"Walks the Fire", book one of the Prairie Winds series, is the story of Jesse King, young wife and mother, who sets out across the Nebraska prairie, bound for Oregon. When she meets tragedy along the trail, she is taken in by the Lakota people and becomes Walks the Fire.
Book two, Soaring Eagle, continues the story of Jesse's children, LisBeth, who lost her soldier husband at Little Big Horn, and Soaring Eagle, a Lakota warrior who was also part of Custer's Last Stand.
The Lakota Sioux have been forced onto reservations and stripped of their way of life. Soaring Eagle leads a small band of hold-outs struggling to keep the old ways and survive through the winter. One-by-one they give in and head for the Santee Normal School and Mission to be "retrained" or "civilized".
They are thoroughly trained from the very foundation, not only in the ordinary branches of school work, but also in housekeeping—sewing, cooking, washing, etc.,—on the part of the girls (in which, too, the boys join largely), and in farming, carpentry, blacksmithing and shoemaking, on the part of the boys. Not only is this solid practical knowledge given them, but care and time is devoted toward grace and politeness, and all the foundation rules of etiquette. (http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/ammissionary/santee_normal_school.htm)
Eventually, left alone on the prairie, Soaring Eagle also moves to the mission and struggles to accept the loss of his family, his people, and his culture; along with the gift of Christian faith.
To the South, in Lincoln, Nebraska, LisBeth is struggling with her own loss - her husband and mother - and searching for her own faith. A trip to deliver donated supplies to the mission confronts LisBeth with the brother she's never met and who may have killed her husband.
Returning readers may recall from this post or that post, that I am a huge fan of this series by Stephanie Grace Whitson. Even as a re-read, this story touches my heart. I am fascinated with Native American ways and their plight, handed down by my "ancestors" (not directly, assumedly, but still my culture) just makes my heart ache.
This is a beautifully written story that will pull you in and not let you go till you've finished all three books. Now on to book three - Red Bird.
A while back I wrote a post about re-reading favorite books from years past - in particular the Prairie Winds Series by Stephanie Grace Whitson. I remembered this three-book series as being un-put-down-able and that we passed them around my circle of friends as fast as we could read. However, I questioned my memory - I am just a few days past 40, you know - and hesitated to part with the money to re-purchase the lost copies in case they weren't as amazing as I remembered. So, I tracked down the first book, Walks the Fire, through paperback swap and by page thirty I had ordered new copies of the next two for myself and all three for the library. It was every bit as wonderful as I remembered - and I'm so proud of myself for hanging on to a thought for fifteen years!
Walks the Fire is the story of Jesse King, young wife and mother, who sets out across the Nebraska prairie, bound for Oregon. She meets tragedy, friends, death, love, fear... I don't want to spoil the story, but I don't think it's giving away too much (seeing as it's the title of the book) to tell you that Jesse is taken in by the Lakota people and becomes Walks the Fire. Her strength in the face of challenges beyond my imagination, and her unwavering faith in spite of them all, are inspiring. If she can face loss, derision, and learning an entire new culture and language, surely I can cope with car repairs and the Audrey II-type ivy that refuses to loosen it's grip on my house.
Having lived for twelve years on the same Nebraska plains and even longer on the Kansas prairie, I have a special love for pioneer stories and especially for ones that include Native American lore. The second book of the series, Soaring Eagle, picks up the story with Jesse's son. I am eagerly awaitng the UPS man each day so I can dive into the next part of this wonderful journey.
