The Osage Indians were a powerful group of Native Americans who lived along the prairies and plains of present-day Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The Osage: An Ethnohistorical Study of Hegemony on the Prairie-Plains, now available in paper, shows how the Osage formed and maintained political, economic, and social control over a large portion of the central United States for more than 150 years.

"Rollings's skillful reexamination of the ethnohistorical record, including information revealed by Osage oral traditions and material culture, provides a better understanding of the complexity and sophistication of these people."-- Choice

"The Osage presents a detailed examination of changes in Osage society during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. As such, the book is a solid contribution to the scholarship of culture contact and its impact on Native American communities."--Western Historical Quarterly

"This ethnohistorical study contributes much to our understanding of the Osage people during the 150 years they dominated the prairie-plains region. It will be of particular interest to students of American Indian history and culture, of the American West, and of Oklahoma and Missouri history."-- Journal of American History

"Interweaving historical accounts, cultural anthropology, animal ecology and the intrigues of the fur trade and diplomatic history, Rollings's The Osage is an inviting book that can easily be read by both the layperson and the specialist."--Missouri Historical Review

"Rollings delivers a solid work that blends cultural anthropology and historical analysis, leavened with a good measure of archaeology and Osage oral history, to explain how the Osage Indians came to dominate a huge area generally bounded by the Missouri, Mississippi, and Red rivers and the Great Plains. . . . Highly recommended."--Louisiana History

About the Author

Willard H. Rollings is Associate Professor of History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is also the author of The Comanche.