“An adventurer’s story told as never before.” The Los Angeles Times. Imagine … Exploration and the grace to surrender to the dark, delicious grasp of a river. Native Americans, the first few white people who dared to explore the West, and the settlers who followed—all braved a glorious, and treacherous, wilderness. And, all of them pinned their lives to the great rivers charging out of the Rocky Mountains. One such man, willing to risk it all, is Mac “The Dancer” Maclean, who finds his destiny high in the headwaters in the Yellowstone, the swift river that rumbles through two majestic waterfalls and charges across the vast plains of Montana. Mac Maclean came far ahead of the emigrants to that land with a few friends. For companionship they found Indians. They became husbands and fathers to Indian women and children. Mac hunted, he traded, he battled. He gave his all for a life that made his heart soar. Maclean has the sort of courage and deep compassion that work to make him a legend. As he creates a life fully his own, he has no idea that future generations will honor his memory and build upon the life he created on the fertile banks of the river he called home. Some believe that his spirit still inhabits the Yellowstone country. Others hear the joyous voice of the Dancer inside the Yellowstone—tumbling river of life, death, and dreams. Reviews “Through the lives of Mac “Dancer” Maclean and his daring companions, delve here into the experiences of the few white men who ventured into the Rocky Mountains ahead of all others, their lives thunderous with danger, dazzling in with excitement, deeply satisfying in their creation of a new and ever-surprising way of life. In these pages ride with the true discoverers of the West, their story told as never before.” —The Los Angeles Times “Richly told American historical fiction. The longings, determination, adventure and liberties that built the U.S. are richly and deeply experienced in the characters, events and luxurious descriptive writing. Read it. Live it.” – Kennedy Library, Ball State University

The Yellowstone (Wild Rivers West, 1)

Literature & Fiction

Blevins, Win

Genre Fiction

WordWorx Publishing

From a three-time Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers Writer of the Year, this tale of lost faith and crowning redemption follows one American Indian’s spirit journey to heal his past and claim his future. “RavenShadow has the impact of a hurled war lance.” —Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee 
Before he was born, Joseph Blue Crow was chosen to carry the sacred ways of the Sioux. But instead of walking the good Red Road of his people, he put his feet on the white man’s road of basketball and booze, women and the blues. Haunted by the loss of his Lakota heritage and the inexplicable suicide of the woman he loves, Blue sinks into alcoholism and despair. He soon finds himself on the precipice of oblivion, a train roaring toward his car on the railroad tracks. Only his best friend’s words can save him:“You got to go on the mountain.” Blue’s journey takes him on a tortuous path, guided by a shaman and a spirit bird under whose wing lies the shadow of the past. He relives the massacre of Wounded Knee, standing beside his family and his people as they fall under fire of guns and cannons. Blue seeks redemption and healing through the course of this extraordinary story. Reviews
“RavenShadow has the impact of a hurled war lance.” —Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee “Win Blevins has long since won his place among the West’s very best. RavenShadow adds a new dimension to reputation.” —Tony Hillerman “An outstanding novel that people from age eight to eighty should read. . . . [Blevins] is a true storyteller in the tradition of Native people.” —Lee Francis, chair of the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers “Blevins’ prose is razor sharp, his characters are clearly defined, and his heart, like so many, is at Wounded Knee. An outstanding novel.” —Booklist “A strong, thoughtful story.” —Kirkus Reviews “[RavenShadow] is destined to become an American classic. . . . [Blevins] raises the genre to a new level.” —Roundup Magazine “Powerful and poetic.” —Tulsa World “No one can come away from this magnificent work without feeling humble and meditative. . . . Blevins beautifully and skillfully merges the past and the present.” —El Paso Times

RavenShadow (American Dreamers)

The Snake River (Wild Rivers West)

The Rock Child (American Dreamers)

