In ​“Leav­ing Bents Fort”, Lance Hen­son wres­tles deeply with the mean­ing of being a Cheyenne in Amer­i­ca — a mean­ing that is as com­plex his­tor­i­cal­ly as it is in the present and towards the future. The names of the indige­nous Amer­i­cans, the fierce and hero­ic Cheyenne war­riors, Roman Nose and Two Moon (a spir­i­tu­al chief leader), are set against the name of a fort built in south­ern Col­orado, named for white traders, Charles and William Bent, as the sin­gu­lar out­post estab­lished to exe­cute a bru­tal war against the Cheyenne. In his truck, Hen­son tra­vers­es the present land­scape that is ancient as his her­itage. Henson’s con­fes­sion that he is ​“bare­ly in Amer­i­ca” is iron­ic. He is in and out­side of Amer­i­ca, for Amer­i­ca must always con­tend with its trou­bled gen­e­sis and inven­tion, one that, for this Cheyenne, invokes the ten­sion between ​“rage and freedom”.