The Bend in the River
This is the story of Emma Jorden, a young woman who is left to fend for herself at age 17 after her parents die. Traveling on foot to a trading post, the only civilization in the area, she becomes lost on the prairie during a freak October blizzard (an actual event). She is rescued from near-death by a half-blood Cheyenne warrior, Shea Hawkshadow.
Emma spends the winter living with the Cheyenne in the Indian Territory (now the State of Oklahoma) and...