Yet few books have really delved into the man—where he came from, who influenced him, and what drove him. One of these is his autobiography, edited by S.M. Barrett, superintendent of education in Lawton, Oklahoma, and published in 1906 by Duffield & Co. The next-most significant volume, Angie Debo’s Geronimo: The Man, His Time, His Place (Oklahoma University Press, 1982), came 70 years later. To say we were due for an updated version is an understatement.

Now, renowned Western historian and National Park Service veteran Robert M. Utley offers Geronimo (Yale University Press, 2012), a comprehensive biography that makes clear just what made this ferocious Chiricahua Apache warrior tick.

Born in 1823 in the upper Gila River Valley, Geronimo was the son of Juana and Taslishim, whose father was a peace-loving chief of the Bedonkohe, a Chiricahua band. The boy was given the name Goyahkla, or One Who Yawns, at birth, and received his Mexican name, Geronimo, in adulthood. His high desert homeland helped shape the man that he became, and Utley often breaks off from the narrative to describe it.

For instance, the steep and jagged Mogollan Mountains, located in what is today New Mexico, served as a base for his countless pillaging raids into Mexico for provisions and horses, attacks against American farmers and miners, and a retreat when chased by soldiers. These mountains rose more than 5,000 feet above sea level, with five peaks higher than 10,000 feet. “Only the hardiest and most knowledgeable, such as the Apaches, could summon these tortuous mountains to their pur­poses,” Utley writes.

The proximity of Chiricahua country to Mexico was key to Geronimo’s life. At first he and his followers raided Chihuahua and Sonora for food. Then, on March 5, 1851, a force led by Sonoran Colonel Jose Maria Carrasca, attacked several Apache settlements in Chihuahua, killing well over a dozen people, among them Geronimo’s mother, his wife, Alope, and three children.


“As Geronimo testified, the Carrasco massacre planted in him a bitter hatred of all Mexicans that lasted until the end of his life,” Utley writes of the 28-year-old warrior. “This landmark event shaped the man and marked out his life’s pathway”—which was, in short, revenge.

Never a chief but always a leader, Geronimo was also molded by the people in his life. The most influential were Chiricahua leader Mangas Coloradas (1790–1863) and Chokenen leader Cochise (1810–1874). Coloradas exemplified courage, a cherished Apache attribute, and Utley dubs him the “greatest of all Apache chiefs.” If he had a fatal weakness, it was trusting Americans—a trait Geronimo did not emulate. Taking their word, in fact, resulted in Coloradas’s capture, torture and death at Fort McLane, New Mexico. Cochise didn’t have Coloradas’s political savvy, but he was a master of escape and knew how to take on the Americans when wronged. He waged a 10-year war of revenge against them for killing his brother, two nephews, wife and two of his children in 1861 at a soldiers’ encampment at Apache Pass.


Geronimo finally surrendered in 1886 and spent 23 years as a prisoner of war. He died of pneumonia in 1909 and is interred in an Apache graveyard at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Utley writes in the epilogue that many words and phrases can be used to describe him during different points in his life. But he uses just two in summing up the man’s true character: “complex and contradictory.”

Utley brings to life the legend in a way that even Geronimo’s own autobiography could not. The 14-page bibliography contains the old, tried-and-true sources, but it also brings in plenty of recent literature, including biographies of Cochise and Coloradas by Edwin R. Sweeney, as well as often-neglected works. They include Morris Edward Opler’s An Apache Life Way (University of Nebraska Press, 1941), which features interviews with Apaches of Geronimo’s time, and Grenville Goodwin’s Western Apache Raiding & Warfare (University of Arizona Press, 1971), based on Apache narratives.


