After a winter of work trips to Canada, Mexico, and the West Coast, Pell finally finds the time to work through the accumulation of reports on his desk in New York. In the congressional hearings, surveys, petitions, and protests, he discovers "a history of events that shocked him."

He has found out that "Indian lands had been taken because they would be put to a higher order of use because they would contribute to the advancement of a higher order of society". That higher order of society was, of course, the white man's idea of society.

He takes his concerns to his high-profile friends, but all they can do is to confirm what he has already read. He then takes it to Judge Carruthers. Pell denies that he is against progress, but tells the judge that the Natives "should also share in that progress, which is not going to happen if they are robbed of their resources". He says the president was not authorized to divide up the water as well as the land. The dams went across mountains that were still owned by the Indians. Furthermore, he says they didn't receive any compensation for the intrusion. The Indians at Elk Reservation have not benefited in any way from the division of the land.

The Judge waves away Pell's derision by saying that they were political decisions made, as usual, in haste. Pell, however, tells him they were decisions made over a period of twenty years.