I enjoyed this novel immensely, reading it during a three-month stretch where I read nothing but westerns. This book is a lovely, well-drawn portrait of Plains Indian life, with a protagonist who is interesting, likable, and human.Beyond the insights the novel gives to American Indian culture and daily life, it does an excellent job with the elegy of a dying people. The Pikunis are at the edge of the end -- their way of life may be ending and they are powerless against the inexorable advance of the white man's future.Definitely recommended. A solid, thought-provoking book.