The pages of this new Geronimo are dense with names and dates—it is, after all, a serious work of historical nonfiction—and there is a lot of bouncing between the Apache perspective and the white point of view. Nonetheless, the book offers fresh insight into its subject, debunking some myths and misconceptions. Don’t be surprised if you come away from Utley’s work with a totally different opinion of the man.
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 Looking for a great holiday gift idea for a wolf lover in your life or maybe for yourself? Well, unfortunately this book will not be available in time for Christmas, however it can be pre-ordered now for delivery in February of 2013. It is written by Jim and Jamie Dutcher, the couple who lived with and studied the Sawtooth pack of wolves in the Sawtooth mountains in Idaho.

The name of the book is THE HIDDEN LIFE OF WOLVES (National Geographic Books; ISBN 978-1-4262-1012-9; on sale Feb. 5, 2013; $25; hardcover) and it reveals the truth about a highly misunderstood, very social animal that, much as humans do, communicates lessons, bonds together and deeply loves its family.

The book portrays vivid observations about life in a wolf pack including the selection of pack leaders, the birth of pups and mourning the loss of a pack member. These observations offer new knowledge about the lives of wolves. The book is enhanced by wonderful photography that brings their behaviors to life.

As is described by the Dutchers; "Wolves possess something beyond their more obvious attributes of beauty, strength, and intelligence. These animals, who have been maligned for centuries and despised as the embodiment of all that is cowardly, savage, and cruel, clearly care about one another. They show signs of what we believe are nothing less than empathy and compassion."

This book is very timely by presenting breakthrough and critical scientific evidence for the betterment and understanding of this keystone social species. The wolf recently lost its federal protection in the U.S. and is being killed at an alarming pace. The Dutchers are committed to sharing their in-depth knowledge of wolves to help counteract the many false myths that are being spread throughout the world.

Royalties from "The Hidden Life Of Wolves" will go to the Dutchers’ nonprofit organization, 'Living with Wolves', which is dedicated to raising awareness about wolves and their importance to the environment. Actor Robert Redford, who met Jim Dutcher 34 years ago, wrote the foreword to this book. He also shares the Dutcher's concern for the natural world and serves on the honorary board of Living with Wolves.

To pre-order their new book, click on the link below. Although not available until Feb. 5th, 2013, it would still make a nice Christmas gift with a notice that it had been ordered for that wolf lover in your life! Merry Christmas and Happy Howlidays!

Many of you are already aware of the beautiful and true story of an Alaskan wolf named Romeo who became an urban legend around the world. Because of his gentle nature and lack of fear of tourists and the local people, Romeo had taught thousands of people that wolves are playful and not vicious killers to be feared. On the contrary their need to be accepted and loved is just as vital to living fulfilled lives as it is for humans.

Author and photographer, John Hyde, thought of Romeo as more than a friend, and much much more than the lone wolf he photographed every winter for nearly a decade along the lake shores in the mountainous and stunningly beautiful area of Alaska.

He wrote a book about this amazing wolf and describes his feelings toward Romeo in the preface of it as this, "The first time I met Romeo face to face, close enough that we could stare into each others eyes, I felt I was sitting on the edge of two worlds: one so wild and free I might never be able to comprehend its true significance, the other civilized, which I was driven to escape from on a regular basis."

He goes on to say, "Romeo shared our world to our delight and without malice. We, on the other hand, are often too busy thoughtlessly destroying wilderness habitats in Alaska and elsewhere. Romeo's life, the life of a wild carnivore, as it is described in this book in both clear and scientific language, was unique. He lived on the edge of the wilderness and of our so called civilization, where the two often clashed both in benign and more aggressive ways. When they did it was often his gentle behavior that illuminated our own human ignorance and latent aggression toward his or any another wild species."

The name of the book,'The Story of an Alaskan Wolf' is a story that recounts Romeo's life from a tragic and violent beginning to its equally tragic end at the hands of humans for whom he posed no threat. It is also the book of a remarkable photographer whose portraits of the wild and of Romeo are as fascinating as the story is unique.


Romeo's story began as an orphaned and lone wolf who chose his territory close to the town of Juneau. In the wintertime he played with his cousins, the dogs, that accompanied their owners as they snow-shoed and skied throughout his territory every winter. Romeo had a playful and loving soul that the residents of Juneau loved and many adopted him as part of their community.

