French-born author Gustave Aimard spent a fair amount of time exploring the canyons and prairies of North America, and the experience profoundly impacted his later career as a novelist. The Indian Scout is a classic action-adventure tale that draws heavily on Aimard's own experiences in the region, and though the biased view of nineteenth-century Europeans toward indigenous people is still in evidence, Aimard takes a more open-minded approach to unfamiliar cultures than did many other writers of the era.
