The middle two sections, "The Strange and True Story of My Life with Billy the Kid" and "In the Presence of the Sun: A Gathering of Shields," focus on two disparate aspects of the American West: the legend of Billy the Kid and the material folklore behind the highly-decorated plains shields.

The Billy the Kid collection contains both poems and short stories In the preface "A Word on Billy the Kid."

Momaday establishes the physical reality of the famous outlaw: his date and place of birth, family, aliases; he also establishes the facts regarding Sister Blandina, who met Billy the Kid twice in his lifetime. However, Momaday announces his caveat: "All else of what follows is imagined; nonetheless, it is so." What follows, then, are Momaday's adult versions of the stories that he heard as a boy living in Jemez, the stories he told himself about riding along...