Spirit Mountain — Bill Hotchkiss

In the shadow of the Indians' awesome Spirit Mountain a time of terrible warfare was about to erupt between the white California gold seekers and the defiant Shasta tribe. Into this magnificent yet troubled wilderness came three people whose lives would be forever shaken by the impending violence. Nate Miller, whom the Indians called "the blue-eyed one who is almost human," a stubborn fortune seeker and a fierce opponent who found himself powerfully drawn away from his white world into the heart of the Indians' struggle; Klamat, his closest friend, an outcast from another tribe who rose to become a warrior leader of the Shasta; and the beautiful woman they both loved, the daughter of a feared Shasta chief, the woman Nate called Paquita, "Little Bird," a woman whose beauty was more than matched by her courage. Together they braved the crucibles of jealousy and war to forge a quest for love and peace.

In the tradition of A.B. Guthrie, Bill Hotchkiss is a historical novelist of the first rank who brings to his stories of the frontier a strong sense of epic conflict combined with an intimate feeling for character. He writes with an historian's authenticity, with a fine novelist's sense of drama, and a naturalist's understanding of the majestic sweep of the land.