The Osage: An Ethnohistorical Study of Hegemony on the Prairie-Plains

by Willard H. Rollings

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 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.

336 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1992

Reviews

[Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent history of the Osage between the beginning of the 18th century and their final expulsion to Oklahoma in the 1840s. Work focuses on the political structure of the Osage polity and how it was and was not able to adapt to changing conditions, and how this led to a brief 1750-early 1800s period of local hegemony before they were beaten down by the migration of Eastern Tribes across the Mississippi and the US Government’s feckless behavior.

It does an excellent job of describing internal dynamics and is just an excellent narrative history. It is a model of its type.