An account of the Western Indian wars of the closing decades of the nineteenth century, focusing on individual white and Indian leaders and their roles in negotiation, battle, and extermination.

Prologue: death song -- The great western pioneer -- Let us have peace -- Red raiders -- Dishonest words and broken promises -- Red moon -- Red sun -- A breeze that whispered -- Bewildering kaleidoscope -- Happiness and harshness -- Ability to project -- Inspection along the Butterfield Trail -- Pride before destruction -- Sentence of death -- Triumph and suffering -- Like fighting wild animals in a trap -- Old enemies -- A Dakota blizzard -- Stronger medicine -- Inexorability -- A good day to die -- Suffering much -- Long black hair -- Like the wind -- Time at its work -- Epilogue: red ants, coyotes, and cattlemen.