A good plot, but not well executed--I wish someone else would develop this better. The writing jumps without warning from the 1800's to the late 1900's. The major portion of the beginning was just throwing at us names of famous Native American leaders and warriors, and Civil War era generals, and their real or fictional encounters.
One good piece is when He Who Yawns (Geronimo) complains that the united Indian nations are ordering his people around the same as the US Army did, when they just want to stay in their own land.
Smith also makes a politically correct assessment of the Indian nations of being able to maintain their all tribal government because they had a tradition of all people contributing to the social welfare of the nation and of not taking more than on needed. I liked the section where settlers first made mockery of the native practice of taking care of the land they farmed, but later when the Depression/Dust Storms hit, were envious that the Indian Country was the only area not suffering. There is even a quote for bibliophiles like us (o,r rather, satirizing us. ( )