Blevins, Win
Stone Song : A Novel of the Life of Crazy Horse
1995
400p.
The complex story of the life of Crazy Horse. Scorned because of his pale skin and light, curly hair, Crazy Horse ultimately leads his people to victory in many battles, the most famous being Greasy Grass (known to many readers as Little Big Horn).Belvin’s fictionalized account of Crazy Horse’s life explores his deep connection with his spirit Hawk, and how this guides him. Strong character development and historical content for those interested in Native Americans and the effect of the "white man" on their cultures.

Bonner, Cindy
Lily
1992
336p.
It’s frontier Texas and fifteen-year-old Lily is caught in the middle—she’s old enough to keep house for her widowed father. Take care of her younger siblings and work in the fields, but she’s too young for boyfriends. When she falls madly in love with Marion, brother of the outlaw Beatty Boys, her father and the respectable townsfolk are shocked, forcing her to decide between respectability and love.

Cather, Willa
Death Comes for the Archbishop
1927
299p.
This classic novel is set in the American Southwest in the middle of the 19^th century. Two French missionaries, the sophisticated Jean Marie Latour, newly appointed Vicar of New Mexico, and his friend, the feisty but fragile Father Joseph Vaillant, travel to an area with over 30 different tribes of Indians and Mexicans who are clinging to the rudimentary faith instilled in them 300 years ago by intrepid Franciscan missionaries. It will be a journey for life for these two men as they fight the elements, meet people they will cherish, bring peace and dignity to the inhabitants, and build a presence for the Church, while accommodating the various native cultures.

Coldsmith, Don
The Trail of the Spanish Bit
1980
180p.
Deftly blending elements of family saga and adventure story, this first installment in an on-going series introduces the Elk- Dog People, a tribe of Great Plains Indians who owe their special talents in part to their chance encounter with Juan Garcia, (renamed Heads Off ), a young Spanish officer whose riding mishap forced him to join the tribe for protection, and later for companionship, mutual respect and kinship. Beautifully written, with reverence for the ways of the People, this book explores the shared experiences of seemingly diverse cultures while telling a captivating story.

Edgerton, Clyde
Redeye
1995
245p.
Edgerton, known for his unique novels set in rural North Carolina. Shifts his focus to the American West. Set in Colorado at the turn of the century, the plot is based on a historical incident. (In 1857, Mormons attacked a wagon train of pioneers near Salt Lake City.) With a sharp eye for detail and a dark unusual sense of humor, Edgerton puts his own spin on the tale. A mute grandmother; an anthropologist and his mummy; a Mormon bishop and his wives; a philosopher Indian; and a crazy bounty hunter and his talking pit bull, Redeye are just a few among his colorful cast of characters.

Guthrie, A.B., Jr.
The Big Sky
1947
386p.
Boone Caudill’s journey west, begun in 1830, transforms a young man into a mountain man in this detailed, realistic adventure of the land west of the Missouri River and the white men and Indians who explored and settled it. First in the Big Sky series.

Harrigan, Stephen
The Gates of the Alamo
2000
580p.
In 1911, 91 year-old Terrell Mott participates in San Antonio’s Battle of the Flowers parade and remembers his defense of the Alamo when he was 16. In 1835, Terrell and his mother Mary worked their frontier inn near the Gulf Coast. There they met Edmund McGowan, an American botanist commissioned by the Mexican government to survey the plant life of Texas, rebel William Travis, and Texas leader Sam Houston. Pursuing his emotionally distressed girlfriend, Terrell ends up in San Antonio at the Alamo, as Santa Ana attacks the mission. As the battle rages and the Alamo defenders are killed, the lives of the Americans and Mexicans who are involved are inexorably changed in this panoramic retelling of the battle of the Alamo that blends fictional and real characters.

Henry, Will
The Gates of the Mountains
1963
305p.
President Jefferson appoints Lewis and Clark to explore the 1803 Louisiana Purchase land, map the area, and stake America’s claim. This is the adventure– filled story of that expedition from its base near St. Louis, via the Missouri River by keelboat and canoe more than 2,000 miles to the Rocky Mountains. Told by a young French-Canadian boatman, Francois Rivet, the story gives vivid account of the daily hardships in an unknown country, the life or death suspense of meeting with hostile chiefs and battling Indians, and the role played by Sacajawea.

Holland, Cecelia
Railroad Schemes
1997
217p.
Lily Viner, avid reader, longs for the civilized world of Jane Austen. Instead Lily tramps across the West in the wake of her father, a petty thief. When a stage robbery in Virginia City goes bad and her father is killed, Lily is forced by ruthless outlaw King Callahan to go with him to the Mexican American City of Los Angeles. Eventually Lily feels that she has a home there and begins to settle in, but when Brand, the dogged Southern Pacific Railroad agent from the Nevada stagecoach robbery shows up, Lily’s life is once again thrown into turmoil.

