Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewIn her comprehensive analysis of gender roles throughout a critical period in Osage history, Tai S. Edwards demonstrates how attention to a Native American nation’s deeply held beliefs in complementarity, autonomy, and balance allows us to understand indigenous resilience to colonization. Edwards does not simply add women to the story of the Osage empire. Rather, she proves that we cannot understand their creative and often successful adaptation without paying attention to the persistence of gendered values and behaviors. This book will change the way we understand the history of the southern plains."" - Rose Stremlau, author of
Sustaining the Cherokee Family: Kinship and the Allotment of an Indigenous Nation""An important new work that refutes the long-standing false stereotype of the male domination and abuse of women in Plains warrior societies. Edwards restores Osage women to their rightful place in an egalitarian, non-hierarchical indigenous system in which they were respected and essential participants in every aspect of Osage life while providing new insights regarding Osage resistance to, and selective adaption of, white norms under US colonialism. Important reading for students of indigenous history, women’s studies, and settler colonialism."" - Donna L. Akers, author of
Living in the Land of Death: The Choctaw Nation, 1830-1860