This essay investigates how various perspectives differ and converge in the span of an afternoon, thus illustrating how divergent narratives, through their very difference, enhance one's understanding of the past. The case study of the 1925 Fort Union Indian Congress points to the process of narrativizing experience and underscores how meaning is socially constructed through various cultural frameworks. Consider the Great Northern publicist's view of the "authentic Indian" as culturally static and dying off: to the tourist on the expedition, the experience of viewing the Indian Congress was novel because of the imagined bleak future of Indian cultures. To the Indian participants in the congress, the experience of viewing hundreds of Indians eating, dancing, singing, and speaking together would be inspiring because of the imagined possibility of cultural survival and resilience during an especially difficult time. The narrative of the congress, as posited by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) agents, fits into a larger narrative of colonial conquest over land and people. The American Indians' narratives fit into a larger process of subverting those colonial forces. (Contains 96 notes.)