Dear Reader,

When I first joined RomanceEverAfter, I had written to Melissa that one of the greatest successes I have felt in writing was that of being adopted by Shaman White Hair, of the Dove Clan Lakota. Melissa suggested that other readers might be interested in why and how this happened.

The story begins with a romance author fascinated by anthropology, or society and culture of people. The author reads history books and web pages voraciously. She is seeking facts to embellish and use to make her characters real and true to the period she is to write about.

This author also began reading historical information on the Shoshone people for her Geneva Series. The author read history books and other romance novelists. What this author read in history did not match the romance novelist stories. In history the author discovered there was only one white woman she found chronicled, that followed a half-breed and married him. 

The real world of the indigenous people was that the warriors would rarely take a white woman to wife. A white woman preferred death to becoming a squaw, since re entry into the white world after capture was nearly impossible. It was the white men that took indigenous women to be their brides. In the beginning, the trappers tried to outdo each other in care of their women. As society followed the pioneers, the treatment of indigenous women became horrific at best. Yes, there was that much hatred and bigotry. As a child in the 1950s this author personally witnessed this bigotry and scorn by her own family when her uncle married an Oneida.

A contradiction of history and stereotyping always spurns this author to seek more information. The author purchased more history books on the Shoshone and indigenous people. Indigenous people wrote many of the books purchased and sought by this author. It was wonderful to discover the true culture of the people. The Hollywood stereotypical Indian the author grew up with wasn’t anywhere near the reality and historical facts of the people’s nations.

The indigenous people usually were Matriarchal, not patriarchal as movies portray. The women were not little subservient slaves to the masculine warrior. This view is truly a Euro Caucasian created image by a patriarchal society. The culture of indigenous peoples didn’t relate to sexism. A woman was the giver and nurturer of life. She fulfilled the duty of propagation, nurtured the children, offered shelter, and provisions to a grateful warrior. A warrior was the taker of life. The warrior’s duties were to be selfless in the protection of his family, camp, and people. He would hunt and take life as a duty to the giver of life.