South Dakota

During the summers beginning in the mid-1950s, Bass worked in the South Dakota plains with a crew of anthropologists excavating the graves of the Arikara Indians. Their hope was to excavate as many bodies as possible before the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers flooded areas where those bodies were buried. Bass notes his time working on this project earned him the nickname “Indian grave-robber number one.”

Bones

Bones are symbols of stories and information. Bass spends his book telling tales of the stories the bones of deceased people have told him. He also describes the way scientists and researchers can determine truths about an entire race of people — what they ate, how long they lived, how tall they grew, and how they died — based on the study of their bones.

Blue Glass Beads

The blue glass beads are markers. When working in South Dakota...