The Red Hawk is a fictional account of how people in the very real Chaushilha Native American village of Shehamniu dealt with the events of 1849 to 1865. It weaves adventure, history and romance into a compelling story based on true events of the mid-19th century, such as the Gold Rush, the Mariposa War, the Civil War, tuberculosis epidemics, early settlers' education, advances in agricultural technology and a great flood. It is the early history of Chowchilla, California, where author Ellen Porter lived from 1964 to 1983, and where her family lived from 1930 to 2009. At Chowchilla High School and at California State University, Fresno the author studied journalism. She worked in journalism for nearly two decades after obtaining her bachelor's degree from California State University, Fresno. Since then she has worked primarily in business communications. Since 2013, she has done so as the owner of a small marketing and public relations company, Pen Porter. She also serves as an elected director of Jurupa Area Recration and Park District in her home city, Jurupa Valley, California. The author e also enjoys history and current events, but views the latter from a socially conservative viewpoint. When the California Legislature passed A.B. 30 in 2015, banning the use of Chowchilla High School's mascot, the Redskins, the author created this story. She had originally intended to write a story about the murder of beloved, elderly Reddy Redskin, a community patriarch. However, in researching how Reddy might have ended up with the name Redskin, and how he would have evolved into a patriarch of a mostly white city, the author learned quite a bit about the late 19th century interactions the Native Americans had with new European settlers after the California Gold Rush. Thus, the book became a story of a family who lived a few generations before Reddy Redskin. It was important to tell the historical background of Reddy Redskin's family. Sequels are likely, as the late 19th and the entire 20th century are also rich in history that would have affected this family, which at the end of the book merged Native American and European nationality into one. The murder of Reddy may not even be the end of the story. However, those are stories for the future. The Red Hawk is crucial to understanding those events.