The book is a compelling story that will be treasured by those who love wolves, wildlife and the wilderness. It is also a tribute to a very special wolf whose life came to be treasured by those who knew him and whose life bridged the gap between the wild and the 'civilized' world of humans. Romeo stands as an example to all of us in our struggle for a better and more sustainable world.

This book would make a great holiday gift for any wolf lovers on your list or as a gift to yourself. Included below is some information on how to purchase it if you are interested.

In a Salon interview, Mark Derr explains how our relationship with our pets can help explain all human history

Would the dog exist if we hadn’t helped create it? That’s one of the thorny questions Mark Derr tackles in his new book, How the Dog Became the Dog: From Wolves to Our Best Friends

Derr acknowledges that the story of the dog’s emergence (as distinct from its evolutionary forebear, the wolf) cannot be “neatly distilled.” Different estimates place the first appearance of dog-like creatures anywhere from 12,000 to 135,000 years ago. But Derr argues that the dog itself was an “evolutionary inevitability.” He suggests that dogs and humans — similar animals who “simply took to traveling with each other” tens of thousands of years ago, “and never stopped” — have had a significant influence on each others’ development over the course of a long, co-evolutionary relationship.

At a time when overly sweet dog books crowd the new release shelves, Derr — whose other works include “Dog’s Best Friend: Annals of the Dog-Human Relationship” — presents an accessible and informative history that’s sympathetic and illuminating. Over the phone, Derr discussed the dog’s evolution, what the Dog Whisperer misunderstands, and why your pet always goes instinctively for your guest who doesn’t like animals. An edited transcript of our conversation is below.

It seems like people devoted to studying when the wolf became the dog are basically interested in answering the question, “What is a dog?” At the very least, that’s a question they need to address before they can get very far — and it’s a subject you address consistently throughout the book. So, what’s the most convincing answer?

It’s a good question. Certainly for trying to find out when the dog became a dog, or when the wolf became a dog, it is important to define a dog. I think for a long time, due to archaeological stuff, the one thing that seemed obvious was [the dog's] small size. But now it’s clear, from recent studies of big canids they’ve been finding in Belgium and other places in northern Europe, that smallness wasn’t it.

So what was the thing that set the dogwolf — I like that term — apart from the wild wolf, the wolf wolf? [A "dogwolf" is a wolf that is "genetically and behaviorally" dog-like, Derr explains in the book.] I think ultimately we’ll get to a sense of what that is. I don’t think we’re there right now. I don’t think it will be derived purely by studying genetics; I think we have to understand behavior and culture, too. And that’s difficult.

One thing that makes it very difficult is that when you look at studies involving early homonins, invariably things that we thought were unique to Homo sapiens – such as fire use or organization of space — maybe weren’t. So it’s hard to tell what even makes us unique from, say, Neanderthal or Homo erectus – other than a bigger brain and more robust body. And that we survived and they didn’t. (But they lived for a very long time, Homo erectus did.)

I think we’re going to have to use all the tools we have available to try and understand this. Archaeology alone won’t do it; genetics alone won’t do it. Certainly the changes in our view of animals will help us understand it, because we have to accommodate the fact that we’re dealing with animals that are making decisions.

The other thing that we have to try and figure out behaviorally for the dog and for the human is how fast these things happen. I mean, you can fracture a wolf pack in no time; you take out the breeding pair, and you’ve got no wolf society there anymore, right? So I think when you have these dogwolves crossing into human society, you’re dealing with change that’s occurring behaviorally, perhaps, pretty rapidly. Certainly biological time is much quicker than geological time.

I’d also like to ask about your sources. You mention a number of studies, and some interviews: Did you do a lot of new research for this book? Or were you able to rely on information you’d collected over the years, in the course of writing your other books about dogs?

