A Cycle of the West is a collection of five epic poems (called "Songs") written and published over a nearly thirty-year span by John G. Neihardt. As one extended work of literature, the Cycle treats historical topics from the American settlement of the Great Plains and the displacement of the Native American cultures there. By internal chronological order, the five songs are (with the date of first) * The Song of Three Friends (1919) * The Song of Hugh Glass (1915) * The Song of Jed Smith (1941) * The Song of the Indian Wars (1925) * The Song of the Messiah (1935)