This is a book about that most admirable of human virtues - courage. 'Grace under pressure, ' Ernest Hemingway defined it. These are the stories of the pressures experienced by nine Wyoming citizens and three groups of citizens, i.e., the Black 14, the People of the Wind River Indian Reservation and the internees of Heart Mountain It's about the grace with which they endured the risks to their careers, the unpopularity of their courses, the defamation of their characters, and sometimes, but sadly only sometimes, the vindication of their reputations and their principles. This book is about the flashes of courage these women and men exhibited when it mattered most.

This book is written to resurrect those moments and to restore the meaning of courage as an honored attribute in Wyoming politics. There has never been another time in the state's history when the winds blew stronger against those who would otherwise act courageously than we witness today. It follows that there has never been a time when recognizing political courage was more important.