Houston, James D.
Snow Mountain Passage
2001
317p.
In Spring 1846, the California-bound Donner party left Springfield, Illinois, to seek their fortunes in the West. One of the group’s leaders is prosperous James Reed who is later banished from the group after accidentally killing a wagon driver. This novel is the story of Reed and his family. Reed arrives in California and joins a militia fighting the Mexican War. His wife and four young children remain with the wagon train and are forced to spend the harsh winter snowbound high in the Sierras. Their experiences, infamous as they are , are related via the diary of daughter Patty who was seven years-old during that horrific winter. This is both the story of the early years of California and of the doomed Donner party.

Johnston, Terry C.
Seize the Sky
1991
400p.
Part of the Son of the Plains trilogy, this beautifully written fictional account related George Armstrong Custer’s attempt to end the Indian Wars. Set in 1870’s Montana, Civil War hero General Custer and his Seventh Cavalry attack a Sioux village on the Little Bighorn—unaware that Custer’s Cheyenne mistress and their child are in the village at the time of incredible detail from both sides of the battlefield.

Jones, Douglas C.
Season of Yellow Leaf
1983
323p.
The world of the Comanche is presented in vivid and authentic detail in this harrowing story of a ten-year-old white girl captured by an Indian war party in 1838 and raised by the tribe to become a wife and mother. Time passes, and the girl, now renamed Chosen, adjusts to her strange new life. But at some point, will her own people come to reclaim her?

Jones, Robert F.
Deadville
1998
244p.
Dillon and Owen Griffith seek their fortunes in the 1800’s West Owen’s passion for gold leads them to tragedy and costs Owen his freedom, and that of his love, Pine Leaf, who is sold to the Apaches. When the brothers meet again, Owen is obsessed with revenge on t he man who stole his mine and will do anything, including taking Dillon’s son, for vengeance. Told from Dillon’s melancholy perspective as he looks back on the passing of the Old West, this story is filled with vivid descriptions of the landscape, and the characters range from real historic figures, to mountain men, massacres, ambushes and shoot-outs.

Parry, Richard
The Winter Wolf
1996
380p.
For Wyatt Earp, the gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a turning point. He left the old West to find a new, quieter life for himself and his wife Josie in Alaska. One young man however, would not let Earp forget. Nathan Blaylock is the son Earp never knew he had. Mattie Blaylock had been common-law wife to Earp in those days in Tombstone, but addiction to laudanum and her turn to prostitution drove Earp away before Mattie could tell him a baby was coming. Nathan spent most of his life in an orphanage and has just learned of his inheritance: $20,000, but first he must kill Wyatt Earp.

Recknor, Ellen
Prophet Annie: Being the Recently Discovered Memoir of Annie Pinkerton Boone Newcastle Dearborn, Prophet and Seer.
1999
330p.
In 1881, 22 year-old Annie Pinkerton leaves Iowa to marry Arizona millionaire Jonas Newcastle. Annie finds herself suddenly widowed when her 76-year old groom drops dead on their honeymoon. Unwilling to leave such a pretty young bride, Jonas lingers, speaking through Annie to predict the future--from flying machines to the importance of Echinacea. Annie joins P.T. Barnum’s circus, with a Navajo chef (yes, chef) chaperone and tame, African cheetah in tow. She puts on a good public show, but in private she battles diving birds, a lecherous dead husband, and a lobster-armed kidnapper. When a dangerously good-looking outlaw catches her eye. Annie and the late Mr. Newcastle disagree on how a "widow" ought to be wooed.

Rief, Barbara
Against All Odds: The Lucy Scott Mitchum Story
1997
286p.
Lucy and Noah Mitchum with their young daughter Lynette, join a small group of emigrants heading west by wagon train in 1849. Noah, enthusiastic about the move, hones his survival skills as Lucy, less enthusiastic but supportive, holds the family together as the small group faces danger and hardship which only increase for the Mitchums as they split from the rest of the group and head to the Sacramento Valley and the Gold Rush. The wrench of leaving family, friends, and possessions, and the hardships faced along the trail—weather, rattlesnakes, and lack of water, dust, and Indians—are vividly described.

Wheeler, Richard S.
Sierra: A Novel of the California Gold Rush
1996
380p.
It takes sturdy individuals to survive on the American frontier. This narrative follows the adventures of two such young men, one an Iowa farmer seeking gold, the other a soldier who joined the army for a plot of land in California. Wheeler uses a mix of historical persons and fully realized fictional characters, as well as vivid description of the brutal conditions on the westward trails and in the gold mining camps and details of early settlement in California to portray this exciting period in American history.

Wood, Jane Roberts
The Train to Estelline
1987
227p.
Schoolteacher, Lucinda Eliza Richards has always longed for adventure. On August 17, 1911, she begins her journey to be the new schoolteacher in small town Estelline, Texas. Written in epistolary form, Lucinda pours out her heart and experiences as she encounters poverty, generosity, racism, chauvinism, and respect. She learns the value of friendship and grows to have a deeper understanding of the small community in which she lives.