I can’t think of a better way to spend my birthday month than by sharing with you a book that I hope you will purchase, not for me, but for the cause it is supporting.
In case, you haven’t guessed this by now about me, I
tend to have a small agenda in all of the books I write. I like to show
injustices and hope the reader thinks a bit about it after they have finished
the book.
For years, I’ve been hearing about how many Indigenous
women, children, and even men go missing from reservations or are found
murdered. It is a large number when you consider they make up only 2% of the
population and yet have the highest percentage of missing and murdered people.
When I decided I wanted to write a book about this
subject, I turned to my character Gabriel Hawke. He is an Oregon State Trooper who grew up
on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla reservation. From book one in the
series, I’d set up the premise of book 7, Stolen Butterfly. In the first book,
Hawke visits his mother at the reservation. She is watching and caring for children of single
parents while they work. That is where Hawke meets the woman who goes missing in Stolen Butterfly.
Before I started the book, I knew I would need help
from people behind the MMIP/MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous People/ Missing
and Murdered Indigenous Women) cause. I reached out to an author who lives in
Pendleton (a town near the reservation) and she put me in touch with a woman
who worked with social services, who sent me to another woman, who gave my information
to people on the reservation who had lost family members or were active in the
MMIW cause.
Fortunately for me, there was a woman, Kola Shippentower-Thompson
who was open to speaking with me and helping me make my book as authentic as I
could. She has lost four family members from the reservation and is the co-founder
of Enough Iz Enough, a
non-profit organization that teaches women and children how to protect
themselves and how to avoid being a victim. She answered my questions, gave me insights into how the family feels,
and read the book for accuracy and fluency. She also wrote this review: “The
story was captivating, I couldn’t put it down. So many memories were brought to
surface, so many emotions, like this has been lived before, because it has,
this is a glimpse into our reality in the Reservation. Thank you for seeing us
& helping tell part of the story.”
 |
| Agency House on the Umatilla Reservation |
I was also pleased to learn she had worked security at
the Indian casino and her husband is employed with the Tribal Police in the
Fish and Wildlife Division. She was able to give me information about how the
Tribal Police work as well as the security at the casino. One of the secondary
characters in Stolen Butterfly works the casino security and is the main
character in my new Spotted Pony Casino Mystery series that will release in
July. (Hint: I will be talking about that next month. 😉)
So far, the reviews that have come in for the book
have filled my chest with pride. I am opening eyes to the problem. This problem
isn’t just on reservations. The Indigenous people who move to the cities get
swallowed up. And with no family nearby they become victims with no one looking
for them. I would love a world where no one has to live in fear.
I'm hoping that by showing another culture that is the same as ours but dealing with more than just the day to day of living we can learn to see them and ourselves differently.
The proceeds from the sale of this
book will go to the non-profit Enough Iz Enough. This is a community outreach
organization that advocates for MMIW on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla
Reservation.
Stolen Butterfly
Missing or Murdered
When the local authorities tell State
Trooper Gabriel Hawke’s mother to wait 72 hours before reporting a missing
Umatilla woman, she calls her son and rallies members of the community to
search.
Hawke arrives at the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation and learns the single mother of a boy his
mom watches would never leave her son. Angered over how the local officials
respond to his investigating, Hawke teams up with a security guard at the
Indian casino and an FBI agent. Following the leads, they discover the woman
was targeted by a human trafficking ring at the Spotted Pony Casino.
Hawke, Dela Alvaro, and FBI Special
Agent Quinn Pierce join forces to bring the woman home and close down the
trafficking operation before someone else goes missing.
Universal buy link: https://books2read.com/u/baZEPq
Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 51 novels, 8
novellas, and short stories of murder mystery, western romance, and action
adventure. All her work has Western or Native
American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters.
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Photo source: Paty Jager and DepositPhotos
7 comments:
Paty, thank you for writing this book! Awareness of this human tragedy is so needed, and is the first step towards ending it.
Thank you, Sarah. I hope others feel the need to speak up about it and bring more attention to this tragedy.
MMIW/MMIP is a tragedy that few people even know about. Thank you for spotlighting it!
Going to purchase the book right now! This is a tragedy most people don't know about and needs highlighting. My heart goes out to your Kola and her entire family. I can't begin to imagine how awful it would be to have lost four family members! It must be difficult for her, too, to relive those losses every time it happens again in her work with the non-profit.
May your book get lots of sales and the foundation get a good infusion of money for this great cause.
Thanks for commenting, Judith and Maggie.
Paty - although I knew you were writing this book and why and I knew about your book source, this post is so telling. I used to work in the areas rape crisis and domestic violence prevention, so I did know of the awful toll on indigenous people. Writing this book and donating to the cause will surely enlighten so many others. Running right out and ordering.
Thank you, Deb! I hope it will enlighten.
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