Frank and Deborah Popper , about 20 years ago, drew and fired a pair of fightin' words the likes of which the Great Plains hadn't dodged since Gen. Philip Sheridan infamously used "good,” "dead” and "Indians” in the same sentence in 1869.

Only it was whites, not natives and their supporters, who rose in indignation and called for the Poppers' East Coast, academic, nosy, meddling eggheads on a platter.

T...