I have done three books on dogs now, starting with “Dog’s Best Friend” in 1997 — and I’ve been following this stuff since around 1990, when I did a big cover story for The Atlantic Monthly called “The Politics of Dogs,” which was on the overbreeding of dogs for show and commerce. …

I’ve been following all this stuff since then, and for this book I made a conscious decision that I would just go back and review the scientific literature; I didn’t concern myself overly much with various other things. The whole business about neoteny [the supposed "retention of juvenile traits until adulthood" in dogs] I try to dispel once and for all, but otherwise, my goal was to try to look at these dates and places that have been proposed for the domestication of the wolf, and see if it’s possible to match them up to hominins — to naked bipeds — and see what was going on at the time.

The curious thing — or maybe it’s not curious — is that all the [proposed] dates and places [for the emergence of the dog] do put these wolves in a vicinity with people. And so through my own thought processes, I came up with several notions for this book. One is that the dog is an evolutionary inevitability — that wherever you have wolves and people, let us say, you’re going to end up with at least a dogwolf or dog-like wolf. And so in that sense, you’re never going to find a place for the dog to have occurred; … you have [the dog developing] wherever you have these wolves and humans.

Recent work, from the past 20 years, has overturned the notion that animals are simply stimulus response machines. We know that dogs aren’t, for sure — and we know that wolves aren’t, for sure. And so then I start trying to consider what happens when you put two, let us say, sentient animals together — and how they interact. That’s where all this came from. So I made a conscious decision to base the material that I had on the available scientific papers, and to rely on myself for the rest of it.

It’s clear that many theories about early dogwolves are difficult to prove one way or another — largely because of a lack of concrete evidence. (Even DNA evidence does not always clarify matters.) Do you think the picture will become any clearer as research techniques become more sophisticated?

DNA sometimes seems to muddy things up, doesn’t it? There’s a lot of stuff with the DNA that I think will become clearer. I’m not expert in that, but I talk a lot to [Robert K.] Wayne, who is kind of the leading person in this field, and to other people.

Regarding the DNA evidence, let me say two things. My first dog book came out in 1997, and right after that, Bob Wayne and his group published a date for the origin of the dog that was at the far end — 135,000 years ago. The archaeologists had a hissy fit. A lot of other so-called experts also had hissy fits, and said this couldn’t possibly be true. The curious thing about that date is that despite all kinds of other evidence … Bob himself has never backed off from that 135,000 year date. I saw him just in February, at a symposium where I was talking on this subject, and I asked him point-blank if he’d ever backed off that date; he said no. He hasn’t put it forward with great regularity, because it’s it’s a little out there — but what it shows is that basically as soon as Homo sapiens, anatomically modern humans, began to encounter wolves, you probably have this dogwolf appearing.

That’s one curiosity. The other thing is, a lot of the early DNA work was based on mitochondrial DNA, and it’s based on a lot of assumptions which are not necessarily true. There’s work coming out now that shows that the way that the mitochondrial clock is [interpreted] may not be accurate. … That’s why I say basically the dog was kind of invented on the fly. Wolves and people met on the trail, and they just have been walking ever since, is the way I put it.

You present the idea of “interspecies co-evolution” between humans and dogs. How is this sort of co-evolution different from other symbiotic relationships in nature — the oxpecker and the rhino, for instance? Is the human/dog relationship you describe different primarily because it takes place over such an extended period of time?

Well, of course it’s really long-term. There’s this whole notion that the dog comes from this sniveling, garbage-eating, whiny creature that had once been a wolf and somehow then, when it became a dog, went back to being a kind of bold creature; it doesn’t make much sense to me, and it never did. And then Steve Budiansky a few years ago claimed that dogs were basically just parasites. So symbiosis [is a complicated term].

“Mutualism” is probably better — I prefer that term to “symbiosis,” at least initially.


One thing that surprised me was your argument that in order to live among humans, dogs have to suppress or delay their instinct for fear. I would have thought it was some sort of natural aggression, rather than fear, that they’d be holding back.

