The Indian Agent

By Dan O'Brien

Book Overview

Dan O'Brien's earlier award-winning novel The Contract Surgeon introduced readers to Valentine McGillycuddy, a friend of the great war chief Crazy Horse. Through McGillycuddy's eyes, the novel recounts the friendship that so deeply impacted history. It also chronicles the great Sioux Wars, one of the most violent periods in this nation's history.
The Indian Agent is the riveting sequel to The Contract Surgeon. After Crazy Horse's death, McGillycuddy went on to become the youngest agent in history for the Red Cloud Agency, renamed the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, of the Oglala Lakota band of the Sioux. Although Red Cloud and McGillycuddy have diametrically opposing views, they have more in common than either suspects. They both love the land, and they both love the past. The politics and the enormous tensions of the early days on the reservation come to life here in fascinating detail, as McGillycuddy (known as "the most investigated man" in the government) urges the Sioux to adopt a life of farming. Because he had lived on the vast plains with them, no white man knew better what the Sioux had given up--or understood more fully the impossibility of returning to the old life.
Full of the dynamic history of the plains, The Indian Agent is the true story of the conversion of this land from one of free nomadic people to one of settled commerce--achieved, however, at an unfathomable cost.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803235887
• ISBN13: 9780803235885
• Release Date: March 2011
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The Indian Agent

This excellent historical novel about the clash of cultures as the expanding United States dealt with the Sioux is well written and is best read after first reading "The Contract Surgeon" by the same author. Although it is a wonderful account on it's own, it is a continuation of the story started in "The Contract Surgeon", which is just as well done as "The Indian Agent". The two books together are a treat for anyone interested in the Crazy Horse era and the Sioux Indians but other than the history, these are interesting, enjoyable novels for anyone who likes to read good books.