A Multicultural saga involving forbidden love between a Black Cowboy and a beautiful Native American girl in the midst of cattle drives.
“Smoke on the Wind”is a captivating tale that weaves the perils and
dangers encountered on the Western frontier, highlighting the human
resilience amid hardship and racial discrimination. Mixed in are stolen moments between lovers forbidden from pairing due to their race, culture, or station in life. It’s a time when the vulnerable face perils out on the plains. Danger arises with dust clouds whipped up by charging unknown riders, or puffs of smoke forming in the sky signaling for help. Set against a backdrop of changing seasons and shifting landscapes, the story follows the journey of Will Lawton, a young Black cowboy, after wedding his young Native American bride, Niabi. He plods a path packed with uncertainty that ultimately winds its way to an unthinkable opportunity – an offer of free land.
Excerpt
What started as a vigorous race is now Will’s desperate effort to hold on atop pure raging muscular energy. FireTip’s legs stretch out in front of them with each gallop, the ride akin to being flung up and down, side to side on the back of a great bird in flight, except there are hooves pounding the soil beneath. Will lowers his head and torso near to FireTip’s neck to lessen the air friction against his face. So nearer to the horse, he hears the grunting and heaving of each breath blasting through his body with each stride. At this speed it is difficult for Will to navigate the terrain for those landmarks. His surroundings are a blur. As a horseman he knows this pace is unsustainable. However, wild horses like FireTip live for the fast romp, for sure; and he will go like this as long as Will asks him to, risking danger to himself and his rider. “Once we get there, rest and water for you.”
Another landmark comes into sight ahead—the small forest, and it is not much farther to his plot. “Just a little farther, buddy,” Will says. He makes better time racing through the trees instead of going around them. Once he gets to the plot, he slows and desperately looks for the cornerstone but doesn’t see it. so, he hops off FireTip with his flagged stake in hand and drives it into the ground, hammering it down with the handle of his pistol.
Professional Reviews
- Five Star Review by Tom Gauthier for Readers’ Favorite
If Dances With Wolves were merged with Lonesome Dove and mixed with Days of Our Lives in the skilled hands of Syvila Weatherford, we would have Smoke On The Wind in all its glory. With respect for the Native American culture, sensitivity for the Black experience, Mexican culture, and the white man’s interaction with other cultures, Weatherford takes us into a world of love and respect, violence and bloodshed, bravery and cowardice, and romance and sensitivity, as only fine story telling can do. We follow Will Lawton, a young Black cowboy in his early twenties, working as a horse wrangler with dreams of having a homestead of his own with his young Choctaw bride, Niabi. We encounter Nashoba, the Choctaw who is Will’s rival for Niabi and ends up saving a wounded Will. The author skillfully takes us on a wild ride of characters and circumstances that move smoothly and rapidly across the pages for a truly enjoyable look into a life and time not usually offered with such insight and personal touch.
Set in the mid-1800s post slavery era in American history, Smoke in the Wind, the sequel to Blessing From the Four Winds, picks up at Will Lawton and Niabi’s wedding, and moves forward through perils, hardships, and perseverance in a wonderfully crafted story that Syvila Weatherford has drawn from her own family's history. Her ability to weave the experiences of the Black, Chinese, Native American, Mexican, and Caucasian characters into a single story of life experiences is laudable. The tale has romance, some sweet, some not so, as Weatherford interweaves settings like the courtship of the affable and independent schoolteacher Louisa Ortega by Federico, and of Catherine Applegate making a pass at the married Will. Cattle drives, land rushes, native villages, Mexican towns, characters high born and low born from different cultures, sweet moments and violent clashes, all are woven into a delicious offering by this talented writer.
Self-Publishing Review
An exceptional sequel to Blessings from the Four Winds, which asks timeless questions about our sense of belonging and the many risks we take for family, Smoke on the Wind by Syvila Weatherford is a riveting trip into the past.
Life on the Applegate Ranch settles into some kind of normalcy for the new couple, but with a baby on the way, and shared feelings of separation from sacred traditions, emotions are running high. As the country continues to rapidly evolve, conflicts bubble over into everyday life, and Niabi makes the decision to bring her family back together in Indian Territory, no matter the danger.
Whether depicting the harsh unknown of No Man’s Land, a fire and brimstone sermon, sharp gossip in social parlors, or the passionate tumble of a forbidden couple, the writing has a visceral quality that seems to reach through time. Shining a bold light on the murky reality of the years following the American Civil War, this series refreshingly focuses on the experiences of marginalized people during that uncertain time, offering a revelatory perspective that goes deeper than your average history book, while still feeling like true history.
The journalistic style of narration and the transparency of characters’ internal thoughts sometimes leave little space for a reader’s imagination, and the dialogue can come off as stiff and unnatural, but Weatherford patiently expands this romance-laced series with well-researched nuance and three-dimensional characters, painting a vivid historical portrait of the Reconstruction era.
BlueInk Review
Smoke on the Wind is the second book in a series that explores westward expansion, race
relations, religions, romance and family loyalty in Tennessee and Arkansas immediately after
the Civil War.
This book features the same characters as Syvila Weatherford’s first book, Blessings from the
Four Winds. In her Introduction, she lists them all, which is helpful, as there are over 25
significant characters, and it can be difficult to keep track of them.
Smoke on the Wind picks up where Blessings ended, at the wedding of black stable attendant
Will to Niabi, a member of the local Indian tribe. The guests are white, black, Indian, Mexican,
soldiers, civilians, cowhands and members of the upper echelon. Surprisingly, everyone seems
to get along. But readers will soon discover all is not bliss, and the newlyweds aren’t the only
ones involved in romances, some running more smoothly than others.
From here, the story reads like a soap opera, the narrative toggling between romances, love
triangles and family misunderstandings. Weatherford pauses the narratives for each family at
just the right cliffhanger moments, compelling readers to turn to the next episode.
Meanwhile, the possibility of the U.S. government breaking a treaty and opening Indian territory
for a land rush looms in the background. Will wants some of the land to start a family farm, but
Niabi faces an ethical dilemma, concerned the government is stealing from her people, yet
wanting what’s best for her family. As the story unfolds, the idyllic Tennessee valley begins to fill
with nefarious characters and scallywags.
Most people think of the "wild west" as the land from Colorado to California, but Weatherford
paints a U.S. where outlaws and cowboys and Indians are ubiquitous as far east as Tennessee.
In some ways, the book is a history lesson, made all the more palatable by Weatherford's gift for
storytelling.
Indeed, for readers who like soap opera-style stories, Weatherford delivers an entertaining
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