Malian, a young Abenaki girl, lives contentedly with her parents and extended family in a village near Montreal in the mid-18th century. One night while a big feast is being held at The Council House, strangers prepare to raid the village, and Malian's life changes abruptly. Silently, her father carries her off to the woods and orders her to run to their tribe's winter camp. Malian obeys, but not before she turns to watch her father slip back to the village through the trees ... for the last time.<BR>Malian's Song is based on the true story of the English attack conducted by Major Robert Rogers on the St. Francis Abenaki community in 1759. Malian's account of "Rogers' Raid," passed down through generations of Abenaki descendants through oral tradition, reveals that many people actually survived the attack that destroyed their village; this fact stands in direct contrast to Rogers' journal records. Jeanne Brink, a modern-day Abenaki descendant living in Vermont, told the little-known version of the brutal attack to the Vermont Foklife Center.<BR>In the text that interweaves Abenaki and English, Abenaki historian Marge Bruchac presents a story of a people's strength and fortitude in the face of unspeakable loss. With the author's aid, illustrator William Maughan has used all of the known visual reference material about the Abenaki to draw the most authentic portrait of their life and environment to date.