over a month to retrofit his command. I was at the Rosebud site in 1999 and had I read Mangum's book with the terrain maps, my tour would have been far more beneficial. The battlefield today is a State park and the modest valley that Crook stopped in on June 17 looks is framed with high hills and interesting landmarks like Conical Hill. This is a great book about a key battle that indicated that the Sioux and Cheyenne were agressive in defending their village which was overlooked by all of Sheridan's generals. This battle besmirched Crook's otherwise great post Civil War career.

Between the confusion typical of any engagement and the scarcity of surviving testimony, it may be that no definitive account of any Euro-American vs. American Indian battle can ever be produced. However, Neil Mangum has produced a through, balanced, and convincing book that is as close as any such work may ever come to being authoritative.

This is by far the most intriguing and accurate book I have read concerning the Rosebud. Neil Mangum's writing is accurate and a complete joy to read.

The author is the youngest of six children of hard-working Norwegian-speaking parents, and the account of the struggles her parents went thru is awesome. Sometimes I thought the author indulged in hyperbole, and I would have appreciated a little more exactitude, but it no doubt is true that life during the twenties and thirties in northwestern North Dakota was a hard and demanding one. The first part of this book is the best, as the author relates the fantastic efforts necessary for the kids to be educated. There is a lot of discussion of Norwegian food, and those of you who are of Norwegian descent will gobble that talk up, but for me I could not get too interested in how her mother went to extraordinary lengths to prepare, under primitive conditions, the food she was so good at concocting. There is less talk of the interesting political events during the time than I would have liked. Appam, North Dakota, which was apparently a home town to the family during these years, has, according to my 1958 atlas, a population of 18. I would like to have learned whether it was a bigger place when the author was a child. But the upbeat attitude to her childhood was a real plus for this book--not the dreary catalog of hardship one sometimes gets from depression sagas. I liked this book.

I stumbled on this book in a used book store. It is the amazing story of the author's parents and their life in rural North Dakota. The book has adventures, anecdotes, and gives the reader a real sense of how families existed in the early 20th century. This was a very entertaining story, although perhaps you can't tell from this review. None of us who have read it could put it down, from my 78 year old mom to my sister who is reading it to her 7 year old daughter.

I loved this book. Its a compendium of short pieces about the author's mother, who was a frontier woman with a wonderful outlook on life. I also loved the descriptions of her husband, who had to drive the children through snow, to get to their respective schools, and the descriptions about how the kids were settled in the schoolhouse overnight, while wild mustangs banged against the door. I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I would send my children to a schoolhouse way far away, with food for a week. Can you imagine what they did after school let out... all by themselves? I wanted to hear more about this. The descriptions of quilting are wonderful.It is a great book if you are in the mood to feel cold, hungry, and in North Dakota with the snow beating down upon you. Also if you enjoy descriptions of sumptuous meals at holidays, replete with Norwegian recipes!

Book 3 in Red River of the North opens with Penny writing to the absent Hjelmer who has fled the area to avoid a "shotgun wedding" trick. Even though he is young and immature, he is a hard worker with an eye for the future and inside information on the plans of the railroad. Kaaren delivers twins, nearly dying. One twin is not healthy and Lars cannot accept his deaf daughter. School is in full swing in the prairie schoolhouse, with Kaaren as teacher.

Ingeborg and Haaken travel a far distance by train to escort home the seriously injured younger sister of Kaaren. Solveig is a bitter, disappointed young woman who was on her way to join her sister, but whose future is crushed in a train wreck. Face scarred and barely walking, she goes home with Ingeborg and Haaken. Olaf, Kaaren's long lost uncle, mysteriously turns up after a long absence and his many talents make him useful and loved.

Penny has finally decided to travel to Fargo for work and further schooling. The farms continue to progress - a large wooden barn now graces the homestead of Ingeborg who gives birth to another baby, Haaken's first biological child. Metiz continues to weave in and out of the lives of the pioneer families. Her grandson, Baptiste, stays with his friend Thorliff to go to school and help with the farm work.

As much as she balks, Ingeborg gives up her plowing and hunting after teaching young Thorliff to take her place. As usual, tragedy does not pass over them without leaving scars. A tragic fire, blizzards and failing farms cause loss of life and dreams. Agnes give birth to a stillborn daugher. She harbors intensive anger toward Hjelmer for hurting her dear niece, Penny.

The railroad is coming and the time for proving up their land arrives. Both the Bjorkland widows are remarried with families. Extra people share both homes now. A large sack house stores their grain for direct loading on the train.

The book ends with their town becoming a water stop for the railroad, a real town with a real name, Blessing. In spite of the author's confusion with family relationships and forgetting Kaaren's married name, book 3 still deserves 4 stars.

There is much happiness and hope in this book. Ingeborg's marriage to Haakan is a wonderful blessing to her and her children. There are some new characters to add spice to the books and the discovery of Grace's deafness to add tears, but Kaaren and Ingeborg's faith continues to grown in the face of the difficulties that come from farming and joys of proving up their homesteads.

I am giving this book five stars because this series is eons better than others I have read. The characters are human, quirky, and loveable. Their struggle to tame the land is not glossed over as it is in so many historical novels. Even the details of their everday life ring true.

However, having read the first four books, I have a few questions. What is the order of the Baards' children? In the course of _A Land to Call Home_, Gus is older than Rebecca but then Rebecca is older than Gus. Do the Valders have children or not? In this book they do but in book four they do not, if I remember correctly. Finally, Penny is Agnes' neice, so why is she referred to in book four as Agnes' daughter's aunt rather than cousin?

