Washington Irving was asked by Captain Bonneville to write up a book from the journals Bonneville kept while exploring in the American West in the early 1830s. Bonneville took a team to participate in the hunting and trapping of beaver in the days when the Beaver hat was the rage. On the three year experience he discovered and journaled much of what would become the Oregon Trail in the 1850s. He also encountered many native tribal peoples and the fur trading companies and their agents.

This is probably one of the more generous and level-headed views I have seen from early reports of the native tribes of the west and their ways. Irving, who says he is only writing what Bonneville wrote, is careful to point out the failings of the white men which caused misunderstandings and attacks. He doesn't paint the picture rosy about the natives, but seems quite realistic about their motivations and habits, as well as their positive aspects and the way they lived with the land. ( )