Metis Girl

She has a gambler's knife hidden in her leggings, the fastest horses on the prairie, a pocketful of money and a plan. These are the days of the Canadian West: the days of painted Blackfoot warriors, cattle ranches, hotel girls, gamblers and drilling rigs. The days of The Métis Girl. (Métis: mixed blood. 'May-tee'). She is Mary James, a strong-willed teenager with copper dun skin and unexpected blue eyes ... a warrior drawn into a dangerous summer of horse racing against the west's first cowboys and cattle ranchers. A bloody brawl erupts after Mary outwits a British aristocrat in a horse race. She is sentenced to six months in Calgary's police cells and the aristocrat goes free. Paroled, Mary attends her family's unconventional Sun Dance ceremony where, with blood flowing over her chest, she discovers an astonishing truth. Supported by the love of her family, Mary is determined to make a fresh start. The bravery she showed racing horses is tested repeatedly when she confronts a frontier culture where a Métis woman with ambitious plans is neither respected nor wanted. Despite local opposition to her plans, Mary attracts admirers when she refuses to back down or compromise her family values. But those closest to her wonder if she can control her gambler's knife for long. They know how well she hides her childhood memory of being held hostage by whiskey traders, and they know those memories are never further away than the knife she now hides in her riding boot. From unrequited love to running her own drilling rig, Mary takes on the toughest challenges of Western Canada and won't back down. " I don't know how many times I've said you cannot be Canadian and NOT have read the Sun on the Mountains books!" David Bouchard, Métis author, educator, speaker.