June Rise - Softcover

Tremblay, William; Janis, Joseph Antoine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 087421176X ISBN 13: 9780874211764

Publisher: Utah State University Press, 1994

Synopsis

Sweeping from the austere beauty of the Rocky Mountains to the high plains, The June Rise brings to life the true story of Joseph Antoine Janis's visionary transformation from a Missouri farmboy to an advisor to Lakota chief, Red Cloud. Author William Tremblay creates a riveting collection of imagined letters by Janis that chronicle this pioneer's apprenticeship to his father in the beaver trade and his marriage with First Elk Woman, an Oglala holy woman, all the while capturing the spirit of the land in poetic descriptions, even as it becomes a killing ground during the Indian wars of the nineteenth century. The story turns to tragedy when his mixed-race sons, Pete and Willie, are murdered by the mixed-race sons of Janis's nemesis, John Reeshaw. After the battle of Little Big Horn, the U.S. government issued Janis an ultimatum: divorce First Elk Woman and keep his homestead in Colorado, or relinquish his land and share her fate in the Badlands of Pine Ridge Reservation. The compelling forces that shape his decision form a classic story of the American frontier. This novel is, above all, a love story of the first order.

About this title

From the Publisher

An epic story of Antoine Janis, a real-life "mountain man" unlike any buckskin figure ever created by Hollywood or the dime novel.

About the Author

Bill Tremblay was born and brought up in the shadow of the mills and factories of Southbridge, Massachusetts. After receiving his M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts, he moved west to Colorado, where for almost 30 years he has been a professor in the Creative Writing Program at Colorado State University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Utah State University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 087421176X
• ISBN 13: 9780874211764
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 233