In 1886 Walter McClintock went to northwestern Montana as a member of a U.S. Forest Service expedition. He was adopted as a son by Chief Mad Dog, the high priest of the Sun Dance, and spent the next four years living on the Blackfoot Reservation. The Old North Trail, originally published in 1910, is a record of his experiences among the Blackfeet.

Many of the Smithsonian Institution's early studies, published since 1881 in such official publications as the Bureau of American Ethnology's reports and bulletins, have remained major sources of information on North American Indians. The Classics of Smith-sonian Anthropology series makes available, for the first time in decades, some of the most important of these basic works. Describing how Blackfoot and Plains Indians obtained, cared for, and trained the horses that became integral to their culture, this book charts the importance of horses to Blackfoot transportation, hunting, warfare, trade, recreation, and religion.