According to Vine Deloria Jr., Hank Adams is the most important Native American of the past sixty years. From his mediation of disputes between the US government and AIM in the 1970s to his key role in the Trail of Broken Treaties, Adams shaped modern Native activism. For the first time Adams' writings are collected, providing a well-rounded portrait of this important figure and a firsthand history of Indian country in the late twentieth century.

Professor David E. Wilkins holds the McKnight Presidential Professorship in American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota.