Follow the story of the fictional Beck family as they travel by steamboat from Cincinnati, Ohio to the new western frontier settlement of New Ulm, Minnesota in 1857.They and their neighbors face unexpected challenges.  Constructing a house, growing a garden, hunting and fishing for food, and building a community while surviving sickness, prairie fires,  weather extremes, and mosquitoes. In 1862, they defend their town against an attack by frustrated, starving and desperate Dakota warriors.

In several treaties in the early 1800s, the Dakota sold land they had lived on for generations.   U.S. government policies tried to assimilate them into European farming methods and culture and erase their Dakota language, culture and traditions. The Dakota were left dependent on yearly payments of food, supplies and money that always seemed to be late and too little.

Inspired by memoirs, personal accounts and historical sources, fact and fiction blend in this novel of tragedy and survival in a place both the Dakota people and the settlers called home.

The book will be available August 24, 2024.

Read excerpts from A Place Called Home on the BOOKS menu under the title.

For book orders or single titles or class sets, author talks and school visits, email [email protected].

© 2023Nancy Noyes Silcox