Polly
Standing Against The Wind;
birth - 1813, death - 1870The author's Great, Great, Great Grandmother, escapes The Trail Of Tears, wounded by the lose of a son in the Civil War, forever enduring the heart break of love divided, she keeps her memories alive embracing her half of The Red Ribbon.
Martha
Standing Against The Wind;
birth - 1839, death - Nov 1921Her home the Warrior Mountains of North Alabama, wife of Polly's son who was killed in The Civil War, widowed she married her husbands brother. This black eyed, black hair Cherokee Woman in death as in life remains in the Warrior Mountains.
Rhoda
Standing Against The Wind;
birth - 1865, death - 1931The beautiful Cherokee maiden picking flowers in the forest was spotted by the young hunter. He was Martha's son. Becoming man and wife, Rhoda and John Allen raised nine children in The Bankhead Forest of North Alabama.
Lucinda
Standing Against The Wind;
birth - Nov 1883, death - 1940Daughter of Rhoda, and Grand daughter of Martha, she married
an Irishman and became the mother of ten children. She, with her family, were forced by the United States Government to move out of the forest.Rebekah
Standing Against The Wind;
birth - 10/15/1902, death July 19, 1976The oldest child of Lucinda, four sisters and five brothers, she
learned at an early age how to be a mother. Grew up in The Valley of The Tennessee River, married a man from Georgia and was the mother of ten children.Martha Lou
Standing Against The Wind;
birth - Oct. 23, 1939Number nine of Rebekah's ten children, named after her Great Great Grandmother Martha and Grandmother Lucinda, she was
born in her grandmother's farm house that stood in the middle of a cotton field in The Valley of The Tennessee River. Age 11 her father took her to live in Florida, age 23 became the wife of a military man, age 50 became a published writer. After all the generations of this family it would be Martha Lou who writes their story.Little Bear
Ribbon of Time;
birth 1813A character introduced by the author to be Polly's friend. At age 17 he left the Cherokee Village in The Smokey Mountains when the United States Government began to forcefully remove the Cherokee west of The Mississippi River. He had a red ribbon that belonged to Polly. He cut the ribbon in half, tied half to the latch of her cabin door and put the other half in his pocket. Cherishing the red ribbon all his life, his journey would not end until the red ribbon was whole again.
War Eagle
Ribbon of Time; War Eagle Texas Cherokee
birth 1813Character created by the author, a Cherokee Warrior who fought with the forever remembered Sam Houston to win Texas Independence. He saved the life of Little Bear during the battle. His journey with his best friend Little Bear took him to Oklahoma, and the gold fields of California. A marriage was cut short by the dreaded disease of Cholera. Beginning his life on the banks of The Red River in north Texas, he embodied the spirit of the eagle. The end of his trail he returns to the place where it began,
The Red River Valley of Texas and the eagle that soars there.