A Name of Her Own

Name: A Name of Her Own
Rating: 3.97 (1859 reviews)

by Jane Kirkpatrick Book 1 in the Tender Ties series.

First published 2002

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4.0(1,859)

Marie Dorion refuses to remain in St Louis when her husband joins the 1811 Pacific Fur Company expedition, taking two young sons across the continent through unfamiliar country and unstable leadership. Along the route she meets Sacagawea, another Indigenous mother whose experience gives Marie friendship and warning.

The expedition’s failures leave Marie fighting for her children amid hunger, violence and winter. Based on the life of the first mother known to cross the Rocky Mountains and remain in the Pacific Northwest, the novel presents survival as an act of maternal courage sustained by memory, faith and practical knowledge.