Jan Hudson (2) (1954–1990)

I really enjoyed this book- I don't see myself reading it again, so I'm swapping it, but still. Even though Sweetgrass talks of nothing but marriage, the story is engaging. I loved watching her life through times of plenty and the hardship of smallpox. Admittedly I paid less attention to her constant desire to marry Eagle-Sun than to all that she did day to day, which was fascinating enough for me.

I read this many years ago, and I remember liking it. Sweetgrass is a coming of age story for a young Blackfoot girl who is on the brink of womanhood. It deals with a lot of surprisingly complex issues: maturity, morality when weighed against saving lives, obedience versus disobedience to authority figures, and the like.

Read when I was younger.Liked it well enough to re-read some times.

Also I really admired the main character and they way she managed to deal with her troubles.

Also I am realizing that many of the books I read during this period (90s) involved native americans.There certainly seems to have been a trend going on with the publishers!

Sweetgrass, a fifteen-year-old Blackfoot indian, is the oldest unmarried girl in her tribe. She wants to marry Sun Eagle, however. Her best friend doesn't get to marry the person she wants to, though, so she doesn't know what the future holds, especially when her father drinks alcohol and is angry with her. When a smallpox epidemic breaks out in the 1830's, she gets her chance to prove her maturity and forge a future for herself.