When the Great Canoes Came - Hardcover

Lost Owl is at the age that his Pamunkey ancestors had their huskenaw-- when the young Indian boys would go into the forest with the priests for months to be tested for courage and endurance, to learn the laws of their people, and to return as men. Now, years after the English settlement of Jamestown, Lost Owl and his friends have only the wise lore of the Indian queen, Cockacoeske, to teach them of their heritage. Her stories describe the days before and after the arrival of the European settlers, detailing the history of the Indian tribes of Virginia from a native point of view beginning with "When the Great Canoes Came".

Author Mary Louise Clifford holds a master's degree in education from Virginia's oldest university, the College of William and Mary. During the course of her graduate work, she followed up on a professor's challenge to explain the English intrusion on the Indians to young readers. The result of her research is When the Great Canoes Came, a retelling of American history that is sure to raise cultural awareness.