New Audio Book from Living Voices of the Past -

Desert Wife reveals Hilda Faunce's candid style of writing about her life as an Indian trader's wife on the Navajo reservation just before World War I. She faced challenging experiences coming from the Oregon coast to the bleakness of the southwest desert and learning the Navajo language in alien territory. Learn the interaction between Indians and Whites in their trading. Experience how the Indians coped with sicknesses from the White man. Hear the sweetness of the Indians singing. Find out the misconception of the war when they had to register at Fort Defiance. Hilda finally learned, in her four years on the reservation, how to appreciate the cultural differences. Reviews & Excerpts below...

$17.95 U.S. / $26.95 Canada ISBN 0-9671885-2-0 Choose one option below: Add to Cart Order Autographed copy of Desert Wife Order from Barnes & Noble View Shopping Cart  /  Checkout return to top of page

FROM DESERT WIFE LEARN

· How the social life of an Indian woman is determined
· What parts were used when a beef was butchered
· What the Indians often ate in the traders store
· Why the Indian women didn’t want their children to go to a white man’s school
· How they buried their dead
· Why they didn’t tell everyone their names
· What they thought of World War 1
· How the Indians were affected by the war
· What diseases they got from the white man

Desert Wife is the compelling narrative of the wife of an Indian trader in the desert wilderness of the Navajos before World War I. Hilda Faunce was from the Oregon coast and had to learn the Indians wiles and ways while living in an alien territory. She, like Martha Summerhayes, was use to Mother Nature's green foliage, not the dry heat of the desert.

Hilda's husband, Ken, was very clever in getting around the manipulation of the Indians, knowing how to handle them in his calm, quiet way.It took time for the Indians to trust them since they didn't like the previous trader. Hilda learned their language, visited their hogans, became their friend and appreciated their culture in the four years she lived on the reservation.

She tells fascinating stories of betrayal, integrity, cultural differences, sicknesses, their interpretation of the war. Listen to the narrator speak as she relates the entertaining experiences.

Excerpt: From the Chapter, Indian Ways and Wiles

"My dear grandmother," one would begin, "Come into this corner with me. We will speak slowly and not get mad. The children at my house who call you mother are hungry. They cry and call for candy and bread. One has a stomach. He said his mother would send medicine and apples and candy to him by me. Your children need shoes. In six months I will cut my wool. Allow me, my mother, my sister, my pretty younger sister, to owe you twenty dollars until I shear my sheep. This will make all your children who live at my house warm."

Reviews...

"Hilda Faunce's narrative bears authenticity on its face on every page. It deserves to stand high among the many books that have been written about the Indians of the Southwest because of the intimacy and extent of its firsthand knowledge of the Navajo, the simple, clear, straight-away style in which the story is told, the depth of its understanding and the justness of its appreciation of Navajo character." New York Times.

"It never loses its hold." Saturday Review of Literature.

"A beautiful and revealing book." New Republic.

"Merrifield-Beecher has a warm, pleasant voice and she can pronounce Indian names well. Purchase for Native American and memoir collections; history of the Southwest." Kliatt Magazine

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Jane Merrifield-Beecher, actress, director and choreographer from Tucson, AZ performs this abridged adventure in three hours.

Audio Copyright 2000 and Audio Rights Reserved by Beverly's, Ltd.,
11723 N LaTonya Dr., Tucson, AZ. 85737

Recorded at Allusion Studios, Tucson, Arizona