"Marie Dorion was the only
woman with the first group of
white men to travel overland
from Missouri to Oregon after
the Lewis and Clark
Expedition".
What
an engrossing book this is by
Jane Kirkpatrick, right from
page one you are drawn into the
story of Iowa Indian woman Marie
Dorion.
The story begins in 1811 and
Marie's far from Ideal husband,
who refers to her as nothing but
femme is about to embark on a
three year expedition as
translator (Pierre Dorion is
fluent in French and many of the
Indian tribes languages) for a
fur trading company, leaving
Marie and their two children,
one still on the breast,
behind.
Marie knows this is a good
chance for her husband to make a
name for himself but is
unwilling to be left behind, she
persuades the expedition leader
to take her and the children
along. A rival fur trading
company led by the manipulative
Manuel Lisa is also heading for
the same place.
The trip is extremely difficult
and full of dangers especially
when Marie discovers she is
pregnant once more, Marie also
meets up with mixed blood French
Canadian Indian Sacagawea, a
woman very much like Marie
herself and a woman who had been
on a similar journey, she gives
Marie both hope and courage to
go on when things seem at their
worst.
Without giving too much more of
the plot away things get worse
before they get better,
Kirkpatrick has totally immersed
herself in the world of this
woman, incidentally based on the
life of a real pioneer of the
same name and many of the
incidents that occur in the book
actually happened, because of
this we end up feeling for the
characters and what they go
through.
This is an enjoyable, easy to
lose yourself in read.
Kirkpatrick continues the story
of Marie Dorion in her new book Every Fixed Star.
