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Reviewed by Diana Fields
“A Pioneer on the new frontier of Self-Publishing” is how C. Stephen Badgley describes himself and his Ohio based book publishing company. Badgley is a modern self-publishing pioneer who comes from a long line of pioneers, many of whom you can read about in his self-published historical fiction novel Where the Lilies Cry set around present day Meigs County, OH during the tumultuous times of the early American frontier when the culture of the Native Americans was being destroyed by not only the encroachment of the countless European settlers, but also by the power struggle between the British and the French governments for control over this new land and all its resources.
Badgley includes the following quotes in his novel as an extra emphasis on the true historical views of the people who played a prodominant role in the French and Indian War:
“Not all people are bad, just as none are all good.” Tecumseh 1790.
“I suppose I should be ashamed to say that I take the Western view of the Indian. I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every ten are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.” Theodore Roosevelt 1886
Grand Council of American Indians 1927
“The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, they want us to be what they call “assimilated”, bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way.”
“We want freedom from the white man rather than to be integrated. We don’t want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don’t want power; we don’t want to be congressmen, or bankers….we want to be ourselves. We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here.”
“The white man says there is freedom and justice for all. We have had “freedom and justice”, and that is why we have almost been exterminated. We shall not forget this.”
The history of the American Revolution has been written primarily from the perspective of the victors.“Where the Lilies Cry” is a fictional insight into the view of the Native Americans who were the real losers in the battle for Independence. Badgley has included at the end of this novel, in lieu of textual footnotes, an appendix, which separates fact from fiction for each chapter. It gives many details of the various battles along the Ohio River that changed the lives of the Native Americans forever.
As with many self-published books, this one lacks some of the finer points of publishing. The text is large type and the paragraphs are all double-spaced, which gives the printing a juvenile feel, or perhaps even the feel of an uncompleted work that is trying to make itself larger than it really is. “Where the Lilies Cry” would have been better as series of chapters in a longer saga, or perhaps presented as a short story in a series of period recollections. Regardless, this was an enjoyable read that I can happily recommend. This is the second historical fiction book written by Badgley. His first is titled Arcadia.