In 1893 at the Chicago World’s Fair, Frederick Jackson Turner created a landmark in American historiography by articulating his thesis that the frontier ex­perience had produced “the forces dominating American character.” Especially during the last 20 years, many historians have challenged the validity of Turner’s views, arguing that European culture remained the primary influence upon American government and society. None­theless, movies, paintings, and books inspired by the Wild West continue to capture the popular imagination of America in a way that European art, classical or modern, rarely does, suggesting an essential correctness to Pro­fessor Turner’s theory. Of course, much of Western art is superficial and historically deceptive in its portrayal of ruthless savages and laconic cowboys, of bold lawmen and desperate outlaws. Someone as intimately familiar with the realities of the Western experience as Dee Brown can craft a far richer and more com­plex depiction of life on the frontier, however. Like other works in its genre, Killdeer Mountain is a tale of romance and adventure, of cavalry and Indians. But it is far superior to most Western novels in its metic­ulously researched factual details and even more in the superb­ly intertwined ambiguities of its jigsaw narration. No shoot-out at high noon ever resolves the un­certainties surrounding his mul­tifaceted central characters. Offi­cially the frontier was closed in 1890, but for writers like Mr. Brown it remains open with vast possibilities.