Author's note: On Semantics and spelling -- Preface -- Chapter I: "He is not to be believed in any tale he may tell..." Charles Mowry 1820 -- Chapter II: "This 'old hoss' was thar..." Joseph R. Brown -- Chapter III: "Sgt. Brown will take charge of the two disposable guns..." -- Chapter IV: "Trade looks bad..." Geo. Davenport 1829 -- Chapter V: "[The Indians] cannot be made to comprehend that it's all for their benefit..." Alexis Bailly, 1832 -- Chapter VI: "A serious difficulty with the Indians at Lake Traverse." Samuel Pond -- Chapter VII: "[He] laid out a town he called Dacotah, which he fondly believed would in the future become a city." Lydia Ann Carli -- Chapter VIII: "An election rode over by the car of loco-focoism." Madison Express, 1842 -- Chapter IX: "Brown expects to be most successful in cajoling the Indians." Martin McLeod 1845 -- Chapter X: "With much enthusiasm among all present for the work before them." Henry Moss 1848 -- Appendix A: Genealogy: The ancestry and family of Joseph R. Brown -- J. R. Brown family trees: Brown family tree & families of wives Helen Dickson & Margaret McCoy -- Susan Freniere Brown's family tree: & the children of her marriage -- Appendix B: The West of 1820 -- Appendix C: The fur trade described -- Appendix D: Money and the economy -- Notes on: the bibliography & acknowledgments -- Bibliography -- Index.