Rising Lion--Ascending Moon is the first of two volumes to chronicle the adventures of the Benteen clan during the rugged and uncharted times of the early nineteenth century. Ezra Benteen is introduced as a youth in the latter 1820s in the Kentucky territory. He's the son of a Scottish father and a Lenape mother, both hardy and vigorous people. In time, a devastating blow strikes the family and changes his life forever. This tragedy eventuates their migration to St. Louis. There they attach themselves to fur trappers headed for the great Mandan trading village on the upper Missouri. The year is 1828. Enroute, seventeen-year-old Ezra is forced to complete the mission alone. Upon arriving, he's stunned to find the village waiting on him, believing him to be the incarnation of their village shaman's dream ... the powerful one. He soon finds himself informally adopted by the tribe. His loneliness and natural curiosity spur him to learn their lifeways and fall in love with their people. He encounters unforgettable characters: a deeply traumatized translator, an old Sioux language teacher, and a most remarkable Mandan woman. Additionally, he discovers the bow as an instrument of provision and battle, using it to devastating effect. And his quick wits and fighting skills rapidly purchase him standing among both whites and natives. But above all, he's a committed student dedicated to learning all that can be learned from the peoples, the animals, and the wild country in which he finds himself. His reputation grows, and the discerning choose to be his friend-never his foe. Ezra emerges as a large-hearted warrior-adventurer who impacts powerfully the lives of those whom he touches with his "big medicine." He wrestles to overcome the trauma of childhood and the shame it has brought him, and struggles to walk out his calling, the end of which unfolds as he musters the courage to follow it. Rising Lion-Ascending Moon is a feast for all those who love sweeping historical epics. Crafted to make the reader feel the experience and romance of one of America's most colorful periods and people, it's filled with adventure, wonder and romance, and rough compelling characters along the way. You'll find it hard to lay aside.