When Washington Territory was created, the narrow, isolated Okanogan River Valley was considered a wasteland and an Indian reservation, the Chief Joseph Reserve, was established there. But when silver was discovered near what became Ruby City, the land was re-appropriated, and the Native Americans were moved to a more confined area. The Okanogan was then opened up to white homesteaders, with the hope of making the area more attractive to miners.
 
The interconnected dramatic monologues in Oh How Can I Keep On Singing? are the stories of the forgotten women who settled the Okanogan in the late nineteenth century, arriving by horse-drawn cart to a place that purported to have such fine weather that a barn was unnecessary for raising livestock. Not all of the newcomers survived the cattle-killing winter of 1893. Of those who did, some would not have survived if the indigenous people had not helped them.

“Jana Harris has written an accurate and moving account of pioneer life a hundred years ago in Washington state. The varied voices of farmers, Indian women, miners, laundresses, and school teachers tell their own harsh stories, unforgettably.” —Annie Dillard, author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
 
“The work of Jana Harris is unique in American writing. She has always had a voice of true grit—sometimes harsh, sometimes funny, always close to the bone, tart, and indomitable. . . . Brimful of life, death, and more life, Oh How Can I Keep on Singing? is a wonderful book.” —Alicia Ostriker, poet and author of Stealing the Language
 
“These heart-stopping narratives combines the thickness of authenticity, the lyricism of daring, and love, the magic ingredient, into a nourishing whole. Read and be fed.” —Maxine Kumin, former US poet laureate
 
“A remarkable attempt to give voice to a group of women who have dropped out of history. . . . Harris has combined the resources of the poet and the scholar into something new.” —Marge Percy, author of Gone to Soldiers