Sing for the Red Dress

This book is both a love story between university professor Dr. Gavin Lone Wolf and Washington DC lawyer Katherine Hill and a haunting narrative of the ongoing problem on Indian reservations of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). An issue that has been neglected for years in real life by both the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the FBI, partly due to jurisdictional conflicts, the fictional Smokey River Tribal Police Force decides to make a difference when they find the names of twelve Native girls who are thought to have been abducted for sex trafficking to oil field workers. Risking their own lives to rescue the girls, when the tribal police and others, including Gavin Lone Wolf and Katherine Hill, infiltrate the oil camps and dig deeper they uncover a cultured but ruthless villain who will stop at nothing to maintain his power.Central to the story is the conundrum of Native people struggling to live in a white dominated society that looks the other way while girls and woman are abducted at an alarming rate. In addition to gathering information for a targeted investigation, characters also participate in indigenous cultural rituals like the sweat lodge to ask for both physical stamina and spiritual guidance to find and rescue the young victims. Gavin must utilize all his Native skills, including following a hawk's path in the sky, to unite his family before time runs out for a witness who knows too much about the sex-trafficking scheme. Marshall's eye-opening depiction of the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women is both heartbreaking and gripping. Prepare yourself for perhaps the most magnificent funeral entourage in the history of fiction. Consider this book a call to action because the character of Melvina Old Lodge, who appears only briefly, is unforgettable. Others in Marshall's "Smokey River Suspense Series" include "The Last Prisoner of the Little Bighorn," "The Wolf and the Crow," and "Blood on the Dress," the sequel to "Sing for the Red Dress, all of which will be released on October 1, 2024. The main characters in the series primarily live on the fictional Smokey River Reservation based on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, but plotlines extend to traditional Lakota territory on the Northern Plains. His contemporary novels are based on current issues facing Lakota people, including crime and the interface between tribal government, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the FBI, and the ongoing epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women that has largely been ignored by the American public and media.

Author: Joseph M. Marshall
Publisher: Lucid House Publishing LLC
Published: 05/05/2024
Pages: 476
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.39lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.96d
ISBN: 9781950495542


Award: Independent Publisher Book Awards - Silver Medal Winner

About the Author
Marshall, Joseph M.: - Award-winning Sicangu Oglala Lakota author and historian, Joseph M. Marshall III, PhD, is one of the most prolific Native writers in the United States. Raised by his maternal grandparents in a traditional Native household on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, he has written eighteen historical fiction and nonfiction books and narrated his own audio books. His work is informed by his background as a Lakota craftsman, who makes his own Native Lakota bows and arrows; a skilled archer; and specialist in wilderness survival. The accounts of real historical figures along with the events that he experienced on the reservation and heard as a child from his grandparents and their generation of oral storytellers also figure prominently in his books. His Native name, given to him at age five, is Ohitiya Otanin, which means "his courage is known." Marshall's accomplishments include co-founding Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Reservation; teaching; public speaking; mentoring of indigenous youth; and serving on the Board of Directors of Lakota Youth Development, Inc. He has been a teacher at the high school level and a professor at several colleges and universities, where he taught Native culture, Lakota language and history. He often lectures and speaks on Native issues and topics. In 2022 he received Crazy Horse Memorial(R) Foundation Educator of the Year Award for his lifelong leadership in education and the impact that he continues to make on Indigenous youth and communities. Marshall has served as a cultural and historical consultant and technical advisor on films, television series and documentaries. He appeared as an actor in the television mini-series "Return to Lonesome Dove" and "Into the West" as well in documentaries and film. In 2023, he received the Owen Wister Award by Western Writers of America for lifetime contributions to Western literature and was inducted into the Western Writers Hall of Fame. "Smokey River Suspense Series" marks his first foray into contemporary fiction and is based on current issues facing the Lakota people. He resided many years in Santa Fe. However, he has returned to the Native lands where he was born.