Ghost Warrior (62 page)

Authors: Lucia St. Clair Robson

BOOK: Ghost Warrior

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The Ndee avoided using a person's given name, even when speaking of them in the third person. When they had to refer to someone, they used terms of kinship or nicknames. The nicknames were usually humorous and unflattering and not spoken in the person's presence.

The People often went by Spanish names, as well as the ones they chose or that were chosen for them; and they changed those names from time to time. When someone died, that person's name was no longer spoken. If it was the same word as a common object or animal, the Ndee made up new terms for those rather than risk calling up the ghost of the one deceased. For this reason, some names or their translations have been lost.

Some people were known by one or more names to their own people, but by different ones to the Mexicans and Americans. Cochise, for instance, was called Cheis by the Ndee.

To avoid adding more confusion to a situation already difficult for those not familiar with it, I have people refer to individuals by their given names, although rarely calling them that to their faces.

Praise for Lucia St. Clair Robson

“A magnificent novel as only Robson can write.”

â
Roundup Magazine

“No one makes history as familiar and as vivid as Lucia St. Clair Robson. In
Ghost Warrior
she has breathed life into an extraordinary spirit and genuine heroine, Lozen. I can't wait to place this book on my keeper shelf.”

âFern Michaels, bestselling author of
Texas Heat
and
Texas Rich

“The only disappointment I found in this book was having to put it down.”

â
True West Magazine

“Lucia St. Clair Robson has written an epic novel.
Ghost Warrior
evokes the life of a Native American woman, who at last, and rightfully so, takes her place in history. The characters are memorably drawn, the narrative resonates with the truth of time and place, and Lozen, warrior and shaman, leads her people in a valiant fight against injustice.
Ghost Warrior
will compel readers to read on and on â¦ late into the night.”

âMatt Braun, Spur-Award-winning author of
The Kincaids
and winner of The Cowboy Spirit Award

“A great main character, immense moral tragedy, all sung with full lungs.”

â
Kirkus Reviews

“The spirit of Lozen, shaman, warrior, healer and expert horse thief, surely possessed Robson while she wrote not only the story of Victorio's beloved sister, but of her people, from the time when they lived near streams and good grass to the cruel end when they survived like lizards, hiding in the rocks, enduring heat, cold and thirst. For this, Robson deserves a warrior's embrace.”

âJeanne Williams, Golden Spur Award winner and Levi Strauss Golden Saddleman Award winner for Lifetime Achievement in Western Literature

“
Ghost Warrior
is a big, rousing, heart-breaking readâwith crisp command of the history, of Apache customs and of the nature of implacable warfare, Ms. Robson takes us through the last tragic days of the Chiricahua Apaches in the Arizona desert. She tells the story through a woman shaman on the Apache side and a wise man on the white side and lets them play out the ruinous tale. A fascinating book that deserves wide readership.”

âDavid Nevin,
New York Timers
bestselling author of
Treason

“Geronimo, Victorio, Cochiseâso legendary is the toughness and the hit and hide warfare of the Apache people in their centuries long struggle against the Mexican and then U.S. invasions that it might come as a shock to readers of Lucia St. Clair Robson's
Ghost Warrior
that Apache's were spiritual human beings with a complex culture and that a woman, Lozen, was equal in importance with those famed war chiefs. The author's trademarksâexhaustive cultural research and earthy proseâmake the reader believe and care.”

âJames Alexander Thom, author of
Follow the River
and
The Red Heart

“Lucia St. Clair Robson is more qualified to tell the story of Lozen than any writer today, and she does so in an award-winning style â¦ well-defined, personal, accurately depicting historical characters with careful attention to historical fact. For anyone whose reading choice is the American West, history, action, strong women, or the mystical quality of the American Indian's medicine, this is the book.”

âDon Coldsmith, bestselling author of
The Spanish Bit Saga

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

GHOST WARRIOR

www.luciastclairrobson.com

A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
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New York, NY 10010

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Tor
^Â®is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

Map by Ellisa Mitchell

eISBN 9781429936057

First eBook Edition : May 2011

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2001058612

First edition: May 2002
First mass market edition: May 2003