Based on the life of Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman, a full-blooded Sioux, who was taken from his people at age fifteen. In writing an introduction to the reissue of Eastman's own autobiography, Indian Boyhood, author and scholar Jamake Highwater became fascinated with the subject and wrote his own fictionalized version for young adult readers. It is a true story, gleaned from Eastman's own words. It vividly shows a man trying to live in two worlds, and it is written by a man who understands what it is like to do so.