Lakota Trilogy:

Lakota Heart

Sacred Bond

Čhetáŋ

Fayth’s happiness reaches epic proportions as her family grows and prospers on their new territory, deep into the Canadian Rocky Mountains. During the summer gathering of allied Sioux tribes, she experiences Otaktay’s devotion in ways she had never imagined, but welcomes gratefully.

She never expected that Milton Hannesen’s alliance with the Fox Nation and his relentless thirst for revenge, would plunge the Sioux tribes in utter chaos, and lead them onto the warpath. Otaktay prepares his first-born son, Chaska, to become their next head chief, knowing that even a strong alliance may not be enough to save their people. The young Hän woman Chaska rescues from the American’s sadistic claws adds fuel to an already raging inferno.

Sadly, not even strong men like Otaktay are immune to losses that are almost insurmountable. Amidst the turmoil of the Klondike gold rush, logging, and railroad expansion through the Canadian west, only an alliance between the Sioux, the Siksika, and the Cree would defeat the Fox. However, the deep hatred Otaktay’s gorgeous warrior-daughter Wachiwi harbours for Quanah, a fearsome Cree war chief, risks derailing the peace treaty their nations are seeking. Wachiwi vows to never stop seeking revenge or forgive Quanah for capturing and crippling her.

As Chaska and Wachiwi become entangled in life and war’s twisted web, they discover that love, hatred, and forgiveness, are woven from the same fibre, and that not even death has the power to break a Sacred Bond.

Čhetáŋ

He finds himself bound to that world by a marriage he never wanted, to a much younger white woman, and by his obsession for a red-haired Calgary saloon beauty. Nicole is as wild as him but unwilling to live primitively in a Lakota camp deep in the Rockies.

As he accumulates conquests and wives, he becomes entangled in a ranchers’ war, and reveals a side of himself that his fellow Lakota warriors and his partner Andrew loathe. His father’s advice fall into deaf ears as impetuousness and insatiable lust leads Čhetáŋ onto a destructive path that causes insurmountable grief to those who love him, and brings him at death’s door.

Yet, it is only when his life is no longer his own, that he discovers how it takes losing someone to truly appreciate the value of such a rare gift. He learns that a man’s most important battles are not always fought on the warpath, against lifelong enemies, but in one’s heart against one’s own demons.

In early spring 1874, Fayth Winslow is planning her upcoming wedding to a promising young financial genius at Fort Pembina. Her romantic soul dreams of King Arthur’s legend, of babies, and a happy ever after life, not of being captured by a raiding Lakota party and sold to a ruthless chief named Otaktay, (Many Kills).

Chief Otaktay is no knight in shining armour; no prince, not even a gentleman; he is a fierce warrior, whose sexual prowess is legendary among his people. He is the man who treats Fayth harshly upon discovering that she is a Shoshone once called Spotted Fawn. Nothing had prepared such a small woman for a life of slavery at the hands of a man much bigger and stronger than her. While he would not lay with a captive, his ruthlessness unleashes traumatic childhood memories, locked in the deepest recesses of Fayth’s mind since the soldiers’ attack at Bear River.

As the war between the Sioux and the American Army wreaks havoc among the People, Fayth understands that her survival will depend solely on her ability to serve the chief well during the tribe’s exodus from the Black Hills, across the Medicine Line, and onto Canadian soil. Her gentleness, virtue, and soft manners helps her regain her freedom, and she lets herself believe that her life may become a fairy tale. The arrival of Mina, a stunningly beautiful and passionate Lakota warrior, is only the beginning of the abysmal hardship that once again plagues Fayth’s life among the Lakota.

     Une pancarte « À VENDRE » sur la belle clôture élaborée en fer forgé d’une maison victorienne capte l’attention de Jade Gleason en se rendant à son travail. Le joyau architectural est tout l’opposé du bungalow à prix modique que la jeune femme recherche à Sault Ste. Marie, mais le mystère qui l’enveloppe est irrésistible.

     Le peuple algonquin qu’elle « rencontre » dans la maison à la suite d’une découverte inusitée l’entraîne sur un sentier aussi fascinant qu’alarmant à travers les siècles. Malheureusement, Jade se rend compte que Gabriel Ménard, un voyageur métis, et son épouse, Étoile-du-Matin, doivent eux aussi se battre pour élever leur famille dans la paix et la sécurité dans leur monde instable. Jade sent que ce qu’elle va vivre avec eux changera sa vie à tout jamais.

     Malgré tout, elle se sent seule. Recommencer à zéro dans un endroit inconnu n’est certainement pas nouveau pour elle, et elle est familière avec le sort des sans-abri. Elle se lie d’amitié avec Joe Larocque, un aîné ojibwé survivant des pensionnats indiens. Il accueille ses modestes offrandes de nourriture avec gratitude en échange de menus travaux chez elle.

     Contrairement à Joe, Caleb Hunter, le bel homme d’origine crie qui l’accompagne souvent, n’aime pas accepter la charité de Jade. Il ne lui est pas tout à fait hostile, mais elle détecte quelque chose de troublant chez lui. Lors d’un pow-wow traditionnel, toutefois, elle découvre un côté de Caleb qui ravive son désir de vivre une vie normale.

     Sans le vouloir, Caleb expose le secret de Jade et la propulse au cœur même du danger qu’elle avait fui, la forçant à devoir tout laisser derrière elle à nouveau. 

     — Il doit bien y avoir un endroit sur terre où je pourrais vivre en paix et en sécurité, confie-t-elle à La Faille, sa tortue, et à Lucky, son hibou.

 Roman autochtone canadien

Something pulls strongly at Erin Gleason’s heart on her way to work, as she spots a For Sale sign on the gate of an old Victorian house. It’s a far cry from the reasonably priced bungalow she hoped to find in historic Sault Ste. Marie, but the mystery that shrouds the veranda-wrapped two-story home is simply too irresistible.

Settling in a new city is not new to Erin, nor is the plight of the homeless people on the streets. She befriends Joe Larocque, an Ojibwa Elder and survivor of the Indian Residential School System, who welcomes her modest food offerings gratefully in exchange for yard work.

Erin also seeks refuge from her unbearable loneliness among the Algonquin people she meets in the old house’s attic. Métis Voyageur Gabriel Menard, and Blue Star, his beloved Algonquin wife, pull her into their lives from across the centuries. Unfortunately, she soon realizes that they, too, struggle to find peace and safety in their volatile world. What Erin lives with them shocks her to her very core, and changes her life forever.

Caleb Hunter, the handsome Cree man who often sits with Joe, resents taking charity from her. While he is not overtly hostile, Erin senses something unsettling about him. Then she discovers a side of him that triggers dreams of the safe and normal life she craves.

Caleb’s actions, however, propel Erin into the very danger she escaped, forcing her to leave everything behind again. She will have to start anew, as far away from her tormentors as she can get, without fulfilling her quest.