I believe it’s fear. [Of course,] other people disagree. …

For one thing, we haven’t selected against aggression in dogs. Some dogs are highly aggressive — far more aggressive than any wolf you’ll meet. Fighting dogs, for one thing; and we also raise dogs to be aggressive in other cases — we haven’t tried to discourage that in the bulk of time. And so what’s more important, it seems to me, is fear: there’s this period in the development of humans, we know, probably — and it’s certainly true for dogs. There are several major periods before the dog is a year old, when if you don’t address the fear, or the fear is not dealt with, then it can become problematic.

It’s likely that this book will appeal more to dog-owners or dog-lovers than to people who don’t often interact with dogs. But do you think questions of the nature of dogs’ ongoing relations with humans, over the course of our evolutionary history, should be interesting to people who don’t have an express interest in dogs? If the co-evolution theory holds water, presumably insight into human-dog relations would be helpful to a greater understanding of human history?

Increasingly now, as we become more and more urbanized, dogs are a connection between us and a natural world — a different world. And a different way of seeing the world. Which many of us don’t avail ourselves of, by the way. I once gave a talk to a group of Beagle Brigade handlers — you know, the little beagles in the airport? — and I asked how many of them had actually gotten down on the floor during the arrival of one of those big jumbo jets and tried to see the world the way their dog saw it. People can’t smell as well as dogs can, but they can at least try to see the world the way they do. My one dog who died of a brain tumor used to sit at a window on the stairwell and stare out the window. I couldn’t tell precisely what he was staring at, but I sat there and looked out there too, just to try and figure out — to get some idea of how this other animal sees the world. I think at its best, that’s what the human-dog relationship allows us to do: expand our understanding.

I know that dogs also serve a great value in helping break down the isolation that people sometimes feel, either toward other people or to other animals. Dogs are tremendous ambassadors, as you probably know — your dog doubtless has an innate capacity to find the person who’s visiting you who is least likely to want to have anything to do with the dog…

Yes — where does that instinct come from?

Well, how many times does your dog win that person over?

Every time.

It’s seduction, isn’t it? It’s an uncanny ability. What purpose does it serve from an evolutionary standpoint? I don’t know. It sure as hell breaks down a lot of isolation that people feel, and it gives them an experience that they wouldn’t necessarily have otherwise. Does the dog consciously do that? I don’t know how anybody would convince me that dogs aren’t aware of what they’re doing. Dogs are very aware in many cases of what they’re doing. But why they’re doing it? I don’t know.

I sometimes think dogs understand us better than we understand them. But the remarkable thing is that [dogs and humans] do understand each other to such a degree. We can understand a dog’s bark, and what his or her body language means, probably better in some cases than we can understand the behavior of other people.

If we could return for a moment to my earlier question, about what insights an understanding of our “co-evolutionary” relationship with dogs offers us more generally: Is it true that we can learn a lot about human development by studying the history of our encounters with dogs? You discuss things we have in common, like certain pack behaviors. Can you talk a little about how the concept might be useful for better understanding humans?

Well, first, there’s been a huge misunderstanding of pack behavior — so let’s just make sure we’re in agreement on that one. The Cesar Millan “you are pack leader” or “you have failed to be pack leader” routine is based on this notion of what a wolf pack is that grew out of studies of captive packs, which were made up of unrelated animals thrown together in these wolf parks. And people studying them saw that the males — unaltered males, unrelated males — fought for status. And they developed this notion of the “alpha wolf” — the biggest, meanest wolf — leading the pack. (It happened to fit, as an aside, with our views of what corporate America should be like. But let’s forget that for a minute.)

But when the researchers — David Mech is the most prominent wolf researcher — finally went and looked hard at wild packs, guess what they discovered? It wasn’t based on fighting at all; it was based on mutual cooperation. Why? Because the pack was an extended family. Ma and pa were the alphas by definition, because they were the breeding pair. Then you had the juveniles, the two- or three-year-olds moving out, and the puppies. And they worked cooperatively. And in fact, the alpha male often deferred to other animals in the pack. Why? Because not fighting is more important to social cohesion than fighting, if you follow me. Chimps, on the other hand, are known to be a rather violent sort, and wage war in various ways; they’re not as socially minded in that respect as wolves.

