New Releases by C J Taylor

When the buffalo herds fail to appear one spring, a village in the Black Hills of South Dakota finds itself in turmoil: the people grow selfish and the elders lose their authority. But a beautiful woman comes, bearing a message. Only if the people learn to cooperate in the building of a great tipi, will she return with the first peace pipe and the rules of how it must be offered to the earth. Her message delivered, she returns to the hills and is transformed into a white buffalo, which in turn becomes a grazing herd.

Crippled in an accident and left behind by his hunting party, Lone Warrior must overcome hunger, cold, pain, and despair to survive. But most terrifying of all his trials is the appearance of a skeleton-ghost arisen from the grave. That Lone Warrior can still remember to express his gratitude to the animal he must kill to survive, and that he does not allow fear to diminish his dignity, makes him an ideal hero.

From the heartbreaking Mi'kmaq story of Minnow, a mermaid in the Atlantic who must choose between two worlds to that of Water Lily and her five brothers, told by the Coos in British Columbia, creatures that inhabit fantastic realms appear in many First Nation stories. C. J. Taylor draws from those stories and from her own Mohawk heritage in this collection of haunting tales about some of the powerful spirits who touch the lives of human folk. The spirits of heaven and earth from the Ute help bring an understanding of the stars in the sky. The Cree story, “Souls in the Fog,” presents the battle between the good and the evil-minded. The Ojibwa “Fairy Village” is a unique and touching love story. Illustrated with her own powerful oil paintings, this is a collection to read and an excellent story-teller's resource.


From the Hardcover edition.