THE INDIAN AGENT - Hardcover

In praise of The Contract Surgeon:

"The Contract Surgeon draws a vivid portrait of Crazy Horse and gives an interesting, fresh perspective on the Great Sioux War." -Larry McMurtry

"[An] impeccably researched novel." -The New York Times Book Review

In 1999 The Contract Surgeon was published to great critical acclaim. It introduced readers to Valentine McGillycuddy, the U.S. Army contract surgeon who became a friend of the great war chief Crazy Horse. Through McGillycuddy's eyes, the novel recounts the friendship that so deeply impacted history. It also chronicles the Great Sioux War, one of the most violent and reprehensible periods in this nation's history.

THE INDIAN AGENT is the riveting sequel to The Contract Surgeon. After Crazy Horse's death, McGillycuddy went on to become the youngest agent in history for the Red Cloud Agency, renamed the Pine Ridge Indian Agency, where he served longer than any other agent before him. The politics and the enormous tensions of the early days of the reservation are depicted in fascinating detail, as are the Sioux people's painful attempts at transition to reservation life. McGillycuddy had lived on the vast plains with them. No one knew better what the Sioux had given up- or understood more fully the impossibility of returning to that life. Incredibly suspenseful and full of the texture of the Great Plains, THE INDIAN AGENT is a masterpiece that leads us through one of the most devastating periods of the West, to the book's climax-the massacre at Wounded Knee.

Dan O’Brien’s earlier award-winning novel, The Contract Surgeon,introduced readers to Valentine McGillycuddy, the U.S. Army contract surgeon who became a friend of the great war chief Crazy Horse. Through McGillycuddy’s eyes, the novel recounted the friendship that so deeply impacted history. It also chronicled the great Sioux Wars, one of the most violent periods in this nation’s history.
The Indian Agent is the riveting sequel to The Contract Surgeon. After Crazy Horse’s death, McGillycuddy went on to become the youngest agent in history for the Red Cloud Agency, renamed the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, of the Oglala Lakota band of the Sioux. Red Cloud and McGillycuddy have diametrically opposing views, though they have more in common than either knows. They both love the land and they both love the past. The politics and the enormous tensions of the early days on the reservation are depicted in fascinating detail, as McGillycuddy (known as “the most investigated man” in the government) urges the Sioux to adopt a life of farming. He had lived on the vast plains with them. No white man knew better what the Sioux had given up—nor understood more fully the impossibility of returning to the old life.
Full of the dynamic history of the Plains, The Indian Agent is the true story of the conversion of this land from one of free nomadic people to one of settled commerce—achieved only at an unfathomable cost. The Indian Agent is a masterpiece that leads us through one of the most painful periods of the West to the novel’s devastating climax at Wounded Knee.