 An epilogue states that thirteen years later the last remnants of the free Sioux were subjugated to the American government, ending the conquest of the Western Frontier states and the livelihoods of the tribes on the plains.Originally written as a spec script by Michael Blake, it went unsold in the mid-1980s.However, Kevin Costner had starred in Blake's only previous film, "Stacy's Knights" (1983), and encouraged Blake in early 1986 to turn the Western screenplay into a novel to improve its chances of being produced.