What would you do if you were being pushed from your home because someone else signed papers saying you would move? That’s what happened to the nontreaty Nez Perce.
The Nez Perce tribe is made up of bands. Each band had its own territory, a head chief, elders, medicine man, and families who lived together. They traveled back and forth through each others territories hunting, fishing, trading, and visiting. But they each had their own areas where they wintered, summered and buried their people.
In 1855 the first treaty was signed. This treaty gave the Nez Perce bands nearly all of their territories. But the discovery of gold within those boundaries brought about another treat in 1863. This treaty drastically reduced the reservation and didn’t include several of the larger bands territories. These bands refused to sign the treaty and continued to live on what they considered their homeland.
By 1877 the Indians began feeling the pressure of the whites moving into their land and many tribes warred with the army and killed settlers. The nontreaty Nez Perce continued to try and live with the whites but found it increasingly harder to ignore the whites’ acts against the Nez Perce. July of 1877 as many bands camped together gathering camas, racing horses, and talking of the intrusion of the whites and the army ordering them to the reservation, three young men rode up upon a white man who had killed one of the young men’s uncle. The brave snapped and killed the whiteman. That began the four month long and 1,170 mile march of the Nez Perce to find freedom.
The trilogy follows the Lake Nimiipuu from before the white man arrives in their area- Spirit of the Mountain with a white wolf spirit hero- and right after the whiteman arrives – Spirit of the lake where the bull elk spirit who resides in the lake helps a Nimiipuu maiden prove the traitorous nature of a whiteman believed to be a friend of the Lake Nimmipuu, to the third book - Spirit of the Sky, Sa-qan’s story.
Sa-qan and her brothers, Himiin and Wewukiye were made spirits by the Creator after their father’s greed killed the warriors of their village. Centuries later the three find themselves attracted to mortals and experiencing emotions they only felt when mortal.
When the US Army forces the Nimiipuu from their land, Sa-qan, the eagle spirit entrusted with watching over her tribe, steps in to save her mortal niece. Challenging the restrictions of the spirit world, Sa-qan assumes human form and finds an unexpected ally in a handsome cavalry officer.
Certain she is a captive, Lt. Wade Watts, a Civil War veteran, tries to help the blonde woman he finds sheltering a Nez Perce child. While her intelligent eyes reveal she understands his language, she refuses his help. But when Wade is wounded, it is the beautiful Sa-qan who tends him. Wade wishes to stop the killing—Sa-qan will do anything to save her people.
Can their differences save her tribe? Or will their love spell the end of the Nimiipuu?
She is a member of RWA, EPIC , and COWG. She’s had eleven books and a short story published so far and is venturing into the new world of self-publishing ebooks. Her contemporary Western, Perfectly Good Nanny won the 2008 Eppie for Best Contemporary Romance and Spirit of the Mountain, a historical paranormal set among the Nez Perce, garnered 1st place in the paranormal category of the Lories Best Published Book Contest.
You can learn more about her at her blog:www.patyjager.blogspot.com; her website: www.PatyJager.net or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/paty.jager and Twitter: @patyjag. Contest! At each stop I’m giving away a $5 Amazon gift certificate to a lucky commenter.
Each blog stop has a picture of an eagle in the post. Follow the tour and send me the number of different pictures you saw while following the tour. If there is more than one correct entry I’ll draw a winner on May 21st to receive a $25 gift certificate to either Barnes and Nobles or Amazon, a handmade custom ereader cover, and chocolate.