The Days of Mawatani: The Boy Who Turned Himself Around
Meet Mawatani, an exceptional 12-year-old Oglala boy. His village considers him to be a future leader. Soon after this story begins, he experiences a life-changing event that impacts him to such an extent, that it challenges everything he has been taught and interferes with who he hoped to become.
Join Mawatani on his journey into manhood amidst tragedy, injury, rebellion, discovery, a harrowing experience with a bear, games, bow and arrow contests, a buffalo hunt, sessions with a wise holy man, a step into spiritual awareness, and acceptance of the realities of life that must be faced. The story follows times of enthusiasm, exhilaration and fun, and those of discouragement, frustration and fear. This all leads to Mawatani’s first vision quest; his first step into manhood, and a message of who he is to become. Come! Join Mawatani. Meet his friends and become a part of his story. I think you’re going to like him and be glad you came along.
What is unique in my story?
We have a tale of American indigenous people of the 18th and 19th century, just living their lives in community and basic peace on the earth they believed was given to them to care for by the great spirit. It depicts the life of families and communities during that age. No armies or settlers, no enemies, but those that come with normal life; laughter, tears, tragedy, success. Failure, etc. This is a different American Indian story.
She spent her first eight years living on the Moapa Valley Paiute Indian reservation in Nevada (her father worked for the Union Pacific railroad). Her family moved to Southern California in 1946, where she finished the first part of her education, graduating with a degree in music (flute and piano) from Chapman University in 1959. To help pay for her education, she worked full time during these years at Disneyland. For several years after graduating, she worked for a large educational music company, becoming its sales manager. In 1970, she was hired by a store in Denver, Colorado, to develop a band, orchestra and choral department. She was then hired as a part of a team of three sales representatives for 20 music publishers to the western states where she travelled by motorhome to ten states twice a year.
After spending most of her life in music with 20 years in the business, she had the desire to broaden her life with something new. She returned to college, earning a masters degree in Adult Christian Community Development and worked for a large church in Colorado as coordinator of outreach ministries. During this time, she wrote a 16-week training course for bereavement ministers and developed an eight-week forum for those who had problems or questions about their faith.
My primary reason for writing my book was to attempt to establish a realistic view of a wonderful group of people that few know anything about, and due to lack of proper education, still think of them as uncivilized in the past. I wanted to show that they were very community-centered, moral, thoughtful people; a different lifestyle than others we knew, but a great and wonderfully organized society. Their children were very disciplined and capable, loved to play and have fun just like kids of today. We are all just people. We are family.
