Stanley Vestal was an American writer, poet and historian. It is impossible in a single volume to narrate even the chief events in the crowded life of so many-sided a man, and at the same time document in detail the innumerable statements which run counter to a legend almost wholly false. It is inevitable, therefore, that such a compressed narrative should at times appear to be a work of mere imagination. I assure the reader that such an impression is unwarranted. The events of this story are real events. The scenes described-many of which I have visited-are real scenes. I have invented no dialogue; the words put into the mouth of Sitting Bull are his own, and for many of his utterances I have the Sioux text. The man's psychology, where indicated, is that suggested by Indians who knew him, not by myself. And I have scrupulously tried to mark off clearly all matters of opinion or inference from matters of fact. Where legend intrudes, it is labelled.
