Four generations of outrageous, of-the-moment characters thrive amidst hardship in their own way, turning the myth of the Old West on its head.

Cowboy Tales comprises eighteen short stories that reverse commonly held assumptions about the American West. Four generations of a mixed family, Native, Hispanic, and white, live with the problems we've all heard about: alcohol and drug addiction, dependency on a fraying welfare system, poverty, and violence.

Unlikely learning and unlikely sources of wisdom abound in these stories. "During those long winter nights when Dad took off for Sheridan--no liquor allowed on the rez but Sheridan is only about twenty miles west," Fat Annie tells the boy known as Sure Enough some truths about women that will guide him for the rest of his life. Running away on horseback from the imposition of ashes at his Jesuit boarding school, eleven-year-old Jimmy James finds "this little lady priest" in the town park. She makes the cross with ashes on his horse's head, then tells Jimmy James that no matter what he has done or will do, the Lord forgives him. Jimmy James "felt the cross burn into him worse than any brand." A bizarre accident in "How Daddy Lost His Ear" results in an equally bizarre wedding. And one of the many "white ladies" who appear briefly and disappear fast finally gets Cowboy to tell the truth.

These men, women, and children don't just endure. They thrive in their own peculiar style, turning seemingly tragic outcomes into sources of outrageous humor, and nourishing indelible family ties. This is the West as it was and is, a complex web of traditions and surprising, even shocking, ways of turning hardship into triumph.