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A NOVEL BASED ON THE LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER GIST

by
Christian Wig

PIONEER, FUR TRADER, FRONTIER DIPLOMAT, Christopher Gist, the first Colonial explorer of the Ohio territory, is also ANNOSANAH -- speaker of true words. In spite of this Wyandot title, he knows he must deceive the very Indians who have named him. In the guise of an emissary inviting the Ohio tribes to a conference, he searches the Ohio Valley for land best suited for white settlement. On his first journey in 1750 for the Ohio Company, he seeks to replace his lost inheritance through land speculation, thus setting the stage for the eventual displacement of these Indian people. In the next decade France and England fight the last of the French and Indian Wars. A willing participant, Gist sees the destruction of his home, a stormy relationship with an arrogant young George Washington whose life he twice saves, a fiasco at Ft Necessity, and the annihilation of General Braddock's Redcoats. But this life of adversity only prepares him for the most challenging task any frontiersman could face: liaison between two peoples as different as the worlds from which they came. This will not be my only work. My next effort will be based on the life of George Croghan, fur trader, frontier diplomat, negotiator, soldier when required and Indian agent during the French and Indian War and its aftermath.