Janette Oke’s Drums of Change is a fictional account of a young Blackfoot girl in Canada just after Custer was killed at Little Big Horn and the buffalo disappeared from their homeland. Running Fawn does not want to accept the white man’s God, but gradually learns that Jesus is her God too. This book explains many Blackfoot customs, how the West changed and how the Indians had to adapt to the changes. This book is found on the library shelves under the number F/OKE.

In this story you will watch as Running Fawn, a Blackfoot Indian and very proud of it, grows up and fights change every step of the way. Running Fawn loves her way of life and is slowing starting to see things change around her and see the influence of the strange new world she is suddenly thrust into when her parents send her away to a Mission Boarding School in Calgary. Eventually she will decide on her own to walk back to her people when she hears of sickness and death in her tribe. The chief's son, Silver Fox, will go after her and take her to her people, where she will stay. There is also the missionary man who has lived with their tribe and his influence on the people. Running Fawn has never liked him, but this time she will learn much from him and grow to appreciate him.

There was a lot of history here in this story and it was a very interesting book. I appreciated how the author showed all the changes and hardships these people had to make and endure. It was a very well told story and I am glad I was able to read it ( )

Running Fawn has always loved and taken pride in the ways of her Blackfoot tribe. But survival is becoming difficult as the buffalo disappear, and white men have shown up on the prairie, bringing guns, diseases, and their foreign religion. Running Fawn will have to decide where she fits in a world she barely recognizes anymore in Drums of Change, a novel by author Janette Oke.

I first read this book by one of my all-time favorite authors, oh, twenty years ago or so. Rereading it was a walk down memory lane with a changed pair of eyes.

The Native American peoples' plight is presented with a gentle hand by the author, but the tension, the irony, the pain, the resignation in all of it hit me in a different way this time around. The mix of skepticism, hope, and anger at the offer of (more) treaties. A nomadic people reluctant to face the prospect of no more buffalo to follow, but perhaps more reluctant over the prospect of moving to a Reserve. A young, imminent chief, Silver Fox, who respects his heritage but wants his people to make it in a world that, for better or for worse, won't be the same.

Perhaps with the exception of Running Fawn, I didn't get too strong a sense of the characters. This was particularly true with Reverend Forbes, since much of his "airtime" takes place through letters or in the background somewhere instead of through front-and-center action or dialogue. The "I wish I could marry him/her, but he/she isn't a Christian" plot theme has never really worked to me, in a novel. And, yes, it amused me to run into the same error I remembered running into twenty years ago, where Running Fawn's name is once mistakenly used to refer to Silver Fox.

Still, I enjoyed revisiting this novel from one of my favorite series, the Women of the West. I've already read most of the series' novels two or three times and absolutely plan to reread some more. ( )

The book was inspirational and written well. It's not a genre that I would read all the time but it was a reasonably good Christianity type book. I loved the story. When reading a book of this historical setting of the late1870's between the Indians and White people it becomes educational in the process of reading. Even though it is fiction it has alot of true history background. The book was not war setting. It was about the Indians learning new skills to survive and live among the White people when buffalo became scarce. I enjoyed the book and recommend it to anyone who likes to read this genre......Banjo

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Story of a Native American group, beset by changes when the white men arrived - some positive, some not so good. Low-key Christian message (one of the white men is a missionary) and an even lower-key romantic thread. Brings alive some of the customs of the time, and the cultural difficulties as people tried to adapt and adjust to each other. Overall, a pleasant light read. ( )