She was Amayi, known to the white men as Creek Mary. To her people she was the Beloved Woman, a warrior and the chief of the Bluff Village Creeks. In a different time and place, her spirit now lives on in Mary Dane, an Indian woman making academic history.
Between these two strong women stand four generations of bloody fighting, fierce determination and, ultimately sad defeat. Mingling the proud blood of the Cherokee, the Cheyenne, the Dakota and the Sioux, Creek Mary's descendants lived and suffered through the bitter century that formed America.