James Willard Schultz first encountered the Blackfeet Indians in Montana Territory in 1877 when he was seventeen. In time, he married a Blackfeet woman, formed close friendships with many in the tribe, and lived with them off and on for the next seventy years until his death. Why Gone Those Times? is based on his experiences among the Blackfeet, who gave him the name Apikuni. Apikuni's adventures include taming a wolf, raiding in Old Mexico, and stalking a black buffalo. Although Schultz was neither historian nor ethnologist, he filled his stories with Indian history and detailed descriptions of Blackfeet daily life and culture.

Eugene Lee Silliman, a high school teacher in Deer Lodge, Montana, is an authority on the life and work of Schultz, and is also the editor of a collection of Schultz stories, Why Gone Those Times? published by the University of Oklahoman Press.

James Willard Schultz was the author of many stories and thirty-nine books on Indian life in the West.