United States

This book is a love story, and the dramatic tale of the determined, desperate journey of the Cheyenne people from Indian Territory back to their Montana homeland and the Powder River.  The northern Cheyenne still call the Powder River country their sacred home. But now, penned up far to the south in so-called Indian Territory, the remnants of that once-mighty nation are growing feeble and dying.   To survive, they must battle their way across 1,500 miles to their ancestral home, fending off pursuit by thousands of well-armed soldiers.  In that outnumbered band are Adam Smith Maclean, born both white and Cheyenne, and his wife Elaine, a New Englander determined to stand by Adam and his desperate, daring people Cheyenne family.  Join them on their trek through the hostile heart of the white man’s West toward the welcoming banks of Powder River.     Reviews  “Win Blevins is as good a storyteller as this country has.” —Dale Wasserman, author of Man of La Mancha   “POWERFUL and FULL OF FEELING. This book is a love story, and the dramatic story of the determined, desperate journey of the Cheyenne people from Indian Territory back to their Montana homeland. Very few writers are able to put the reader inside the mind of Native people as Win Blevins does."—Norman Zollinger, author of The Road to Santa Fe

The Powder River (Wild Rivers West)

The High Missouri (Wild Rivers West)

"Beautiful. Blevins brings it all alive.” – The Los Angeles Times This is the enthralling story of an authentic adventurer, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. He lived his dream in clashing cultures—that of Native American vitality and that of high European society. He mastered both worlds, but was ultimately forced to choose between them. The son of Sacajawea, guide for Lewis and Clark, Charbonneau was born on the adventure, and born to explore. As an infant, he infant traveled from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean and back, carried along in the expedition's boats or upon his mother's back. As a child, Sacajawea sent her son to William Clark. There Charbonneau was raised in Clark’s posh society, had Jesuit schooling in St. Louis, and was later educated in Europe—he became the welcome guest of kings. Throughout his life, Charbonneau and Clark maintained an extraordinary relationship. Charbonneau became a cultured man, at ease in the gentile civilization of European courts. But he was a man of two dreams, and the Western wilderness pulled at his heart. Charbonneau became an American explorer, guide, fur trapper-trader, military scout during the Mexican-American War, alcalde (mayor) of Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, and a gold prospector and hotel operator in Northern California. He spoke French and English, and learned German and Spanish during his six years in Europe. He also spoke Shoshone and other western Native American languages, which he learned first from his family and then during his years of trapping and guiding. CHARBONNEAU is a novel of epic scope and lyric intensity, of vivid human drama and vigorous adventure! REVIEWS “A gripping historical novel . . . Blevins weaves authentic and documented material with the fruits of an impressive empathy. The characters live not only as recognizable people in their times and places, but as figures is an allegory of the West. There is some beautiful writing here. Blevins beings it all alive!” – Los Angeles Times “Blevins captures both Charbonneau’s unique character and the full flavor of the American era in which he lived. From frontier hardships and the raw vigor of Native American life to the sensual and intellectual pleasures of high European society, ‘Charbonneau’ is a must-read novel of American resilience and intellect.” The Denver Post

Charbonneau: Man of Two Dreams (American Dreamers)

“James Clyman was one of untamed and wild America’s most joyful explorers.” ~ Win Blevins
A member of Jedediah Smith's first mountain man brigade, Clyman was there when the South Pass was discovered, opening the inter-mountain West to fur trappers. Crossing the country during the great migration of 1846, Clyman encountered the Donner party and gave them sound advice, which they tragically ignored.
A few other adventures: He sewed Jim Bridger's ear back on after a grizzly bear attack; explored the Green Valley and the Salt Lake Basin; alone and weary, he walked 600 miles to Fort Atkinson. (Still one of the West's most remarkable tales of survival.) He also kept Bill Sublette from freezing to death en route.
Clyman crossed twice to the Pacific and ended up settling in the Napa Valley, raising his family, writing down his adventures, and spreading the legendary stories of the mountain men
In his own heartfelt and exciting way, James Clyman gives us his experiences in the heyday of the American fur trade, and during the peak of exploration and immigration to Oregon and California.
Clyman was a keen and meticulous observer, and his epic adventures are the stuff of legends. A must-read for everyone who loves the West.

