“Part memoir, part ethnography, the book uses in-depth interviews with Cardenas’s friends and family to reconstruct the unlikely life of this grandmotherly matriarch, devout Roman Catholic, and staunch defender of the Native American Church.”—Pasatiempo
“An affectionate recollection of Amada Cardenas. . . . [Schaeffer’s] work is also a commentary on interethnic relations and tensions, not only among Indians, Anglos, and Chicanos but also among tribes vying for an increasingly limited resource in the context of identity politics and environmental degradation in the peyote fields.”—Choice
“This book provides a fresh perspective and an engaging voice to the voluminous literature on the Peyote Religion. The story of Amada Cardenas is the obvious choice to represent the Peyotero tradition in the history of the Native American Church.”—Daniel C. Swan, author of Peyote Religious Art: Symbols of Faith and Belief
