"Valentine Trant O'Connell McGillycuddy's life (1849-1939) encapsulated key events in American history that changed the lives of Native people forever ... Author Candy Moulton explores McGillycuddy's ... experiences on the northern plains as topographer, cartographer, physician, and Indian agent. Drawing on family papers, interviews, government documents, and a host of other sources, Moulton presents a colorful character -- a thin, blue-eyed, cultured physician who could outdrink trail-hardened soldiers ... She traces McGillycuddy's work mapping out the U.S.-Canadian border; treating the wounded from the battles of the Rosebud, the Little Bighorn, and Slim Buttes; tending to Crazy Horse during his final hours; and serving as agent to the Sioux at Pine Ridge, where he clashed with Chief Red Cloud over the government's assimilation policies"--Publisher's website.