Jan Hudson, a Canadian author of historical fiction, wrote only two novels during her short life. She died at the age of thirty-six in 1990 of respiratory failure due to viral pneumonia. However, she left a lasting message for young girls about overcoming adversity to find their true place in the world. Hudson's two novels, Sweetgrass and Dawn Rider, exemplify her interest in "social anthropology--the little things that make up most people's lives," as she stated in a 1989 Publishers Weekly interview with Bella Stander. She conveyed these details by using the history of the Blackfoot Nation as her background. "Both [novels] are evocative historical works, rich in nuance and resonance, about young women coming of age in the Blackfoot Nation," commented Sandra Martin in Quill and Quire. "Underlying this theme is a subtle yet haunting message about the devastating consequences that have resulted from native contact with Europeans." Perhaps...