All of my heart and soul is in this book. It is a true story, word for word. The names of those still living have been changed to protect their identity, but the name Little White Bird was given to the main character and author in a ceremony by the Lakota Chief, who is still Chief of his tiospaye to this day.

Tiospaye? Little White Bird? What genre – and what world – is this?
Memoir. Non-Fiction. My work is non-fiction, based in reality and my life as I lived it.

Some say I cannot write a book about the reservation unless I am Native American.

I just did.

There has been some controversy about that, but we’ll return to that later. Tell us about the people in the story.
Chief Two Bear Paws is one of the last remaining Oglala Lakota elders, a headsman of his tiospaye (extended family) and Chief in the hearts of those who know of his bravery and life history.

Little White Bird is a young woman still trying to complete her freshman year of college. She has some Cherokee blood in her veins, but she grew up in white man’s world. She has always felt like a lost bird looking for something and someone to believe in. She gives her life and heart to the Lakota people, wanting to help and spend the rest of her days living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation with her new Lakota family.

Little White Bird was arranged to marry a Lakota Chief who traveled two thousand miles to claim her as his wife. They lived together on the Indian reservation in the village of Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

Little White Bird completely abandoned her “normal” white life in Maine and chose to move 2,000 miles away to the Indian reservation in South Dakota to be with her “true love” and to surrender herself to a completely new way of life. What a culture shock! For both the Chief she was destined to marry as well as herself. She didn’t just move 2,000 miles away, she moved back in time from 2005 to 1870.

Who is this memoir aimed at?
The Dark Horse Speaks will appeal to readers across the world. Anyone interested in living a dream, hoping to “help people” and change the world. Anyone who’s ever sacrificed everything to make a dream a reality and then found out it wasn’t all you had hoped once you got there, even though you bet your life on it that it would work.

The Dark Horse Speaks would appeal to people interested in Native American Studies, history, colonization, Native American customs and traditions, those interested in a love story gone wrong, or the many of us who wish we could just “run away” from our normal lives and go someplace new and start over.

It’s also important for those interested in preserving the Native American culture, isn’t it?
The old ways and traditions are dying, fading, as the youth will not listen. Chief Two Bear Paws wanted to teach Little White Bird the traditional Lakota ways so she and their children could carry the old ways into the future generations.

Some have said that, as a white woman, it’s not your responsibility to keep these traditions alive. They have been vocal in telling you to mind your own business.
Last I checked, this was still America and we still have freedom of the press, and I still have freedom to write a true story about my life as it happened to me. Which I have done.

Like it or not, the Truth remains. It is my life, my story. The Dark Horse Speaks.

Well said.
What more do we need to know about you?
I am more than a dreamer, I am a doer with a big heart. I have always believed in the books and movies where the girl can overcome the hardships in life and succeed just because she believes she can. I jumped out and did this big thing with my life because I thought it would matter, and, in doing so, I would matter, and my life would have had significance. Life doesn’t always go the way we plan. At least I learned something.

Do you have a website?
http://thedarkhorsespeaks.com/

What about social media?
@LttlWhiteBird
https://www.facebook.com/littlewhite.bird.16

What’s next?
Tours, speaking engagements, interviews, and book signings.