Blackfoot Crossing: A Novel of Early Canada (PB) (2019)

It is 1873 on the Canadian prairies and there is an uneasy peace between the Sioux, the Cree, and the Blackfoot Confederacy. Young Tahnea, a "half-breed" raised by a bitter Dacotah mother and a violent and unpredictable fur trader who is not her father, finds herself alone in the world when her mother dies. Eager to make her own way, she rejoins her Dacotah family and embarks on a plan to avenge herself on the man who abused her and get her family the guns they need to defend themselves against their enemies.

But when she is betrayed by a man she knew she should never have trusted she must find help in the most unlikely places: from Jerry Potts, a Metis trader, translator, and guide; from Sikimi, intense, unpredictable, compelling, and a war chief of the Sioux who have only just begun to negotiate peace with her people; and from Crowfoot, chief of the Blackfoot Confederacy, a man who, more than anything, wants what is best for his people. Meanwhile around her the buffalo are dying, political tensions are rising between the bands, the white settlers, and the Metis, and everything is changing.

Swept along by the tides of war and peace, politics and violence can Tahnea find a place to belong?

Author Norma Sluman tells the story of Crowfoot and the people who lived in Saskatchewan and Alberta during the "winning" of the Canadian North-West with depth, empathy, and honesty. This is both a love story and a dispassionate look at a part of Canadian history which has often been ignored or obscured.