Wendy Rose was born Bronwen Elizabeth Edwards on May 7, 1948, in Oakland, California. Her father was Hopi, and her mother descended from both Miwok Indian and European ancestors. The fact of her mixed blood played a large role in Rose's struggle for identity as a youth, as did her suburban upbringing in Oakland, where life exhibited much more of the European, or "white," influence than Native American, on or off a reservation.

Rose's adolescence during the 1960s was as distressed and unrestrained as the times. She dropped out of high school and into the bohemian, artistic circles of San Francisco. But even as a vulnerable teenager on her own in a large city, Rose's ongoing interests were those that would develop over the years and become a major impetus for her writing and painting—self-identity, a desire to embrace her heritage as a Hopi Indian, and fighting...