In 1986, author Blake, homeless and nearly penniless in Los Angeles, writes Dances with Wolves, which gets published and becomes the basis for a hit film. After this great success, Blake continues to write—three more novels by 2002—yet he dedicates himself to maintaining the same level of commitment and spirit that inspired the first novel. He also wants to build a legacy for his children. 

The sole passenger on a horse-drawn wagon traveling west into the Great Plains, Lieutenant John Dunbar is awed by the land’s immense majesty. On the third day, he thinks, “This is religious” (1); in his late twenties, he has fallen in love with the simple vastness of the region.

As they rumble along, Timmons, the driver, constantly spits into the tall prairie grass. He smells nearly as bad as a dead body. Sometimes Dunbar detaches his horse, Cisco, and rides ahead on the buckskin beast, scouting. At one point, they come across a human skeleton lying bleached under the hot sun, many arrows sticking out of it.

Dunbar wants to fulfill “a long-standing dream of serving on the frontier” (11). Days earlier, at Fort Hays, he requested and received, from a mentally unstable major, assignment to

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