R. B. Stratton (1827–1875) was a Methodist reverend. He lectured in California for eleven years before publishing his best-selling story of the Oatman girls in 1857. Wilcomb E. Washburn (1925–1997) was former director of the Smithsonian Institution’s American Studies Program. Billy J. Stratton is an associate professor of English at the University of Denver and is not related to R. B. Stratton. He is the author of Buried in Shades of Night: Contested Voices, Indian Captivity, and the Legacy of King Philip’s War and editor of The Fictions of Stephen Graham Jones: A Critical Companion.