In this singular memoir, Pearl E. Casias tells the story of her rise from poverty to chair of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe in rural southwest Colorado. Casias grew up in poverty and was raised by alcoholic parents. She endured domestic violence in one of her marriages. Despite those dire periods in her life, she put herself through college and rose to become a Southern Ute tribal judge. She details her experience in the tribal court, whose jurisprudence is guided by Indigenous knowledge and Ute-centered spiritual rehabilitation. Casias then spent time on the Southern Ute Indian Tribal Council, running the tribe’s political and economic affairs, particularly the development of considerable mineral resources on tribal lands. During her tenure, the Southern Utes attracted a significant investment from Wall Street as the tribe became a leading producer of natural gas. Casias’s eventual election as chair of the Southern Utes, the pinnacle of her accomplishments, made her the tribe’s first woman chair.

With unflinching honesty, Casias lays out the problems confronting Southern Ute people, including the harm that centuries of colonialism have wrought on the reservation. Blending her personal story with that of her tribe, Casias describes how, as a tribal leader, she strove to develop positive cultural values within Ute society.