Driven by the desire to rise beyond the traditions of her tribe, the Arickaree, Stands Tall strives to become a great lady of south-central Colorado in the 1840s. Raped by a nephew of the chief of the Arickaree, Stands Tall, along with her grandmother exile themselves to the foothills of the Huajatolla (Wah-a-toya) Mountains, now called the Spanish Peaks—the hatred of men still smoldering in her mind. Away from the harassment of Broken Horn, the nephew of the chief, they live in a cave high on the side of a cañon wall, a cave her grandmother used many years earlier. There she wove her yucca strands into beautiful items of clothing and blankets—until the day she heard a strange chanting rising from a stream far below her. She could not understand the foreign tongue, but from it she learned of new horizons that could be opened to her by a man from a different race.

             Would she give up her freedom and independence and succumb to the demands of her tribe or those of the white world? Would she live with this man and learn from him how to acquire and control the land that would give her wealth and secure her independence? Could she give him the love she knew was hers to give? Could Au-sa-gua, the Great Spirit, free her from her past and erase the ever haunting image of Broken Horn’s ugly face?

A saga of early Colorado, South of the Border—the border being the Arkansas River. Before 1848 and the Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty, the Arkansas River was the border between the United States and Spanish controlled land—then Mexican land, then land claimed by Kansas, Texas, the Jefferson Territory and finally, the State of Colorado.

            From its icy waters originating at Leadville, Colorado 11,300 feet above sea level, the Arkansas River or Rio Nepestle´ as it once was called, battle lines were drawn and many land disputes arose. Land and water disputes are still on the dockets of the courts today. Yesteryear, the courts ignored the ancient people of the mountains and plains.