Sioux Falls author of historical romance to speak in Worthington
Jan. 18—WORTHINGTON — A curious historical statistic prompted South Dakota author C.K. Van Dam to write "Proving Her Claim" 20 years ago — and the recent resurgence in the popularity of Westerns drove her to publish her romance novel in 2022.
"While 12% of homesteaders were women, through the Homestead Act of 1862, 42% of women homesteaders proved their claims; 37% of male homesteaders proved their claims," explained Van Dam, who is set to speak from 5 to 7 p.m. Jan. 25, at the Nobles County Library in Worthington.
In order to be eligible to get the free 160 acres of land from the government, homesteaders had to stay on it at least half the year, cultivate it and improve it for five years. A woman could become a homesteader, but only if she was the head of a household — unmarried, widowed or divorced.
At that time in history, Van Dam said, women had few options for independence, and could likely either stay with their families or start a new life on the prairie.
"And that's what was so exciting to me about the book," she said.
"Proving Her Claim" focuses on the romance between Anna Olson, one of the "girl homesteaders" who lost her fiance in the Civil War, and Two Hawks MacKenzie, the son of a Lakota woman and a Scottish fur trapper. It is fiction, but Van Dam did significant historical research to make the book's time and place as accurate as possible.
"I knew (Anna) had to be very self-sufficient. I knew that in order to end up on the prairie, there had to be a little bit of a wild child in her, and in the women who raised her," Van Dam said of crafting her heroine. "... she had some very strong people in her family who gave her the strength and the confidence to go and make this happen."
The writer chose to make her romantic hero a Lakota warrior from a neighboring Lakota camp.
"What I was trying to get across was: we used to think about how people moved to the frontier, and it was empty and they tamed the frontier. And we don't talk about the people who already lived here," Van Dam said. "I wanted to bring that storyline, that truth to the book."
The two different worlds the main characters come from pose a barrier to their romance.
Van Dam, who hails from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has degrees in journalism and history from South Dakota State University, and spent her career in public relations and advertising.
During her talk in Worthington, she plans to speak about her book as well as her journey toward getting it published, which she called an "unexpected learning experience" given the complex process it required.
"Proving Her Claim" is self-published, primarily because Van Dam was told it would likely take something like seven years to publish with one of the big publishing houses, and she preferred to get the book out sooner.
Learning the self-publishing process still took time, though. She participated in webinars to work out the process, and she still had to hire editors and proofreaders to go through the text in order to fine-tune it.
"The most fun part, and the most surprising part to me is the response I've gotten from readers that really like the book," Van Dam said.
Some have even asked her about a sequel, and while she doesn't currently have concrete plans for the continuing adventures of Anna and Two Hawks, she is working on a story about another woman homesteader.
"Proving her Claim" is available for purchase on Amazon, and it is also at the library. For more information, visit ckvandam.com.
