Desert Hawk Books

 

Medicine Hat
A Novel

Don Coldsmith

 

 

278 pages
5.5" x 8.5"
Hardcover

Quantity:  $21.95 & S/H  

 

Thus begins the tale told by Pipe Bearer, a young holy man of the Elk Dog People, who sets out with his wife, Otter Woman, on a vision quest to find the meaning of the sacred coloring on a foal born to his mare. The colt bears markings resembling the headdress of a holy man, the medicine hat. This latest novel in Don Coldsmith's beloved Spanish Bit Saga of the Plains Indians is told as a story around the lodge fire in the voices of both Pipe Bearer and Otter.
     Encouraged by a coyote, his spirit guide, Pipe Bearer is drawn across the northern plains by his dream vision of a spirit horse. Traveling in the guise of a trader, he leads Otter through the country of the Cheyenne and Arapaho and into the homelands of the Crow and Blackfeet and the enemies of those tribes, the Sioux. When fire strikes the plains, the young couple are joined in their desperate flight to safety by the Arapaho trader, Lone Walker, and his beautiful and courageous Lakota wife, Plum Blossom. Always seeking clues to the meaning of the medicine hat colt, the four meet and observe the customs of many bands. Driven by fate and circumstance, Pipe Bearer and Otter must make life-and-death choices to survive their hazardous quest.
     Leading the reader on a journey that recreates Plains Indian life, Medicine Hat is both a love story and the tale of a daring search for spiritual meaning in the American West of the 1700s.

"Medicine Hat is one of Don Coldsmith's very best novels. It is a mysterious vision quest to the North from the home of the People of the South. Coldsmith's books are always well researched, and this one is no exception. He writes with both a dedicated precision and a full heart for all Indian people. There is much to learn here, but that is not the main thrust of Medicine Hat. It is also the story of the love of a man and wife and their love for all of nature, especially the sacred colt. It is a love story of the couple they meet on the long, dangerous trail north as they pose as traders and a story of the sacrifice and wisdom it takes to love all worthy things. It moves smoothly onward, growing in emotional intensity with each page and each new adventure, closer and closer to the final surprising disclosure." - Max Evans, author of Bluefeather Fellini and The Hi Lo Country

"Medicine Hat tells an exciting story about spiritual forces guiding human lives and does a little educating along the way. Don Coldsmith's novels are well crafted - always." - Robert J. Conley, author of The Witch of Goingsnake and Other Stories and Mountain Windsong: A Novel of the Trail of Tears

Don Coldsmith, who received his M.D. from the University of Kansas and practiced medicine for thirty years, has been a rancher and a horse breeder, among other professions and avocations. When he is not writing his award-winning novels, of which there are nearly six million copies in print, he teaches English at Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas.