The years preceding the Civil War were appallingly difficult for Native Americans. White man wanted their land. In spite of a Supreme Court ruling that treaties signed with The Five Nations were legal and binding, President Andrew Jackson ordered that the Indian lands be taken from them, and the Indians removed-or killed. Andrew Jackson considered Indians to be savages, yet their culture was as civilized, if not more so, than the White man who wanted them removed. Servants on Horses is the story of one family"s struggle to survive and come to terms with the annihilation of their culture and the assimilation of generations into White man"s culture.