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by Richard G. Ruja (Author)
This book is a historical novel detailing the Nineteenth Century indigenous people living on the Great Plains of North America between the Mississippi River and the western extent of the Rocky Mountains and the clash they experienced with the European immigrants who had arrived in America determined to dominate the continent. The era covered is, primarily, the 1800's. The people who are commonly referred to as American Indians or Native Americans had been living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle for thousands of years. They faced a European culture that featured a more advanced social organization employing superior communication techniques and a war-making capability that proved to be superior to the skill-set that characterized the indigenous populations. The latter had heretofore lived successfully in America for over four-thousand years. The United States succeeded in killing, defeating and confining the American Indians to resource-poor, isolated enclaves chosen by the victors that destroyed most of the natives' cultural autonomy and independence of movement. This outcome delegated the defeated ones to a state of poverty, a condition that remains in effect today. This author was appalled by the completeness of the Native American defeat and the atrocities committed by the Euro-Americans in their inexorable campaigns of dominance. Thus, the impetus for rewriting a bit of history was born in a White author determined to partially redress this egregious injustice.....even if only in the imagination of the fair-minded. Shadows and Footprints, carefully researched, is comprised, primarily, of non-fictional material. However, a tweak of history may occur from time to time that might be at variance with the actual unfolding of historical events that were visited upon the Plains Indians. The protagonists are the Mountain Crow of Western Wyoming Territory. Their fate in confronting the U.S. Cavalry, pernicious buffalo hunters and the endless flow of foreign immigrants engendered a whirlwind of passion that accented the majestic colors of the rugged mountains, roaring rivers and the desperate peoples of the West who sought their place in the sun. About the author: Rick Ruja is a retired California physician who, having recovered from a life-threatening medical condition decided to return to the love of his life-writing about the Age of Adventure that occurred in America's Old West around the Nineteenth Century. From hopping a freight train far above the headwaters of the Colorado River to climbing the Grand Tetons of western Wyoming, the land he explored and the people of this compelling region captured his imagination. He is a man who wished he could have returned to this Golden Age when its story had yet to be written.
