The epic clash of two American legendstheir brutal war and a battle of ideas that defined America after Reconstruction.

Oliver Otis Howard thought he was a man of destiny. Chosen to lead the Freedmens Bureau after the Civil War the Union Army general was entrusted with the eras most crucial task: helping millions of former slaves claim the rights of citizens. He was energized by the belief that abolition and Reconstruction the countrys great struggles for liberty and equality were Gods plan for himself and the nation. To honor his righteous commitment to a new American freedom Howard University was named for him.

But as the nations politics curdled in the 1870s General Howard exiled himself from Washington D.C. rejoined the army and was sent across the continent to command forces in the Pacific Northwest. Shattered by Reconstructions collapse he assumed a new mission: forcing Native Americans to become Christian farmers on government reservations.

Howards plans for redemption in the West ran headlong into the resistance of Chief Joseph?? a young Nez Perce leader in northeastern Oregon who refused to leave his ancestral land. Claiming equal rights for Native Americans?? Joseph was determined to find his way to the center of American power and convince the government to acknowledge his people??s humanity and capacity for citizenship. Although his words echoed the very ideas about liberty and equality that Howard had championed during Reconstruction?? in the