It is generally accepted that the Native American Renaissance in literature started with N. Scott Momaday's House Made of Dawn in 1968. James Welch's Winter in the Blood (1974) is the second major work of the renaissance, placing Welch as one of the early writers of the modern American Indian literary movement. Welch remains a major writer in the field of Native American literature, as evidenced by his most recent book, Killing Custer (1994).

James Welch was born on 18 November 1940 in Browning, Montana, located on the east slope of the Rocky Mountains, almost directly east of Glacier National Park. The tribal headquarters of the Blackfeet Indian Nation are located in Browning, where Welch is enrolled as a member of the Blackfeet tribe. He is also Gros Ventre on his mother's side. Welch attended schools on the Blackfeet and Fort Belknap reservations before graduating from Washburn High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He...