Some years back, I had a book on tape - literally on a cassette. It had a simple title: The <something> - for some reason, I seem to recall the *something *could have been a noun or an adjective.
It took place maybe in the late 18th or early 19th century, I think. The only specifics I remember:
[ul]
[li]Involved settlers interacting with Lumbee Indians[/li][li]One of the Lumbee women was referred to as Queen of the May[/li][li]A couple of the men died when digging a well and suffocating from some sort of gas intrusion.[/li][/ul]
I know this is a long shot, but I’ve seen Dopers come up with answers from far less information.
Anyone?
Was it The Living by Annie Dillard?
YES!!! Thank you! Now, to see if my library has it available.
Now I’m confused. I hadn’t heard of the Lumbee Indians before (that I remember), so I looked them up, and The Internet says they’re a tribe of North Carolina.
Yet the book that The Devil’s Grandmother linked to is “a mesmerizing evocation of life in the Pacific Northwest”; and, last I checked, North Carolina is not in the Pacific Northwest. Something doesn’t add up. 
Thank you, that makes sense! Since the OP had only heard it, and not seen it in print, I can see how the confusion arose.
If not, check the inter-library loan facilities (you might need some librarian help here). I have been able to obtain every book I looked for this way, as my local library just isn’t a repository for books anymore, and some books are too expensive for my taste on Amazon or eBay.
Yeah, I messed up the tribe name. I’d only heard it and I know the Lumbee are in NC (friend is one of them) so I thought I’d misremembered where it took place.
And it turns out all I needed to do was ask my daughter. Even tho she was just a teen, she remembered title, mainly because it was inconsistent with all the characters dying off in the story. 
I did find some of the author’s other books at my library, so I’ll be reading them, too. I knew I could count on Dopers!!
Heather Locklear is part Lumbee. Some years ago, PARADE magazine ran a letter asking if she were, they asked her, and she was. So was one of the two killers of James (Michael’s dad) Jordan. Of course, there are bad apples on every tree.