1800s, Multicultural, Women, Native North & South Americans 

Born in the 1830s, Buffalo Bird Girl was a member of the Hidatsa people, a Native American community that lived in permanent villages along the Missouri River on the Great Plains. Like other girls her age, Buffalo Bird Girl learned the ways of her people through watching, listening, and then doing. She helped plant cops in the spring, tended the fields through the summer - scaring off birds and other animals, as well as hungry young boys! - and in autumn joined in the harvest. She also learned to prepare animal skins, dry meat, and perform other household duties.

Along with her chores, however, there was time for playing games with friends or training her dog. Her family also visited the nearby trading post, where all sorts of magnificent things from the white man's settlements in the East could be seen.

Interweaving the actual words and stories of Buffalo Bird Woman with his artwork and archival photographs, award-winning author and artist S.D. Nelson has woven a poignant yet vibrant story, beautifully capturing the spirit of Buffalo Bird Girl and her lost way of life.