Linda Hogan was born in 1947 and is of mixed Native American heritage, primarily Chickasaw. She was born in Colorado but grew up on a reservation in Oklahoma, and her native heritage is a strong and pervasive influence on her writing.

Traditional Native culture honors the sacredness of family, of tribe, and of connectedness, not just among people, but between people and the environment they inhabit and the animals they co-exist with.

Traditional Native culture also honors storytelling, and sees at least some stories as being sacred, as being more than entertainment. The sacredness of story is linked to the oral tradition in Native culture and literature. No Native language had a written alphabet until after the white man came to this hemisphere: a tribe's history and culture and even survival depended upon the ability to remember and transmit long and complicated stories of origin...