The early unit that humans had was the extended family — small family groups traveling around. And so I think there’s a kind of mix there that allows for this movement of wolf into human society, much more easily than other animals might do it. I mean, if in fact the wolf gained its dominance through fighting, then you’d be hard-pressed to see how humans and wolves would have gotten together to produce the dog; it’s more likely they would have gotten together to produce bloodshed.

And can we go further, to say that humans adopted certain behaviors from dogwolves — as dogwolves adopted human habits — over the long term?

Well, that’s a little harder to prove.

But possibly?

Possibly. I mean, logically, yes — but can you prove it?

To my mind, much of this is a thought process. Let’s look at what the animals would be doing; let’s look at what the people would be doing. Now, of course, we can’t project ourselves back tens of thousands of years very easily. But culture is really a conservative thing. I don’t mean “conservative” in the political sense; I mean, it conserves. And preserves, and has continuity. That’s why we use dogs today much the way people thousands and thousands and thousands of years ago — probably back to the dogwolf — used animals. You know, as companions; less as beasts of burden now than anything else, but we tend to use them for racing, much to the dislike of certain animal groups (I’m talking about sled-dog racing, not greyhound racing); and for hunting (even detection dogs really are just hunters). We use them for basically all the [same purposes our ancestors used them for], and maybe sometimes more.

I think the relationship that works between dogs and people has remained much the same, too. And this I believe is important and overlooked: many times dogs are abused, and they’ve been treated horribly — often in societies in which people are treated horribly, too, it must be said. So we have to weigh these things relatively. But invariably you’ll find that there are some people who just seem to get it with dogs. They can get inside the mind of their dog. There’s a woman trainer here who can seem to teach a dog to do anything she wants. She just understands them. And she never is cruel to her dogs; they learn, in other words. We know from more than a century of learning theory that if you want to teach an organism something, you are positive — you reward it. You don’t beat on it; you don’t flagellate it. And so my thought is — and there’s some evidence for this (not a whole ton of evidence, because there’s not always a ton of evidence for anything relating to dogs) — that throughout this relationship, the people who really succeed best are people who have that kind of ability with regard to the dog. And the dogs have that kind of ability to really understand people. They just relate to each other, in a really fundamental sense. You were asking earlier about what keeps the relationship going — this keeps the relationship going. The ones that break down, where you have a violent dog that bites and maims your child or the child next door, that is the opposite end of that spectrum. And God knows dogs occupy the full thing, just as people do.

Article & Interview by By Emma Mustich via http://www.salon.com (Emma Mustich is an assistant editor at Salon)

Link to Purchase the book : How the Dog Became the Dog: From Wolves to Our Best Friends

It was a time of the Wolf Moon, when a young Zuni Maiden was headed back to her home after gathering water from the nearby river, when the Navajo who were noted for their quick raids and fearless ways swept her up and carried her off. She silently watched as her village and fields burned and slowly became little more than a puff of smoke to her eyes. Her heart was shattered, and tears ran down her face.

They rode for what seemed like endless days and nights, with her tied tightly to the back of a horse. Every muscle on her cried out as each step of the horses hooves hit the ground. At daybreak, they came to a dwelling and she was dumped onto the ground in front of a group of Navajo Women. They helped her to her feet and took her into a nearby dwelling. She collapsed into a darkened corner and slept all day.

She was awakened by the sound of the Navajo Man as he entered and appeared before her. He reached down and pulled at her clothing. Her eyes pleaded with him, and then looked towards the other women as they reached and took their blankets and went out into the night. Thinking she had all but shed the last of her tears, more began to flow. It was to be a long night.

