BIG HORSE WOMAN
series synopsis
BOOK ONE
Big Horse Woman
Water Willow is born to the Ponca Tribe under the Great Shooting Star Shower of 1833. When a young girl, she rescues a drowning colt during a flash flood, who grows bigger than any horse the Ponca have ever seen, and she is given the name Big Horse Woman. As irrevocable tides of change sweep through the land, her people are pushed from all sides in their struggle for survival. As they stand on the precipice of battle, she must learn to trust the mysterious voices of her ancestors who call her out on a quest to preserve their sacred plant knowledge, passed down for future generations.
AWARDS
First Place, Chanticleer International Book Awards -
Laramie Prize for Western Fiction; Prairie/First Nations category
Finalist, Leapfrog Press Literary Fiction First Manuscript Contest
BOOK TWO
Magghie
Magghie Wilder leads a simple life with her German parents in Conestoga Valley, Pennsylvania. Her mother teaches her plants and medicines, and from her father she learns to work with draft-horses and drive teams. Spurned by the village people, who call her witch, Magghie retreats into the world of plants and animals around her. When Mormon pioneers winter over in her valley, an outbreak of Cholera changes everything, forcing her to flee her home, and head West with her teams of big horses and the other survivors. She must step forward and take the reins, before losing what remains.
AWARD
Finalist, Chanticleer International Book Awards -
Laramie Prize for Western Fiction
BOOK THREE
The Trail
1847- Magghie is forced to flee her home after a cholera outbreak ravishes her village. She travels west with her teams of draft horses, and in the company of a Mormon family, but they soon disagree on the best way forward. When her fellow travelers turn on her, tragedy strikes during a flash flood. She must forge ahead on her own to find the place that has been haunting her dreams.
THE TRAIL – COMING IN 2023
BOOK FOUR
Together to Gather
Magghie follows the Niobrara River west until brutal sandstorms leave her stranded. Unconscious, she is pulled by her horses into a valley lush with fertile ground, shining water, and an abandoned earth lodge village. Every ounce of her strength, skill and knowledge is put to the test to ensure their survival, as she slowly recovers, building gardens all around her.
Big Horse Woman, guided forward by her voices, returns to the valley of her childhood, and finds a strange yellow hair woman whose face she knows from dreaming. Through their shared Language of the Plants, the two women form a bond which leads to a Promise; that together they must Save the Seeds of medicine, food, and poison, from forever being lost.
TOGETHER TO GATHER – COMING IN 2023
“This is wonderful...wow! At first I thought in the beginning of the Dream share...that you were a Traditional Trader, or Traditional mishkiiki kwe on a journey (a traveling pharmacy woman). You are wonderful to listen to. It is so good to hear a storytelling, that is so organic and awakens the imagination within. A beautiful gift of story-telling. Please everyone, listen carefully to the hidden teachings in the story. Chi miigwetch (many thanks).”
— KANZEE GITIMIDO, ANIISHINABE/OJIBWE, LANGUAGE TEACHER & STUDENT, TRADITIONAL STORYTELLER
“Beautiful book! I’m an avid reader, and the book must captivate me, or I won’t read it. Big Horse Woman did! Being an enrolled member of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, I endorse the book Barbara Salvatore has written. I loved it!”
— MEMAHASHAY (DARLENE) PENSONEAU HARJO , PONCA TRIBE OF OKLAHOMA
“I truly found myself becoming Big Horse Woman— In a sense, I was her, feeling each of her emotions, thoughts, actions. Marvelously written! Such sensitivity and authenticity to the native culture... and the portrayal of relationship to Mother Earth, each other, to the medicines. The flow of Big Horse Woman is so real; I find myself re-reading portions almost daily.”
— LEAH DROUBIE, LICENSED NURSE, WHITE EARTH NATION, ANISHINAABE, MINNESOTA