Shell Shaker

The action in this novel alternates between 1738, as a Mississippi Choctow family prepares for war against the English, and the 1990s, as their Oklahoma descendants, the Billys, fight a Mafia takeover of the tribe's casino. In trouble with the law and in the fight of their lives, the Billy women must find a way, as their ancestors did, to join forces. Humor and toughness are the Billys' only weapons. Until the Shell Shaker shows up. Author Biography: Howe is a fiction writer, playwright, and poet whose writings on Choctaw women are drawn from both personal experience and research. Her short fiction has appeared in the anthologies Spider Woman's Granddaughters, Earth Song, Sky Spirit, and Through the Eye of the Deer. 1991 recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to perform the research for Shell Shaker.