William M. Osborn was born and educated in Indiana and Michigan. He practiced law in Indiana for many years. Upon his retirement several years ago, he began researching this book about settlers and Indians, in part because the Massachusetts home of one of his father's ancestors was burned by Indians in colonial days and, according to family tradition, one of his mother's ancestors, a settler on the frontier, married a Cherokee named Lydia. That research resulted in The Wild Frontier. Osborn and his wife, Pat, spend half their time in Indiana and half in Florida.
This is a deeply provocative book. It will disturb many people and anger others, and that is all to the good. Its unvarnished account of the darkest side of relations between Indians and whites tells us much that we would prefer not to know, or that we have deliberately forgotten, about the longest and most complex conflict in American history. <br>--Fergus M. Bordewich, author of Killing the White Man's Indian <br> William Osborn's The Wild Frontier shows the dark side of our national history, a side that many people will find disturbing. Nevertheless, it is a story that must be told in order for us to achieve a better understanding of ourselves and our past. <br>--Charles M. Robinson III, author of The Men Who Wear the Star <p> From the Hardcover edition.