by F. Burleigh Willard

Against the backdrop of the history of Black Hawk, and then of pioneer days in western Kansas, emerges the story of Frances Amelia Merrill, the Indian girl whose life and legacy are recorded in this book. The author, F. Burleigh Willard, a retired Free Methodist missionary, is one of her great-grandsons. As one of her many descendants who have served the Lord in spreading the gospel, Burleigh spent 40 years as director and teacher in Bible Schools in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Latin districts in the United States. After a sixty-year absence from the Midwest, Burleigh, now widowed for the second time, has returned to Illinois to live with a daughter-one of his four children. Interestingly, his new home is about three hours from Rock Island, Illinois, where Saukenuk, the main city of Frances' tribe of Sac and Fox Indians, once stood.