Foreword by Gregory Hintonviii

Author's Introductionxii

A Western Bioxvi

Agriculture

Gates1

Haying at the CK4

Subsidies: One American's View20

Esperseth: A Little-Known Forage Plant32

Bobcats as Pest Controllers38

Grasses: Those Graceful Dancers49

Animals

The Gentle Being61

The Spottie: Appaloosas and Why People Wanted Them69

Why Do Texas Longhorns Have Long Horns?80

A Gift of Pheasants93

Arts

Oriental Love Affair105

Jewelry of Heyoehkah Merrifield112

Art Treasures of an Old Ranch House124

The Métis Sash in Charles M. Russell's Art133

Cities

To Live (and Not Die) in L.A.147

A Westerner Ponders New Orleans150

Traveling Light159

Grandma's Garden in Mid-Wilshire163

California Dreamin' On165

Cooking

Dream Soup171

A Bounteous Meal175

Delight and Danger of Chile Peppers186

Gender

Two-Spirit People, and Assumptions About "Berdaches"195

Calamity Jane: "That Awful Girl"204

History

When Research Gets Real219

Liberty Is a Pagan Goddess228

Many Closet Doors255

Politics

Frontier Justice in the Nineties261

MLK Day in Choteau, MT265

Censorship: Burning Charlie Russell at the Stake268

Anatomy of a Short Sale271

Sexuality

Girl Grassroots283

What My Mother Did When She Read My Gay Novel294

A Coming-Out Tale of Old-Time Montana299

Orange County Odyssey305

It's My History Too308

Spirituality

The Right to Be Spiritual315

Eagle Feathers of Thought321

The Day the Deer Told Me Things326

Women

Remembering Quarra Grant: First "First Lady" of Montana Territory337

Alice Greenough: Women's Rodeo Pioneer349

Janet Thomson: Racehorse Trainer355

Pat Quillen: Caring for the Small Wildcats361

Earth Thunder: Medicine Woman Working for Our Planet371

Zest

Happy 65th Birthday to Me379

Moments of Stillness382

Victory Gardens, and Starting Over384

Acknowledgments388

Patricia Nell Warren Novels Set in the American West392