The Chickasaw Annual Meeting and Festival 2025 will launch a new book by Mary Ruth Barnes, a Chickasaw artist, teacher, and writer. Barnes was named the 2015 Chickasaw Nation Dynamic Woman of the Year, and in 2019, received the Women in the Arts Recognition Award from the Ada, Oklahoma chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
In 2022, she was inducted into the Chickasaw Hall of Fame. Her short stories have been featured in The Journal of Chickasaw History and Culture, and her first full-length novel, Little Bird, received accolades at both the state and national level.
Barnes new book, Where Birds Land, is an inspiring story of determination and grit! Barnes’ great grandmother, Ella McSwain is a Chickasaw woman raising her family amidst evolving turmoil within the new state of Oklahoma.
After Ella is left with an unusable plot of land, she finds herself fighting for her family's rightful allotment. Faced with crooked businessmen, land grifters, and grueling court battles, find out if she can summon the strength to persevere against all odds in this stand-alone companion to Little Bird, In Where Birds Land Mary Ruth Barnes crafts an engaging family saga that spans from Indian Territory to Oklahoma statehood.
Readers cn get an autographed copy of her new book at the Chickasaw Annual Meeting and Festival October 3 and 4 in Tishomingo, Okla.