Margaret Coel, a fourth-generation Coloradan, has spent four years researching primary source material in the libraries and archives across the plains, as well as in Washington, D. C. and London. She has visited every fort, battleground, and Indian campground described in her book and has come to know the Southern Arapahos of Concho and Geary, Oklahoma. She graduated summa cum laude from Marquette University, Milwaukee, in Journalism and for the last fifteen years has made her home in Boulder, Colorado.