When 11-year-old Tommy Thompson arrived at a government-run Indian boarding school in 1915, it seemed a last resort for the youngster. Instead, it turned out to be the first step toward a life dedicated to helping others.

Thompson went on to become a star athlete and football coach – a Cherokee legend whose story is remembered by many and is now told for a wider audience.

Following gridiron fame at Northeastern State College, Thompson returned to Sequoyah Vocational School in 1947 as a boys coach and advisor. More than a thousand boys attended the boarding school during the 11 years he coached there. Writing for readers old and young, Patti Dickinson tells the inspiring story of how this man made a difference in the lives of a generation of Cherokee youth.

Through football, Thompson taught his boys the skills and values needed to succeed in life and twice led his team to the state finals. Dickinson describes the success of that program, including one epic, rain-soaked championship game. She paints compelling portraits of Thompson’s boys –the men whose firsthand stories and reminiscences form the basis of the narrative – and re-creates daily life at the school.

To his boys, Thompson was Ah-sky-uh, “the man,” a Cherokee term of respect. Half a century after his death, Sequoyah High School still reveres his memory.

Dickinson is the author of HOLLYWOOD THE HARD WAY: A Cowboy’s Journey. She resides in Santa Maria, Calif. (2009)

JEAN BAPTISTE CHARBONNEAU: Man of Two Worlds. (Michael Lance Ritter, WordCraft and Booksurge, 250 pp., paperback – $15.99)
The 19th century West was a place to dream about and migrate to, but speculation ended after visitors crossed the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. A formidable environment forced people to either adapt or fail. One who made an extraordinary adjustment was Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, the son of Sacagawea and Toussaint Charbonneau. He also was the adopted son of William Clark, co-leader of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

He was raised in Clark’s mansion and spent six years in a European kingdom. How did a highly educated, courtly man thrive among rugged, violent adventurers and consistent danger? Why was he likely the most unusual man in western history?

The text tracks him over two-thirds of the American continent and places him in important historical events. Along with his travels, relationship between the Charbonneaus and Clark is examined.

The author reflects throughout the narrative on the personal challenges and historical developments Jean Baptiste and others faced. Followers of Lewis and Clark, the Charbonneaus, western development and those who embrace the western environment will find the text rewarding.

Author Michael Lance Ritter is a Cherokee Nation citizen and member of the Western History Association, Western Writers of America, Robinson Jeffers Association and Association for the Study of Literature & the Environment. (2004)

DECEPTION ON ALL ACCOUNTS. (Sara Sue Hoklotubbe, University of Arizona Press, 240 pp., paperback – $14.95)
One morning Sadie Walela unlocks the door at the Mercury Savings Bank and confronts a robber who’s been lying in wait for her and her fellow employees. He flees after stealing money and killing her coworker. When a whirlwind of events leaves Sadie herself under suspicion, she sets out to clear her name.

This banker turned sleuth is plunged into a world in which people are not always as they appear – not her employer, not the homeless man she’s befriended, not the police officer who takes an interest in the case, not the man she falls in love with.

Sadie is a Cherokee living in northeastern Oklahoma, a half-blood who finds she sometimes has to adapt to get by in the white man’s world, much as her father’s ancestors did. In this story of robbery, murder, love and intrigue, she faces adversity at each bend in the road, but in the tradition of her people she adapts and moves forward even if it means having to re-think her relationships and expectations. (2003)

RAINBOW OF STONE. (Ralph Salisbury, University of Arizona Press, 137 pp., paperback – $16.95)
Son of a Cherokee-English father and an Irish mother, Ralph Salisbury grew up among storytellers and has shared his family’s tales and experiences in seven previous books of prose and poetry. Now in RAINBOW OF STONE he returns with a collection of poems that interweaves family tales with personal and tribal history.

Salisbury conjures images that define his life, from the vanishing farming and hunting traditions with which he was raised to his experiences in World War II as a member of a bomber crew. He writes of himself and of Indian people as Vanishing Americans – vanishing into the mingling of races – and sees himself as a pacifistic patriot concerned that we not continue the destructive reliance on war that marks our history.

Salisbury has produced a haunting, powerful work that expresses his devotion to the Cherokee religion, its fidelity to its forebears and its harmony with the forces of nature. For all concerned with ecology, social justice, and peace, RAINBOW OF STONE conveys a growing awareness of the world and a sense of how each individual connects with the universal realities of every other human being. (2000)