Fray Angelico seeks to defend the Indians despite their disinterest in salvation, while Morning Butterfly is torn between her longing for the days of innocence and her feelings for Navajo warrior Cougar, who believes their two faiths can live in harmony. Reprint.

In Soul of the Sacred Earth Vella Munn illuminates the souls of her main characters. Fray Angelico yearns to save the savages from Satan; to learn that the Hopi have no interest in salvation nearly destroys him—yet he defends the Indians when the rulers of New Spain would make them slaves. Captain Lopez has come seeking riches—but the alien land rejects his military might. Morning Butterfly longs for the days of innocence before the Spanish came—but then she would never have met Cougar, the Navajo brave who showed her that people of two faiths can live in harmony. Cougar never thought of the welfare of the Navajo—but in the looming destruction of the Hopi he sees the fate of his own people, one he is desperate to avoid.