This memoir, written as a fictional narrative, describes the author's girlhood growing up during the late 19th century and into the early 20th century in the Yorkville and Anderson Valley region of Mendocino County, California, and about her constant, loving interactions with the native tribes of the area.

The book begins with a brief history of the local native tribe and an imagining of their experience of the first coming of Europeans to the valley. The valley is surrounded by what were then relatively inaccessible mountains and is located generally in a remote part of northern California, so white settlers were relatively late arriving and few in number. That didn't last long, however. At any rate, Hulbert grew up in a prominent early land-owning family in the region, raised by her parents and grandparents. Her grandfather, particularly, had a strong empathy for and friendships with their Indian neighbors. Hulbert herself was back and forth constantly between the family ranch and the Indian villages and made life-long friendships there.

The book is full of descriptions of her interactions and relationships with the Indians, and descriptions, as well of events and individuals in the tribe during those years. There are many very well written details, also, of native way of lifestyle, crafts, religious practices and philosophy. But as more white ranchers come into the Valley, the Indians are squeezed more and more. Soon, just about all the land around is "owned" by whites. Whether or not the Indians can remain on land they've lived on for centuries come down to the attitudes of individual ranchers. Or, sometimes, the children who inherit land when a parent dies. The ranchers' livestock eats or tramples much of the native plant life that the Indians have long relied upon for food and medicine. Game they've relied upon for hunting becomes scarce. Tuberculosis (the "white man's disease") take a giant and ever larger toll. Infant and child mortality increases. In Hulbert's lifetime, the Indian culture in the valley essentially withers away.

So in the end it's a melancholy story, told in hindsight. And yet so many of the incidents that Hulbert relates from her childhood memories are filled with love and wisdom. Humor as well. In a way, Hulbert's attitude is a mixed bag. Obviously, her esteem for the indigenous people she has grown up among is sincere and the dominating aspect of her narrative. And yet, there is a clear paternalistic strain, as well. Indians are described at various times as "childlike" and "loyal" (as if Indians being loyal to the white settlers who were crushing their culture somehow made sense). Even her grandfather at one point tells an Indian leader who is concerned that the tribe may be forced to move to one of the reservations being set up for native tribes nearby that "if the government says the tribe has to move to a reservation, you will have to go." On the other hand, after saying this, he deeds a large part of his ranch officially over to what's left of the tribe. Since they now officially--as per the white man's law--own this tract of land, they cannot be forced to move off of it. So he means well by them and acts accordingly. But the injustice of their having to rely on his largess for their survival is only very lightly implied in Hulbert's telling.

Hulbert was a good, descriptive, writer. This book, published in plastic ring binding locally in 1988, is a very valuable source of information about the Native Americans of this specific time and place. ( )