Circle for the Earth
A Time Travel Saga to Forge a Sustainable Future
“What if we could give the Earth—and ourselves—a second chance?”
Earth hurls a South Dakota Indian casino and thirty surrounding miles back to 1791, before the Louisiana Purchase. The displaced Lakota and local community must unite to forge a new world—or repeat the mistakes of the old one.
A Casino. A Circle. A Chance to Begin Again.
The Earth grants humanity an extraordinary second chance—hurtling a South Dakota Indian casino and its surrounding thirty miles back to 1791, before the Louisiana Purchase.
Inside a loop of the Missouri River on the Lower Brule Reservation, an entire community vanishes from the present and reappears in 1791. With them come modern technology, modern problems—and the opportunity to do things differently.
The displaced Lakota and local population must band together to forge a sustainable future. They must create a new government, replicate technology, and adapt to eighteenth-century life while negotiating with the Indigenous nations already living there.
Survival means confronting internal divisions, external threats, and the temptation to repeat the very mistakes that brought humanity to the brink in the first place. Can they draw on the wisdom of the earth—and of each other—to forge a different path?
For fans of Eric Flint’s 1632 series or Sarah Woodbury’s After Cilmeri series, this is a time-travel saga infused with Indigenous knowledge, permaculture, midwifery, plant medicine, and radical hope.
World at a Glance
The Location
Lower Brule Reservation, South Dakota — a real loop of the Missouri River, thirty miles across. The casino and resort are fictional; the landscape is real.
The Year
1791 — before the Louisiana Purchase, before westward expansion. A window to forge a different America.
The Mission
Build a sustainable society using permaculture, Indigenous knowledge, alternative energy, and collective governance.
The Conflict
Modern divisions, old prejudices, and the arrival of outside forces threaten the fragile new community from within and without.
The Question
Will they learn from history—or repeat it?
The People Who Must Choose
Rose Chasing Hawk
Single Mother · Reluctant Leader
Earth hurls a South Dakota Indian casino and thirty surrounding miles back to 1791, before the Louisiana Purchase. The displaced Lakota and local community must unite to forge a new world—or repeat the mistakes of the old one.
Oliver Jackson
An advocate for nonviolence who must wrestle with the harsh truth that survival may require military strength. His convictions are tested at every turn.
Two Elks
A man of this era confronting strangers from the future who carry advanced technology and dangerous ideas. He must defend his homeland and his people’s way of life.
Our Most Loved Books
A powerful Indigenous-led time-travel saga. When a Lakota community and nearby residents are pulled back to 1791, they must rebuild society, forge unlikely alliances, and face the dangers of a changed world. Rich with plant medicine, midwifery, survival skills, and cultural resilience, this novel offers hope, tension, and unforgettable characters. A compelling read for fans of alternate history and epic world-building.
Price range: $3.99 through $14.99
One year after a modern community lands in 1791, survival means navigating colonial powers, forming unexpected alliances, and protecting their future in a world that is not their own.
Price range: $3.99 through $14.99
The World Brought Back in Time
These are the real and fictional maps that anchor the story. The thirty-mile circle drops into a world already inhabited—a world of tribal nations, fur traders, and lives about to be changed forever. Click any map to enlarge.
The Circle
South Dakota Tribal Nations
Tribal Nations of the Louisiana Purchase
The Savannah
What Is Real
Author Daphne Singingtree grounds the story in real places, real history, and real science. Here’s what’s fact—and what’s fiction.
The Location
The story takes place on the actual Lower Brule Reservation in South Dakota, in a real loop of the Missouri River. The towns of Chamberlain and Presho exist. The casino and resort inside the loop are fictional. There is a real Lower Brule Casino in a different location.
The Wind Farms
Two real wind farms exist in the area—but both sell power outside the region, to corporations like Walmart and Boston University. The Triple H Wind project is in Hyde County; NextEra Energy Resources is near Stephens, SD. The geothermal plant is fictional.
Hemp & Permaculture
All benefits of hemp described in the novel—soil restoration, carbon capture, biofuels, stronger-than-steel fiber—are real and documented. The Dakota Lakes Farm and its sustainable agriculture practices are real. White River Farm is fictional, based on OLCERI on Pine Ridge.
Lower Brule Tribe
The tribe operates its own buffalo herd, a meatpacking plant, an electric school bus, and a wireless phone company. The community college has a teacher training program. The reservations are food deserts—no large grocery stores within twenty miles.
NoDAPL Protests
Everything in the novel about the Standing Rock protests is real—including the author's own participation. The protests, the pipeline, the water protectors, and the clashes with law enforcement are drawn from lived experience.
Gotenна, Raspberry Pi, Internet-in-a-Box
The off-grid communications technology the community uses—mesh radios, Raspberry Pi computers, and offline internet archives—are all real products anyone can buy. Khan Academy's offline library is real. The AT Microfiche Reference Library is real.
About the Author
Daphne Singingtree
Daphne Singingtree writes speculative fiction rooted in lived expertise—not just imagination. Her knowledge of plant medicine, midwifery, emergency preparedness, permaculture, and Indigenous ways of knowing makes the world of Circle for the Earth feel not only possible, but necessary.
She participated in the NoDAPL Standing Rock protests and brings that lived experience into the Changleska series. Her characters don’t just survive—they build, cultivate, and govern. Every technology, every plant remedy, every governance decision in the series is grounded in something real.
She is also the author of a midwifery coloring book and other midwifery publications, and founder of the Zaníyan Center, a non-profit promoting health through plants and connection to the Earth.
All proceeds from Circle for the Earth are donated to the Zaníyan Center, a non-profit organization that promotes health and wellbeing through plants and a deep connection to the Earth.
When you buy this book, you’re investing in something real—not just a story about a sustainable future, but in building one.