WATER WILLOW is born under the Great Shooting Star Shower of 1833. As a young girl, she rescues a drowning colt during a flash flood of the Missouri River. He grows bigger than any horse the Ponca have ever seen, and she is given the name Big Horse Woman.
Years later, Big Horse Woman and Big Horse return to the Niobrara village her tribe abandoned when many were lost to Smallpox. They approach the ridge, only to discover that a stranger has taken up residence near their sacred burial grounds.

WINNER Prairie/First Nations
Laramie Prize for Western Fiction
Chanticleer International Book Awards

FINALIST Literary Fiction,
First Manuscript Contest
Leapfrog Press

"That is not dark, but inspiring. It was a voice on a journey, on the edge. It was riveting. The scenes have lingered. I don't think I will ever get the image of her out of my mind. Reading it has inspired me as a woman, a seeker, a healer, and as a writer."
VIRGINIA FRANCES SCHWARTZ, Author,
Among the Fallen, Crossing to Freedom, Initiation,
If I Just Had Two Wings