The 2009 Wallace Stegner Lecture presented at the Fourteenth Annual Symposium of the Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment.

Charles Wilkinson is a Distinguished University Professor and the Moses Lasky Professor of Law at the University of Colorado. He has authored or co-authored fourteen books on law, history, and society in the American West, including The Eagle Bird, Crossing the Next Meridian, Fire on the Plateau, Messages From Frank's Landing, and Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations.