First published in 1910, The White Indian Boy quickly became a western classic. Readers fascinated by real-life 'cowboys and Indians' thrilled to Nick Wilson’s frontier exploits, as he recounted running away to live with the Shoshone in his early teens, riding for the Pony Express, and helping settle Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The volume was so popular that Wilson’s son Charles was compelled to write a second book, The Return of the White Indian, which picks up in 1895 where the first memoir ends, telling the adventures of Nick Wilson’s later life.
These books, published here as a single volume, are testaments to a unique time and place in American history. Because he had a heart for adventure and unusual proficiency with Native American languages, Wilson’s life became an historical canvas on which was painted both the exploration and the closing of a frontier, as he went from childhood among the Shoshone to work as an interpreter for the U.S. government on Indian reservations in Wyoming and Idaho in his later years. This volume includes new introductory material, a family tree, and a background of Indian-white relations in Jackson Hole. Packed with amazing details about life in the Old West, Wilson’s colorful escapades are once again available to a new generation of readers.

Elijah Nicholas 'Uncle Nick' Wilson (1842–1915) ran away from his Utah home and lived with the Shoshone Indians as a boy. In his later years he settled in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The town of Wilson, Wyoming, is named for him.
Charles Alma Wilson (1901–1999), the son of Elijah Nicholas Wilson, was born in Wilson, Wyoming. Like his father, Charley lived a colorful life as a rancher, government trapper, hunting and fishing guide, and author.

Contents

Foreword by John J Stewart

Preface by Charles Alma Wilson

Acknowledgments

A Note on the Family Tree of Elijah Nicholas Wilson

The White Indian Boy

1. Pioneer Days
2. My Little Indian Brother
3. Off With the Indians
4. The Great Encampment
5. Village Life
6. My Mother
7. The Crows
8. A Long Journey
9. The Fierce Battle
10. Lively Times
11. Old Morogonai
12. The Big Council
13. Homeward Bound
14. Year of the Move
15. The Pony Express
16. Johnston Punishes the Indians
17. The Overland Stage
18. A Terrible Journey
19. My Old Shosone Friends
20. Trapping With an Indian
21. Working on the Indian Reservation
22. Frontier Troubles

The Return of the White Indian

23. Polygamy
24. The Violin
25. Prologue to Jackson Hole
26. A Heritage
27. Were They Really Horse Thieves?
28. Prologue to Jackson Hole (continued)
29. Prologue to Jackson Hole (continued)

      Ellington (Ton) Smith

30. Jackson Hole Sheep War
31. Jackson Hole Indian War
32. Reminiscence
33. Charley Wilson
34. Charlotte Sarah Wilson (Tragedy)
35. Happy Times
36. A Close Call and Nick Loses His Bishopric
37. Virgil Ward and the Drummer
38. The Telephone
39. Brasfield and Bill Scott
40. Carl Van Winkle
41. Nick McCoy
42. Haley’s Comet
43. Ogden, Utah, Not in Wyoming!
44. Wilderness Acres
45. Raum and Raum (School Days)
46. Jessie K Dayton and Brady Taylor
47. Pioneer Teachers

Jenny Grosh and Fostene Forrester

48. The Hermit
49. Jackson Lake Dam-Was It Worth It?
50. Doctor Huff and Dell Judd

And A Great Man Dies