Böcker av Richard Brian Clark

Following the Civil War, a cauldron of conflict existed along the Oregon trail. Southerners, Yankees, whites, blacks, soldiers and Native American Indians, would-be settlers along with scoundrels, all seeking a new life in the west. Then add in a forbidden love affair, challenging the accepted norms of the people and the time. A white female southern plantation owner along with a run-away black slave share love and passion while journeying west seeking a new life together. From their covered wagon they experienced the thrill of seeing a massive herd of Buffalo appearing to stretch to the far horizon. At Fort Lincoln, Kansas, they encountered friendly Indians while learning something of the Native culture. Further along they encounter hostile Crow Indians who threaten their very lives. This then is a true slice of American history and of the settlement and maturing of our nation.

Love won - then set aside through gallantry, self-sacrifice, and loyalty to a divided country! Ebenezer fingered the point of his bayonet as he watched the early morning''s light creep slowly across the sky. Not a breeze stirred the leaves on the trees, not a bird was to be seen or heard. Men snoring as they slept on the ground nearby, squirrels scampering upon the ground stealing any food that had been overlooked or left out in the open, Ebenezer saw all this and smiled as he dug the toe of his right boot into the dirt. This Virginia soil was not anything like the soil on his homestead back in Vermont. In Vermont he''d have instantly turned up black soil, rich and dark and begging to be farmed. Here the soil was just the opposite, bland and lifeless. It was really nothing more than just simply dirt. Ebenezer could imagine his homestead as he saw it for the first time; a forested hillside area with lots of potential. His mind had planned out where he would build his cabin for the best breeze in the summer and the best protection from the winter winds, where he could watch the sunrise from the front porch and the sunset from the back porch. He visually walked around looking for the fresh spring where his water needs would be met and where he would house his animals. All this, while close in his memories, was far away from this battle site. With thoughts of family foremost in his head, he sat down to write a letter to his darling wife, Remembrance.....

As Nutank's children continue their legacy of personal liberty, the country is in the throes of its own Pathway to Liberty. Set against the backdrop of the American Revolution, Nutank faces his own struggles between accepting his children's opposing decisions regarding their involvement in the conflict and his personal belief that war only destroys lives, yet settles little. On a peaceful April morning in Vermont, while the pleasing sound of the loon's call was being heard across the placid waters of Lake Memphremagog, musket fire was shattering the morning's calm to the south on the village green at Lexington, Massachusetts. These first shots of the American Revolution were ushering in a new nation. But the birthing process would prove for many to be exceptionally long and exceedingly painful. The story begun in Abenaki Autumn continues as Nutank's family navigates the many different pathways to liberty confronting each of them.

War and passions erupt violently when Native American and European Cultures collide! "Were I in my village tonight, I would hear the wind moving through the trees. I think maybe I might hear also a child laugh somewhere within a neighbor's lodge. Here I hear music coming from the large stone house, but I do not hear the wind working its way through these trees. Torches and candles burn everywhere as if to turn night into day, but your people do not gather around the flames. Your fires are only lit to provide light, and the brightness of this light drives away the peoples' view of the stars from your night sky. Then while I wonder at why you would do this, you shoot make-believe stars and thunder up into the sky. When I breathe I cannot smell the earth of your land. All this is so, so different for me." "Did my father run along the pathway leading north from our village? Did he search for sign possibly left by my moccasins as I passed that way? It has been so long, so long. What has he told my mother that could comfort her in her agony and worry? Do my parents hear me when the wind blows and the trees sway? Do they look in the new fallen snow for my footprints?"