William Joseph Snelling was not a man to be ignored. In his relatively brief life, every role he assumed--explorer, interpreter, journalist, editor, author, critic, reformer--was played with an energy so intense it inevitably earned him the respect of many admirers and the scorn of an equal number of enemies. Though his published work runs the gamut from children's literature to inflammatory rhetorical essays, Snelling is best known today for his short stories detailing the lives and lore of Native American tribes in what is now the upper Midwest.

Born in Boston on 26 December 1804, William Joseph Snelling was the only child of Elizabeth Bell and Josiah Snelling, a military officer who won distinction at the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. After his mother's death in 1810, William lived with relatives while attending Luther Stearn's school in Medford, Massachusetts, while his father, who married his second wife, Abigail Hunt, in 1812, continued with...