Strange night sounds and halos of light are appearing in the night sky above Baboquivari, sacred mountain of the Tohono O’odham. Eerie sounds of weeping echo through the dark canyons. Two reservation men are fiercely attacked by spirits of the dead near the Mexican border!
Frightened residents confront village elders for answers to the mystery. Danny Rivas’s grandfather, Joseph, a makai (revered tribal healer) and O’odham tribal council member, knows their tribal way of life has been ignored for too long. They must move quickly before utter chaos engulfs the reservation!
Danny, the coyote-meeter, and his friend Diego devise a plan to offer the sacred medicine pouch of Chief Gray Horse to appease the powerful spirits and save their people. Badly injured in the process, they are trapped in a mine with a nest of rattlesnakes and a family of wolf spiders! Will they be rescued in time?
Although Joseph uses all of his worldly powers in a valiant attempt to locate them, he ultimately loses out to a young and courageous illegal Mexican girl named Lupita. By a strange fate, and just when it appears Danny and Digs are doomed, she discovers their lost dungeon. But how could this small, innocent waif accomplish their rescue? Defying the odds and risking her own safety and freedom, she turns to the very forces that hunt her to help save the boys.
Long considered an expert on Native American history and tradition, Robert L. Hunton has dedicated years of research and interaction with reservation groups and tribes in southern Arizona to author the Borderlands Trilogy: Gift of the Desert Dog (Open Books Press, 2010), Secrets of the Medicine Pouch (OBP, 2012), and Coyote-meeter’s Abyss (OBP, 2014). This exposure gives him unique perspectives on a desert culture and people; knowledge and experience he willingly shares with audiences everywhere.
A thirty-two year veteran of the middle school classroom, he has successfully launched a second career as an author, writing fast-paced fiction grounded in reality while aimed at the heart. His relatably human characters and powerful emotional style capture readers, transporting them through to each life-changing conclusion. He visits schools and classrooms across the country with his storytelling, words of encouragement, and writing discussions, lessons, and prompts designed to inspire and challenge a new generation of thinkers and creators, communicators and problem-solvers.