Moon of Bitter Cold

By the summer of 1866, America was a changed nation. The Civil War has ended, and the West was calling as a place where the fresh wounds of a nation divided could heal. Many set out to heed that call and explore the land that the terrible war had not touched. Amid the beauty of the region, they found its native inhabitants-and a bloody collision of two cultures.

To the Lakota people, the white man-the wasichus-appeared first as a curiosity but soon turned into a plague. Frustrated and powe...