This continued for man days and nights until one morning she woke early to see the face of the Navajo Woman crouching near her. Gently holding out her hand she grasped the young Zuni maidens in her own. Then handing her a blanket and a pouch of food, she took her to doorway where she pointed to the rising sun. The young Zuni Maiden reached within herself and gathered all the strength she had and ran as fast as her legs could carry her. She ran through brush, over stones, through water and sand. She reached a high spot and turned to look . No one was following her. No one had found her.

Her large eyes looked out as she searched the terrain wondering where she was. The wind howled around her as she sat to rest and eat what little that she had been given and then laid down under the tree line to sleep. Pulling the blanket around her to keep her warm her body gave a small shudder, snow was beginning to fall. Soon her weary body fell into a deep sleep.

As the cold winds brewed across the lands, the sounds of paws crunching through the fresh fallen snow could be heard. Coming upon the small form of the Maiden, a White Wolf bent towards her and sniffed, its silvery blue eyes glinting in the night. Raising its head it released a howl to be sent out to the winds to its pack. The maiden woke with fear, afraid to move as the White Wolf stood over her.

Soon more wolves arrived dragging the lifeless body of a recent kill and pulling it towards the White Wolf. In turn It reached down and pulled it over to the young Maiden, covering it over her for added warmth. Then with a glance he commanded the pack to lay beside her, gently warming her body in the cold winter night. The wolf then encouraged her to eat form the kill as he nudged its share to her. She ate and her body began to replenish itself.

Soon the morning light shone through the trees, and the day looked brighter. Disheveled, and her body covered in blood, the cold biting into her skin, the Young Maiden began her journey once again to return to her village. At the end of the day, she fell exhausted to the ground. Crying out in pain and frustration as her body hit the earth. Tears once again ran down her cheeks, turning to ice before they could fall any farther. Once again a howl could be heard across the winds and soon the White Wolf returned by her side. It could hardly be seen as it moved towards her, its white fur blending with the snow. Reaching again with its paws and encircling its fur and sharing its warmth with her. Looking towards the moon, letting out a howl to the pack calling to them so they could add their warmth to their young charge. Soon they all slept.

Together they traveled for four more days. At daybreak upon the fifth day, the Wolf nudged to the young Maiden and looked in the direction of a distant village. Her feet ran numb to the pain they held, as she got closer to the tiny village. Next to her keeping pace was the White Wolf. Soon she began to see some people of her village, calling out to them and waving, she yelled her name. They all stood silently watching as she approached. Her joy suddenly turned to fear as she soon saw them lifting their bows towards her and pointing them at the White Wolf that ran by her side.

"No do not shoot this White Wolf! It is my protector and has brought me home!" She stopped standing at the entrance to the village, the White Wolf quickly turned and ran back towards which way they had come. The Wolf had gone. She collapsed at the men's feet.

They carried her to her family's lodge and left her on the cold bare floor. They left her there without uttering a word. Lying on the floor next to her was her Mother and Father. She called out to them and they did not respond. The cold Winter's wind screamed through the walls, swirling a dusting of snow around them all. With that she realized that the winds of life had long since left their bodies. She looked around her and the lodge was bare. She had come home to an empty place of death. She called out and no one answered. She was not a traitor to her people, she had been taken from them. She cried out in pain from a place deep within herself. Yet the people would not speak with her, and left her alone.

With the tender loving hands, she dug into the earth until her fingers were worn and bloody to reach the Yucca Root. So she could make the soap that would lovingly clean her parents and prepare them for burial. She adjusted their clothing and one by one she placed them on the tiny blanket and dragged them through the village to the place of the burial grounds. Once again the people watched, stared and said nothing. No one making an attempt to help her.

Leaving their bodies upon the Cliffs of Death, she sang the death song, chanting for their spirits to be taken to the Grandmother's and Grandfather's of the Sacred Directions. Lighting a small sacred fire, she then placed the burial bowls beside them with cornmeal borrowed from others to help in the souls safe journey. She then returned to her lodge. Empty as it was, it was home. Sometimes food was left at the door during the night. The adults of the village did not speak to her, yet as days passed, the young people of the tribe would come and visit. Asking her to tell the story of the White Wolf. So she went about her simple life each moment, sharing the strength and unconditional love that was shared with her by a wolf with all children that sought her out wanting to learn. Sharing with them stories and encouraging them to relish in their freedom and spirit, and in turn becoming a teacher to them all.

