The year is 1870. Located in the Two Medicine Territory of northwestern Montana is the camp of the Lone Eaters, a small band of Blackfeet Indians. Their life consists of a timeless round of activity, deeply rooted in the land and the seasons and in a reverence for the customs handed down from the Long Ago People. But the ever-increasing presence of the Napikwans-white-men-threatens this existence. Fools Crow, a young warrior and medicine man of great vision, has seen the future. He knows his tribe must either fight a brave but futile war or surrender their lands-and their way of life.

In Fools Crow, James Welch's magnificent stylistic gifts are deployed to full advantage, allied with a subject of tragic consequence: the lives and fate of his Blackfeet ancestors.