These black pioneers had little choice but to desperately try to make a living on 160 acres of dry, sandy soil that was barely suited for grazing. In an ironic twist their community became known as Bliss, so called because a local family by that name had the first post office. A determined few stuck it out until about the end of World War I. Then they all simply vanished. 

                 This novel is the culmination of a year and a half’s journey of research and writing. It traces the struggles of the Hector Dixon family from his early days as a slave in Virginia, and his wife’s harrowing escape to the North as a young girl. The story continues through their burial in the lost Negro Cemetery by peaceful Goose Lake. An eventual breakthrough led to the discovery of a present-day descendant of one of the black Bliss families, and a new perspective on this largely unknown aspect of Nebraska history.

    Santee Sorrow is a stunningly honest history of the violent and tragic history of the Santee Sioux. The story is told through the eyes of a troubled, mixed-race young man who has left the tribal reservation in Northeast Nebraska to assimilate into a "better" life with his new White friends. Eventually, feelings of emptiness and guilt drive him to explore his Indian roots.
     What he finds is not necessarily comforting. The brutality and cruelty was pervasive during the period before and after the so-called Minnesota Uprising. He discovers shocking deeds committed by and to both his White and Indian ancestors. The knowledge leaves him even more philosophic about his identity and how to best relate to his new world.