Perhaps I am too picky, but I am honestly puzzled by these small discrepancies in a series so finely written otherwise.

Starts with a bang. Can't put it down. Edge of your seat drama featuring missionaries confronting Dakota culture and God's grace working in and through and in spite of them all. Agonize with Simon Dane's years of frustration with a fruitless ministry and his fall from a pedestal to become a mere mortal. Struggle with Genevieve LaCroix as she comes to terms with her French father's thinking, her Indian mother's looks, a white man's God who does not fight back, and the making of a man for Daniel Two Stars. Stephanie Whitson makes you care about the people caught in a gruesome slice of history. Janet Chester Bly, [...]

Valley of the Shadow is the story of the Dane family, Simon, a man of God who feels led to work with the Dakota Indians, his wife Ellen and two chilren. In a related storyline, Genvieve is the daughter of a French trapper and Dakota Indian who meets the Danes and becomes their friend and later companion after she arrives at their mission. Two Stars is a Dakota Indian who also finds himself with the Danes, but for an entirely different reason than wanting education and spiritual instruction. Central to the story is the Dakota uprising, with Gen and Two Stars especially proving their bravery. As Gen and Two Stars begin to fall in love, events in the story constantly interfere to keep them apart. The conclusion of Valley of the Shadow will make you anxiously await the sequel.

An engaging tale of Romans 8:28. Stephanie Grace Whitson creates a haunting story of hope in the midst of death, peace in the midst of war, comfort in the midst of loneliness. An encouragement to anyone walking in their own valley of shadows. --Lisa Samson, author of The Church Ladies.

Gray provides an outstanding insight into all troop movements before and after the showdown at the Little Big Horn. He is particularly harsh in his assessments of Col. John Gibbon, Gen. George Crook, and Capt. Frederick Benteen. On the other hand he is fairly charitable to Maj. Marcus Reno while others have been more critical of Reno. He fairly glows in his treatment of Custer.

As with many historians in their treatment of the Battle of Little Big Horn, he jumps to dogmatic conclusions fairly easily when he seeks to cast blame (as on Benteen for "dawdling") and when he attributes to Custer the wise deployment of his troop resources. See for example at page 177: "---he (Custer) was relieved to see that Reno had halted to form a skirmish line and was only lightly engaged. He should now be able to hold out until Custer's larger force could get into action". Gray does not tell us how he managed to communicate with Custer in the after life in order to ascertain these feelings of Custer. He further ignores the testimony of John Martin (the trumpeter who took the message to Benteen) to the court of inquiry that Custer exulted over catching the Indians "napping".

In reaching some of these dogmatic conclusions, Gray simply buys into the overstatement of many historians who find some thin support for their fictionalized conclusions.

However, this book is an excellent narrative of the troop and scouting maneuvers leading up to and following the battle. He also writes at the beginning of the book an excellent summary of the cultural conflicts that led to this tragedy for all involved----the soldiers and the Indians.

This is a great book to learn everything about the 1876 Sioux War from the political and economic situations that fueled the conflict (gold and the Black Hills, dissolving the 1868 Peace Treaty), the behavior of the independent Sioux, Grant's ultimatum, the Sheridan three prong attack on the Sioux, the political (Custer and Grant) and weather problems hindering he start of the campaign and General's Crook and Terry's frustrating attempts to catch the Sioux and Cheyenne who fragmented into smaller groups after the Little Big Horn. Also covers Crook's March campaign that resulted in a controversial but failed battle on the Powder River and the critical battle of the Rosebud in June 30 miles southeast of the Little Big Horn which occurred just 8 days prior to Custer's annihilation. Crook, the great Indian fighter with twice Custer's number, becomes displaced out of the Sheridan attack plan due to the furious attack by the Sioux and Cheyenne. Gray also documents how the winter roamers left the agencies to join the summer roamers (Sitting Bull, Gall, Crazy Horse, Two Moon) which peaked with one of the largest villages ever on the North American continent at the time of Custer's attack. The book completes the story by detailing the aftermath of Custer's battle with Crooks and Terry's joint and separate campaigns and the addition of General Nelson Miles. Not a total story on Custer, for that you should read Gray's "Custer's Last Campaign" but start with "Centennial Campaign" to get the complete picture.

In 1981 I made a phone call to a retired medical doctor named John Gray. I told him I had just finished reading his book, CENTENNIAL CAMPAIGN, and would love to talk with him. I figured we would talk on the phone, so I was surprised when he invited me to visit him in his home in Ft. Collins, Colorado. I accepted his invitation without hesitation.

We spent the entire afternoon talking about his book. There was one question that I was anxious to get answered. Why did he write less than a page about the Custer fight itself? Gray didn't really know what happened during that battle, so there really wasn't much to say. I laughed but it made sense.

This book is not about the Custer fight, but about the entire campaign of the Sioux War of 1876 and it is filled with new revelations about the causes and events of this war. Most interesting is Gray's narrative about the White House meeting between Grant and his aides concerning how they should deal with the Sioux problem and why they started a war.

The book is filled with detailed maps of the Indian movements during the campaign, where and when they camped and for how long. The same is done for soldier column movements.

There is an excellent analysis of the size of the warrior force at the Little Bighorn that historians accept to this day. The numbers will surprise you.

If you have not read much on the Sioux war, then I highly recommend this book. You'll learn that the Custer fight was just one of many events of a long brutal, bloody war.