"A heroine worth rooting for--all the more because this story is true."--Lori Benton, award-winning author of Burning Sky, Mountain Laurel, and Shiloh

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She came to the West for rest . . . what she found was a passion.

Classically trained pianist and singer Natalie Curtis can't seem to recapture the joy that music once brought her. In 1902, her brother invites her to join him in the West to search for healing. What she finds are songs she'd never before encountered--the haunting melodies, rhythms, and stories of Native Americans.

But their music is under attack. The US government's Code of Offenses prohibits America's Indigenous people from singing, dancing, or speaking their own languages. Natalie makes it her mission not only to document these songs before they disappear but to appeal to President Teddy Roosevelt himself, who is the only man with the power to repeal the unjust law.

Award-winning author Jane Kirkpatrick weaves a lyrical novel based on a true story that captivates to the very end.


"Jane Kirkpatrick at her finest, bringing to life a real woman from history, someone who wrestles with issues that are startlingly contemporary. Fair warning: once you begin this compelling tale, you won't be able to put it down."--Susan J. Tweit, author of Bless the Birds

"Natalie Curtis was a force to be reckoned with. Her life as a musician, an ethnomusicologist, an advocate of social justice for Native Americans, and as a single woman breaking gender and culture barriers to find a life of her own in the American Southwest is a story worth telling and retelling."--Lesley Poling-Kempes, author of Ladies of the Canyons