Cynthia Becker grew up in southern Indiana. A true child of the 1950s, her goal was to be a cowgirl, just like Dale Evans. She loved to read and began writing stories in elementary school. Cynthia moved to Colorado the day after her college graduation and remains a Coloradan. She began researching the life of Chipeta in 1995. She dug into old Indian Agent reports in the National Archives, searched photographs in the National Anthropological Archives, visited libraries and museums in Colorado and Utah, and read lots of old newspapers. The result was her first book, Chipeta: Queen of the Utes (Western Reflections Publishing, 2003). Since then, Cynthia has written five books on current topics for educational publisher Thomson Gale and contributed to an anthology of sports biographies. Her feature articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Saturday Evening Post, Colorado Country Life, Family Chronicle, and Learning Through History. She was selected a "Colorado Voices" writer by the Denver Post in 2003.For more information on research, writing, and Chipeta visit Cynthia's blog- www.Chipeta.wordpress.com.