Steber wins Spur Award

Western Writers of America has awarded “Buy the Chief a Cadillac,” by Prineville author Rick Steber, the 2005 Spur Award as Best Western Novel.

Steber is the first Oregon writer to win this award.

Previous award winners include: Larry McMurtry for “Lonesome Dove,” Michael Blake for “Dances with Wolves,” Glendon Swarthout for “The Shootist” and Tony Hillerman for“Skinwalker.”

The Spur Award, presented annually for distinguished writing about the American West, is among the oldest and most prestigious in American literature. Since 1953, the Spur Award has been given for works whose inspiration, image, and literary excellence best represent the reality and spirit of the American West. The formal presentation to Steber will be made at the annual WWA convention in Spokane, Washington on June 18.

“Buy the Chief a Cadillac” is a novel set in 1961 on the day the Klamath Indian tribe of Southern Oregon was terminated and each man, woman and child received a cash settlement of $43,000.

Was termination the biggest land grab of the 20th century? Or a simple business transaction, exchanging land for money?

Was the federal government and its policy of forcing assimilation of the Indians into white culture responsible? Or was it a matter of one greedy generation selling out its heritage?

Readers of “Buy the Chief a Cadillac” will form their own opinions about what happened, why, and who is to blame for one of the most turbulent eras in contemporary Western history.

Rick Steber is the author of 34 books with more than one million copies sold. Reviewers have compared his writing to Hemingway and Fitzgerald. “Buy the Chief a Cadillac” is published by Two Star, a division of BonanzaPublishing.

Read the first chapter of “Buy the Chief a Cadillac” at http://www.buythechief.com.