These is my words...

I must be on some kind of history kick this summer. After reading Hattie Big Sky my mother-in-law (another book lover) recommended These is my words by Nancy E. Turner. It is done in a journal format and really explored what it must have been like for a woman in the Arizona/New Mexico Territories when Tucson was just becoming a town. I loved the book but hated all the anti-Apache sentiment that goes with this time period. Like trying to read Little House on the Prairie to your children and all the horrible "red-faced Indian" conversations that take place between Laura and her family. In These is my words though I really loved how the main character, Sarah Prine grows as a character. After many run-ins early in her territory history with angry Natives (and we know they are angry for good reason!!!) she grows to trust a particular Indian that has helped her husband. Even when she is the recipient of prejudice because of this friendship she sticks by it and welcomes the man into her home and misses his help when he is gone.