Description
A continuation of Mary Ruth Barnes' debut title Little Bird.
Mary Ruth Barnes is a Chickasaw artist, teacher, and writer. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from North Carolina State University, and received her master’s degree in education from Montana State University.
Ella McSwain is a Chickasaw woman raising her family amidst evolving turmoil within the budding state of Oklahoma. After Ella is left with an unusable plot of land, she finds herself fighting for her family’s rightful allotment. Faced with crooked businessmen, land grifters, and grueling court battles, can she summon the strength to persevere against all odds?
In this stand-alone companion to Little Bird, Mary Ruth Barnes crafts an engaging family saga that spans from Indian Territory to Oklahoma statehood against the backdrop of the state’s changing landscape.
At the dawn of the twentieth century, Chickasaw woman Ella McSwain is navigating the fate of her family against the turbulence of Indian Territory and its imminent establishment as Oklahoma. Just as Ella’s mother, Esther McLish, fought for her son’s recognition as a Chickasaw citizen on the Dawes Roll, Ella McSwain must now fight to receive her allotted land from the Dawes Commission.
But the road isn’t easy, and Ella encounters crooked businessmen, land grifters, and legal battles along the way. Will her family have land to call home by the end of her fight against injustice?