Years passed and with it time brought age, age brought weakness, and soon it was time for her to leave the village and go to the place of death. In her heart she new she would never be taken, that she must take herself. She prepared herself, cleansing herself and putting on her worn leather dress.

She made her way through her door and onto the path that led to the burial site. The people watched as she crawled and pulled her frail self up the hill. Her eyes were filled with strength and dignity. She turned her head sensing something, and her ears heard a loud howling across the lands. She raised her voice and returned the howl. It was a howl of freedom that flowed from her, and as it did she transformed into that of a White Wolf. Gaining strength in her legs her eyes shone in the darkness as she ran across the hills to her freedom.

Today there is still seen a Woman with White flowing hair that stands a top White Woman Canyon even today. Having been seen to change before your eyes into a White Wolf. Helping others to find home, restore faith and find their own personal freedom. Listen to your Spirit form within you, and let it breathe and allow yourself to be who you are meant to be.

In SECRETS OF THE WOLVES, the second installment in the series The Wolf Chronicles, Dorothy Hearst uses her intimate knowledge of wolves and talent for crafting a timeless mythology to continue the tale of Kaala, a wolf of the Swift River pack who must find a way for wolves and humans to live together or suffer their mutually assured destruction. The rules that have traditionally separated the Wide Valley wolves from humans are clear: Never consort with humans; never kill a human unprovoked; never allow a mixed-blood wolf to live— the same peace-keeping rules posited by many groups even today whose conflict is fueled by their desire for the same resources. As so often happens, such rules are destined to be broken. Protagonist Kaala shatters the valley’s stringently followed laws, exposing the lies hidden beneath them while facing dire consequences: If Kaala, her motley crew of young pack mates, and human friends can find a way for both sides to live in harmony she will finally prove herself worthy of her pack; But if she fails, the Greatwolves, who rule wolf-kind, will massacre all beings, wolf and human, in the valley.
Told from Kaala’s knowing point-of-view and set 14,000 years ago in a time when the division between wolves and humans was but a thin line, SECRETS OF THE WOLVES transports us to an ancestral world where instinct and cooperation hold the key to survival.

Written by Hearst, who spent years researching wolves in Yellowstone National Park, SECRETS OF THE WOLVES is inspired by the scientific theory of co-evolution: the idea that it was wolves, and later dogs, that made humans the dominant species on the planet by teaching mankind how to hunt cooperatively, hold territories, and form complex societies. Bringing
historically demonized wolves into clearer focus by, ironically, “humanizing” them, Hearst takes readers inside the heart and mind of the beast to show that wolves tribal nature, sense of loyalty, and drive to survive is not so different from our very own. SECRETS OF THE WOLVES draws readers ever deeper into the Tolkien-esque world Hearst has created, spinning what Kirkus calls “a vivid, enchanting tale of friendship, trust and adventure”. With every challenge Kaala and her friends encounter, we face our own most basic questions: What separates animals from humans? How do we find peace in the midst of violence? What would we do to survive and protect those we love?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Previously a Senior Editor at Jossey Bass, where she published books for nonprofit, public, and social change leaders, Dorothy Hearst currently lives and writes in Berkeley, California. She has spent extensive time in Yellowstone, observing (and cuddling with) wolves in the wild, and has
toured the 16,000 year old cave paintings at Les Eyzies, as well as a lesser known cave in the Dordogne Valley, which boasts what may be the oldest representation of a wolf carved into the cave wall. In addition to conducting extensive research in the areas of wolf biology, behavior, co evolution, cognitive science and other related areas, Hearst has also interviewed many of the top wolf and dog experts in the world.


Link to Purchase the Book Secrets of the Wolves: A Novel (The Wolf Chronicles)