i
- The narrator makes pilgrimages to the places of Native American Indian destruction, following the Trail of Tears.
- He reflects on the irony of towns in the southern United States using Greek place names for their cities—it seems these cities shared a love of slavery with the ancient Greeks.
- The narrator sees the past slavery etched onto the landscape that he passes in Georgia.
ii
- We move into Catherine Weldon's perspective as she reflects on her life on the plains and its difference from Boston.
- She speaks of working in Buffalo Bill Cody's circus, where she fell in love with Native Americans and their culture.
iii
- Catherine thinks about the "treachery of treaties," the empty agreements signed by the U.S. government to appease the Native American Indian nations.
- The narrator tells us that he is reading about Weldon's life and experiences to quell his own grief and to search for more characters for his epic poem.
- Catherine voices doubt about the future and peace, and she wonders if her concept of death and resurrection applies to the Native Americans.
- We learn that the narrative he's reading is Catherine Weldon's last letter to the U.S. Indian Agent James McLaughlin, who becomes the instigator of Sitting Bull's death.