The Journal of a Mountain Man: James Clyman's Own Story (Epic Adventures)

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

Historical characters, close calls, and good-natured fun abound in this light-hearted romp through the West with adventures worthy of Don Quixote. “Win Blevins is the best writer in America.” --John Milius, screenwriter of ‘Apocalypse Now’ Here are two of the most improbable mountain men ever to trap and explore the Rocky Mountains. Shakespeare is a former actor, an older man of gargantuan proportion. His sidekick, Silk, is a rail-thin teenager with all the brains that Shakespeare lacks. They get into flabbergasting scrapes from wrestling bears, to falling in love with off-limits women in Santa Fe, a Crow woman warrior, and the porcelain-faced daughter of a trader. Silk and Shakespeare are fictional, but historical characters abound in this light-hearted romp through the west. Chief among these is Antelope Jim Beckwourth, the mulatto son of a Virginia plantation owner who became a warrior chief of the Crow Indians. Beckwourth's lover, Pine Leaf, was a legendary and very real woman-warrior of the Crows. This unlikely foursome gets into jams with dreaded enemies of the Crow and the Blackfeet. That's to be expected of characters who, like Don Quixote, dream of "enchantments, quarrels, battles, challenges, wounds, wooings, loves, tempests, and other impossible follies." Reviews "Blevins 'Silk and Shakespeare' brims with good-natured fun!" -- Publisher's Weekly “Win Blevins displays an antic imagination, not only in mingling actual and invented characters, but in melding gritty action-adventure with metaphysical musings.” — Dale Wasserman, author of Man of La Mancha “Win Blevins is the best writer in America.” --John Milius, screenwriter of ‘Apocalypse Now’ “I haven’t had so much fun reading a book about the West in years.” —George Roy Hill, director of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

The Misadventures of Silk and Shakespeare (American Dreamers)

“Loaded with action, drama, and colorful historical characters, this is a whopper of a yarn.” – Publisher’s Weekly
A LONG AND WINDING ROAD, the fifth book in The Rendezvous Series, begins as Sam and his trapper friends are whooping it up at a Mexican double wedding in Santa Fe. Since leaving Pennsylvania, Sam has made a name for himself and become friends with such historical notables as Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, and Tom Fitzpatrick. 
Shortly after the ceremony, the two brides are kidnapped by Navajo raiders. Sam is enraged—the women are his adopted daughters. Accompanied by his hot-headed son, Tomás, and trapper Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, the hunt begins.
 Although Sam sets out in hot pursuit, his heart is heavy. His vibrant lover is dying of cancer. She insists that she travel alone to the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and he must accept her decision.
The rescue mission is hampered, threatened, and deceived by a corrupt Mexican governor, manipulative Indian chiefs, devious white men and murderous raiders. The search for the captive girls takes him deep into Navajo, Ute, and Blackfeet Indian territory, to Bent’s Fort in Colorado, and near death at the hands of a companion.
By the time Sam catches up with the two captive girls, he is faced with a surprise involving the missing girls and a trapper called Pegleg Smith.
“Blevins is a master of mountain man lore, and he certainly knows the beaver and buffalo hide business, as well as the politics of the region and era. Loaded with action, drama, vivid descriptions and colorful historical characters, this is a whopper of a western yarn.” – Publisher’s Weekly
“Blevins has re-created that long-ago world where the improbable was commonplace, and where courage and audacity made anything possible.” – Lucia St. Clair Robson, author of Ghost Warrior.
"The glory years of frontier life, fresh and rich." –Kirkus Reviews
"Win Blevins has long since won his place among the West's very best."—Tony Hillerman
"Blevins possesses a rare skill in masterfully telling a story-to-paper. He is a true storyteller in the tradition of Native people."—Lee Francis, Associate Professor of Native American Studies, University of New Mexico
"One of the finest novels to come out of the American West in a long time...an amazing book, grandly conceived, beautifully written."—Dallas Morning News on STONE SONG

A Long and Winding Road (The Rendezvous Series)

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