Book excerpt: From her birth in a one-room cabin the 1930s on the Northern Cheyenne reservation in Montana, Ann Strange Owl's memoir chronicles her remarkable life through BIA boarding school to her escape from the reservation as a dental assistant, to being a contestant in the first Miss Indian America contests in Sheridan, WY. Her ancestral stories cover much of the history of the West from a personal perspective. She tells of her "illegal" marriage to a white man, a career as an entrepreneur, actress, model, and world traveler. Her path led her finally to ownership of a most unique trading post, Eagle Plume's near Estes Park, CO. Rich in photographs and historical information, hers is a unique tale and a fascinating slice of Native American and Western history.