Two Blankets: A Novel of the West

Trapped in the deadly conflict between two cultures, a young native girl struggles to survive. In 1850, on the great Columbia River, a ten-year-old Nez Perce girl's life is changed forever. Stolen and made a mistshimus-a slave-to the Chinook, Little Mouse struggles to escape only to be caught and beaten. Tracked and returned a third time, the chief of the local band, Tyee Running Blade, says he will kill her on her next attempt. She knows defeat at last and becomes Girl-With-No-Name, for as a mistshimus, she has no right to any property-not even a name. When she becomes a woman, her favors are sold to the Tyee's son, Standing Bear. Unfortunately, they develop an affection for each other, something forbidden to a mistshimus and noble-born. She is cut from shoulder to wrist as punishment and sold to a white man, Marshall Johnston, to be his wife. So begin her struggles with a white man who does not care for her and a tribe for respect, earning a place in the history of the Chinook and her own name-Two Blankets. Two Blankets is a true heroine you can believe in. With only the weapons she possesses, her cleverness, integrity, and honesty, can she hope to prevail against a tribe which owns her, a husband who abuses her, and the oncoming flood of settlers to whom she is only an obstacle.