The Saga of the Seventh Generation

A Trilogy for our Times

By C. J. Hotchkiss

I see a time of seven generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the sacred Tree of Life and the whole Earth will become one circle again.”  Crazy Horse, 1877

Book One:
The Ancestors

Isha, Elizabeth, Obediah, and Mizheekey begin the saga of four families – Cherokee, English, Irish, and Ojibwe – who shape and are shaped by the tumultuous history of the United States.
Isha carries the weight of his grandfather’s dream while the indentured Obediah’s fiddle replaces his words in his lonely search for home. Elizabeth is swallowed up by her responsibilities in the New World and Mizheekey drifts off into a world of prophesy and spirits.
A passionate affair between Elizabeth’s brother, Samuel, and Mizheekey’s granddaughter, Morning Star, is ended by the Meeker Massacre in White River, Colorado, evoking a curse that dramatically impacts the descendents of all four families.

Book Two:
Ripples

Your shame will follow you and poison your life.  The women who circle your life and their daughters, thereafter, will perish from your dishonor.  You will never again know the true love of a woman.  May you never be forgiven and suffer the loss of all that you love until you are afraid of love itself.”  

Mato’s curse has unforeseen consequences for the offspring of both Samuel and Morning Star. Raven, love child of Willie Bear and Willow, combines great beauty and rage that gives voice to the outrage of her people. Her child, Maggie, brings innocence back to the family line, only to be broken in Chastity and her daughter, Jessie. None of the girls in Samuel’s line survive, but his grandson, Nick, joins up with Sarah to discover the secrets of Samuel’s past.

Book Three:
All My Relations

Jessie, descendant of Morning Star, Willie Bear, Willow, and Samuel, has overcome painful adversity and become a Native activist and student at Fort Lewis College in Colorado. Peter, descendant of Samuel, Nicholas, Obediah, and Sarah, has come to peace with his dying father and gone off on a walkabout with his close friend, David Trimble, a 19-year-old Blackfoot Indian.
When David has to leave unexpectedly, Jessie and Peter meet while each is rafting solo on the Colorado River looking for an anchor in their respective lives. Their deep and tragic love breaks the curse, enabling their two children, Sara and Ben, to fulfill the prophecy of Crazy Horse. They are the seventh generation and the beginning of the seven to come.

About This Trilogy

I am currently looking for a publisher or agent who believes in this book and wants to help me get it published. If that is you or someone you know, please get in touch!

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