The Sacred Path of Tears

The Sacred Path of Tears is a journal written by a young Cheyenne woman, nicknamed Mokee, during the Indian Wars in Kansas in the late 1860s. When we first meet Mokee, she is a fourteen-year-old with a quirky, self-deprecating sense of humor. She is a young innocent caught in the middle of an escalating war, which seems to have no resolution. Thrown into circumstances beyond her control, she quickly matures into a young woman searching for a path of peace in her war-torn world.

After Mokee and her companion observe the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado, they warn the other Cheyenne camps, which are wintering along the Smoky Hill River in Kansas. After their mission is done, the two friends take cover in a barn near Salina, Kansas, where they are discovered and held at gunpoint by a widow and her two sons. Mokee, with her smattering of English expressions and infectious smile, talks their way out of trouble and into a meal in the farmhouse.

Hating war, Mokee, because of her lighter skin coloring, temporarily finds a safe haven with the widow's family, and she finds a mentor in the refined and well-educated widow. Her companion, however, can't accept the help of a woman he stubbornly calls the enemy, and he leaves to seek revenge for the deaths at Sand Creek. Unknown to Mokee, he joins a roving band of Cheyenne Dog Soldiers. As her life unfolds, Mokee finds herself torn between two cultures at war and the two men she loves, one a white settler and the other, her Cheyenne companion she always dreamed of marrying.

The Sacred Path of Tears is the first book in a new series called The Indian Path Series. Each book in the historical romance series will focus on a different Native American tribe during the Indian Wars in the late 1800s, and the lives of fictional characters will be woven into the true events of the wars. The theme of The Indian Path Series is the commonality of the human experience and how people in all centuries deal with the age-old struggle to find their life's purpose and follow a path of peace, courage, and love in spite of the troubled times in which they live.

The Secret Path of Destiny

In The Secret Path of Destiny, a young, disabled, German-American girl, named Isolde, and her destitute mother reach out for a lifeline being offered by a widower in the German town of Fredericksburg, Texas in 1865. The two travel from New York City into the heart of Comancheria, the homeland of the Comanche just as war is brewing with Native Americans. Because the Germans made a separate peace treaty with the Comanche, Fredericksburg is an oasis of peace in a turbulent landscape of war.

In a series of strange twists, life becomes incomprehensible for Isolde. First, she is befriended by a Comanche Indian whose peaceful village borders Fredericksburg. Their friendship grows, but he leaves to become a warrior with a different Comanche band at war with the white soldiers. Then her new community begins comparing her to an adulterous fictional character in a new Wagnerian opera called Tristan and Isolde, and some of her new German classmates even ridicule her disability.

But in the worst twist of fate, her mother’s new employer becomes her stepfather, and Isolde realizes he’s a calculating man, not to be trusted. It’s not the Comanche Isolde comes to fear, but her stepfather’s growing obsession with her; she’s forced to make a life-changing decision to escape. Desperate, Isolde seeks refuge with her Comanche friend’s warring band; however, her wicked stepfather refuses to let her go, and he pursues her across Texas, turning her life upside down.

After nearly dying in the conflict, Isolde is later kidnapped for revenge and faces a terrifying situation that has rapidly spun out of control. Yet in the midst of her trouble, Isolde’s faith sustains her, and she unexpectedly finds the love that has always eluded her. Eventually, Isolde accepts the difficult circumstances of her life, realizing a person’s destiny is often hidden from view because the path can be so rocky.

The Secret Path of Destiny is the second book in The Indian Path Series. Each book in the historical romance series focuses on a different Native American tribe during the Indian Wars in the late 1800s, and the lives of fictional characters will be woven into the true events of the wars. The theme of The Indian Path Series is the commonality of the human experience and how people in all centuries deal with the age-old struggle to find their life's purpose and follow a path of peace, courage, and love in spite of the troubled times in which they live.

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The Crimson Path of Honor

     In The Crimson Path of Honor, the Civil War is over, and a violent period known as the Indian Wars is erupting. Ignoring the danger, a feisty young woman from Boston rebels against her tyrannical father’s plans to marry her off to a family friend, and she seizes an opportunity to go west to teach.  On the way to the Oregon territory, her stagecoach is attacked, and she is captured by a marauding band of Lakota (Sioux) Indians who call the Rocky Mountains home.  

     Accepting her perilous situation, the young woman courageously confronts the daily hardships inherent in early Native American life. At first treated like an outcast, she eventually adapts to her circumstances and comes to respect the camaraderie of the Indians, even falling in love with her captor. Over time, she begins to challenge her abductor’s traditional views on bloodletting and violence as the path of honor. Torn by her inability to justify her growing feelings for her captor in a culture of violence, she continually wonders why God has abandoned her in such a desolate place.

     Gradually, a purpose for her life unfolds. The young woman begins using her teaching skills to change the violent mindset of a few members of the Lakota band, even starting a secret Christian conclave within the fabric of the camp. Life’s heartbreaks, however, threaten to dismantle her goals. When her captor becomes chief and is forced to marry another, the young woman abandons her newfound purpose and recklessly tries to escape.  

     After being recaptured, her personal problems and feelings of despair fade as war becomes imminent. Due in part to her constant efforts advocating peace, her Lakota band courageously stands alone against an alliance of war. After she is kidnapped for revenge by a rival band, a fierce battle ensues between the two bands.  In the end, the young woman has come full circle. Accepting that God has been with her all along, she courageously rides into battle to save the man she loves. For years, the young woman had questioned whether one person could make a difference in life. Yes becomes her resounding answer as she fully embraces the Lakota people she has come to love.

     The Crimson Path of Honor is Book Three of The Indian Path Series. Each book in The Indian Path Series focuses on a different Native American tribe during the Indian Wars in the late 1800s, and the lives of fictional characters are woven into the true events. The theme of The Indian Path Series is how to find life’s purpose and a path of peace, love, courage, and faith in times of trouble. As American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”