Annosanah: A novel based on the life of
Christopher Gist

Pioneer, fur trader, and frontier diplomat, Christopher Gist, the first Colonial explorer of the Ohio territory, is also Annosanah - speaker of true words. In spite of his Wyandot title, he knows he must deceive the very Indians who have named him. In the guise of an emissary inviting the Ohio tribes to a conference, he searches the Ohio Valley for land best suited for white settlement. On this first journey in 1750 for the Ohio Company, he seeks to replace his lost inheritance through land speculation, thus setting the stage for the eventual displacement of these Indian people. In the next decade France and England fight the last of the French and Indian Wars. A willing participant, Gist sees the destruction of his home, a stormy relationship with an arrogant young George Washington whose life he twice saves, a fiasco at Fort Necessity, and the annihilation of General Braddock’s Redcoats. But this life of adversity only prepares him for the most challenging task any frontiersman could face: liaison between two peoples as different as the worlds from which they come.

The author consistently remains close to the historical record, yet he richly embellishes the on site action and inter-personal relations with a fertile, but authentic, imagination.

5 ½” x 8 ½”, paperback, 280 pages, published 2005, $30.00.