mail@rfwp.com
Printable order form
Our programs
- English Language Arts: Michael Clay Thompson
- Problem-Based Learning: Shelagh Gallagher
- Science: Dr Dave's Teaching Manuals
- Philosophy
- Bullying Prevention
- Math
- Our Gifted Children magazine
- Speakers
Browse catalog
- All books
- Novels
- Author Index
- Geographical Index
- Subject Index
- Series Index
- Package Index
- Age index
- Grade index
Psalm for a Winter's Twilight
- Author:
- La Force, Beatrice
- Subjects:
- Communication; American History; Native-American; Prejudice; 23rd Psalm
- Geography:
- American Plains
- Age:
- 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
- Grade:
- 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
- Order code:
- 3202
- Price:
- $9.99
- Online Price:
- $7.99
- Class sets:
- 10 or more: $7.00 each. (Order code: 3202S)
Inspired by the American Indian version of The Twenty-Third Psalm, Psalm For A Winter Twilight is a moving study of the contrasts and similarities between Indian and white man in the abysmal time of American history when the Indians had already been defeated and the white man persisted in driving them, often starving, from their homes and land.
It was a time of maniacal vengeance on both sides when innocent children were slaughtered. It was a time of tragic cultural ignorance and a mean-spirited sense of superiority spurred on by fear. But there was also a commonality in people...a possibility of understanding. And the story, which opens in blood-red violence, closes in the cooler violet glow of the possibility of brotherhood under a Greater Being. This twilight night is one of the commonality of Mankind and peace when Indian and white man share the transcending beauty of The Twenty-Third Psalm in Sign and spoken English.
The novel addresses knee-jerk emotions and considered actions. It speaks to the better side of people: the minister and his wife who adopt two orphaned Indian children and raise them as their own; the once-proud chief and his little band of survivors who opt to trust; the U.S. Army officer who is wrestling with his military oath and his religious/humane con-victions. There are the young soldiers and homesteaders driven by punishing overkill, too, but this night in a house of God they are held off. At the center of the story stand the two adopted children, now teenagers. They are the interpreter and the bridge.
From their first encounters with Christian missionaries, the North American Plains Indians used Universal Sign Language to communicate the Psalm among tribes who spoke different oral languages. In 1894, Isabel Crawford, a Baptist missionary to the Kiowa Indians in Oklahoma translated the Sign Version into literal English. The Indian Version of The Twenty-Third Psalm is included in this story in a very slightly edited form.
Beatrice La Force is a resident of California.
Inspired by the American Indian version of The Twenty-Third Psalm, Psalm For A Winter Twilight is a moving study of the contrasts and similarities between Indian and white man in the abysmal time of American history when the Indians had already been defeated and the white man persisted in driving them, often starving, from their homes and land.
It was a time of maniacal vengeance on both sides when innocent children were slaughtered. It was a time of tragic cultural ignorance and a mean-spirited sense of superiority spurred on by fear. But there was also a commonality in people...a possibility of understanding. And the story, which opens in blood-red violence, closes in the cooler violet glow of the possibility of brotherhood under a Greater Being. This twilight night is one of the commonality of Mankind and peace when Indian and white man share the transcending beauty of The Twenty-Third Psalm in Sign and spoken English.
The novel addresses knee-jerk emotions and considered actions. It speaks to the better side of people: the minister and his wife who adopt two orphaned Indian children and raise them as their own; the once-proud chief and his little band of survivors who opt to trust; the U.S. Army officer who is wrestling with his military oath and his religious/humane con-victions. There are the young soldiers and homesteaders driven by punishing overkill, too, but this night in a house of God they are held off. At the center of the story stand the two adopted children, now teenagers. They are the interpreter and the bridge.
From their first encounters with Christian missionaries, the North American Plains Indians used Universal Sign Language to communicate the Psalm among tribes who spoke different oral languages. In 1894, Isabel Crawford, a Baptist missionary to the Kiowa Indians in Oklahoma translated the Sign Version into literal English. The Indian Version of The Twenty-Third Psalm is included in this story in a very slightly edited form.
Beatrice La Force is a resident of California.
