The book is seen through the eyes of an old man named Dan. He is an elderly Indian Lakota man that lives in North Dakota. Kent Nerburn is the author in the book, but he too is one of the main characters in the book. Nerburn is asked by Dan to write a book, pertaining to lives of his Indian people, and the mistakes they made trusting the white people. The book was actually supposed to have been about Dan's collective thoughts that he had written down, he wanted the book to be able to get readers from all angles. But Nerburn's experience with Dan and his journey were how he wrote the story. His experience from which he arrived at Dan's house, to how Dan wanted the story written is turned around to make things seem as though we (the readers) we went to Dan's house with him. Dan and his friend Grover takes Nerburn on a little trip, so not only do Dan tell him about his life experience, but so Nerburn can actually feel what Dan is saying to him.
When Columbus sailed the ocean he came across some land in which he thought was he East Indies, he claimed it, and in history they say that Columbus discovered America, when really Indians were living on this land for quite some time. The Indians could not convince that they were the first to be on this land, because they had no legal documents stating that they were the first to be on this land. .
Since Columbus thought that he was really in the East Indies, he started calling the people that was already on the land by the name of Indians. The Indians had already a name that they called themselves, in their own language. The Indians were nothing but kind to the Europeans. They did nothing but be generous to them. Dan said that for a while the whites made life a lot easier for them with their guns. It made hunting a lot easier for the Indians.
After a while the whites were tired of sharing the land with the Indians, the whites told the Indians that in a place far away the government said it was the white people land, and the whites did not have to ask the Indians to live their anymore, and the Indians had to move.
