The novel depicts a revolution called in 1976 by the Sioux, Apache, Hopi, Navajo, Pueblo and Mohawk, just before the bicentennial of United States independence. They declare their own independence and the nation of Anishinabe-Waki (Land of the People), and the Sioux take control of nuclear weapons aimed at the White House. James Mackay in the "Encyclopedia of American Indian Literature" describes the novel as "one of the fullest literal explorations of Indian separatism, and one of the few books to envision a pan-Indian state." Mackay also notes that the novel reflects the political activism of the 1970s.