Indigenous and enslaved peoples of a young America flock to the White House one winter for the trial of the nephew of the Chickasaw chief. This nephew is under investigation for the death of a white man.  The previous summer, a white man visited the land of the chief, Wedell. He stayed several months, going out into the land to hunt, the Chickasaw people assumed, although he returned with nothing everyday. After all this time spent surveying the land, the white man offered to buy a small portion of the land from Wedell. They negotiated, and eventually the land was purchased and the white man set out building a fence around the sole entrance to the ford Wedell lives upon. He sets up a tollbooth and begins charging even the Chickasaw people to enter their own land.  The nephew of the chief became angered by this, and challenged the white man to a race on their horses. They nephew lost, but the white man ended up dying from a split skull. The chief and uncle have brought the nephew to the White House to seek a just trial and prove their civility, unlike the other Indian tribes who carelessly kill white men. However, the President and his Secretary are largely unconcerned with justice in the situation, and are primarily focused on getting the tribe out of the capital. They are disturbed by the people who have taken up residence in the White House, refusing to wear pants and leaving gnawed up bones in the hallway. The Secretary and the President arrange a faux trial before the chief and his nephew, declaring them both innocent and telling them to return home. The Chickasaw people oblige.  That autumn, the President receives a letter from Wedell, informing him that his nephew has once again been accused of murdering a white man. He tells the President that he has no choice but to bring the boy to the capital to be reprimanded by the supreme, wise White Father. The President, wanting desperately to avoid another interaction with the tribe he views as a nuisance to himself and a shame to have in his dignified Capitol, commands the Secretary of War to place a sign on the United State’s side of the Mississippi informing Wedell that he and his offspring will never be held in contempt by the government for a white man’s death so long as they stay on their side of the Mississippi. The Secretary informs him that he cannot do that legally, so he instead sends troops to meet the tribe, with orders to shoot any animal they ride upon, assuming they will not walk the fifteen hundred mile journey.