 In its view of the white settlement of the American west, "Fair Land, Fair Land" is the bleakest book in the series.The most positively portrayed whites are mountain men and those who choose to live with the Native Americans and adopt their ways, such as Dick Summers and Hezekiah Higgins.Other whites range from settlers who don't realize they are despoiling an Eden, to destructively careless wealth seekers, and to deliberately evil murderers.