The Daughter of the Chieftain : the Story of an Indian Girl

In the rolling Wyoming Valley of western Pennsylvania, a young girl named Alice Ripley spends a July afternoon tossing a rubber ball and iron prongs in the timeless game of “Jack Stones.” The narrative paints the valley’s fertile plains, its encircling ridges, and the winding Susquehanna River with vivid detail, grounding the story in a landscape where settlers and native peoples have long intersected. Through Alice’s eyes we glimpse a community of log cabins, communal hearths, and the everyday rhythms of frontier life in 1778.

Against this pastoral backdrop, tensions simmer as competing claims over the land surface among Connecticut pioneers, Pennsylvania officials, and the Delaware Indians who have been persuaded to adopt a new faith. The arrival of a Moravian missionary and the lingering echoes of the looming Revolution hint at larger forces that will test loyalties and reshape the valley’s future. As Alice’s world expands beyond the games she loves, listeners are invited to share in the wonder and uncertainty of a frontier on the brink of change.