This dictionary was compiled by the Omaha Francis LaFlesche, a BAE ethnographer and student of Osage ritual texts. It was published postumously. The orthography is influenced by Omaha-Ponca phonetics (b d ds g bth gth for p t ts k br l, i ~ u ~ iu for u, etc.) and by LaFlesche's Omaha orthography, which uses c-cedilla for s and z (theta in LaFlesche's Omaha dialect), x for the voiced and voiceless velar fricatives, o for all back nasal vowels, etc. In addition, the verb paradigms are mostly after the Omaha-Ponca pattern, which is especially noticeable with th-stems. The definitions are written in an elevated style with old-fashioned usages that sometimes confuse modern readers. There are some typographical errors, and verb paradigms are sometimes mixed. However, the headwords, if adjusted in spelling, are good, somewhat archaic Osage, and overall this work is an impressive feat of scholarship. Check both the Osage and English sides, as they are not always equivalent. An essential reference on Osage (and Omaha-Ponca!), and one of the best dictionaries of a Siouan language, praise in no way muted by there being so few!

In this book, the fictional protagonist essentially describes the authors life, according to his daughter who wrote the introduction. Struggling to be successful in the white man's world, a mixed-blood Osage Indian is really only comfortable back home on the reservation. Never feeling at home in either, he often feels isolated in both. The book follows him from boyhood on the reservation to college and military life beyond, but always returning home.

This book is an absorbing read, and is notable for being one of the first books to examine this topic intelligently. It is devoid of romanticism or New Age allusions (illusions?), but is not the inevitable sinking despair of a James Welch read. I strongly recommend it for anyone with an interest in mixed-culture and heritage topics.

John Joseph Mathew was probably the most influential Osage Indian writer yet born. A World War I Army Air Corps pilot, he was Oxford educated as a geologist, travelled the world, especially Africa, yet came back to the Osage hills in Oklahoma to be "home". He was not a "full-blood" Osage, but was a "mixed-blood" of Osage and Caucasian heritage.

In his era, it was this mixed heritage that probably allowed him to be as educated as he was. This was invaluable in his later writing career, because his books are both poetic in style and writing, capturing much of the feel of our Osage oral history and home, yet scholarly in their documentation. He wrote the first best-seller by a Native American author (Wah-Kon-Tah: the Osage and the White-Man's Road)published in 1932. Following this, he wrote a history of our tribe, (The Osages, Children of the Middle Waters) which while controversial in some aspects, is the most complete written history we have yet. He also wrote on topics of naturalism and his personal views on many topics, and a biography of an oilman, both of more or less relation to the tribe.

But in none of these books to we get a real flavor of how he *felt* about things, and the experiences that molded him. In this book, Sundown, we see an intimate personal, often painful look at a younger Mathews. This, along with Mathews' prose syle is why I recommend the book.

How can the author claim to write the "true story" of the Osage murders without citing ANY research documentation whatsoever? Obviously, Hogan did not interview any Real Osages, nor has he visited the Osage Museum or the Whitehair Memorial. This book is yet another attempt by a white person to recreate Osage history from his own perspective and call it factual. And, as far as selling "thousands of copies" of the book, well, that does not establish its veracity. As an academician, I cannot endorse this book. No research, no interviews, no inclusion of Real Osage accounts = no true story. Finally, I take exception to the publisher's attack on the only other person who wrote a review similar to mine. A review should be just that--an opinion of a text's quality (or in this case, failure). This book does nothing but perpetuate negative stereotypes of Osage Indians. In any case, the subtitle should instead read "One White Man's Fictionalized Account..."

A pretty good book. The author had a great story to begin with....it would make an excellent motion picture. However, I thought it had a few shortcomings. The absence of an Osage perspective on the whole ordeal was a major flaw. Surely, Hogan could have found some documents from tribal members who experienced the "Reign of Terror" or interviewed the few remaining Osage members who lived through this period. Also, as a Native American, I thought the use of "Squaw" and "Squaw Man" was gratuitous and offensive. Furthermore, the jumping around from case to case was confusing at times. Nonetheless, I have recommended the book to many friends. As a person who works with the Osage Tribe, I found his account consistent with my knowledge of the "Reign of Terror" that I have accumulated through many meetings with tribal leaders and elders in Pawhuska. I was also pleased that he included an accurate, though brief, tribal history section at the beginning of the book. Furthermore, the author was successful in giving the reader a adequate sense of the setting in Osage County during the 1920s- a place replete with scoundrels, bootleggers and con men. Additionally, I was very pleased with his writing style. Often times when a "true crime" story is being told, the book is bogged down with picayune details of court proceedings. However, Hogan was able to offer a succinct, yet comprehensive account of the trial involving the Osage Indian Murders.

I half expected ghosts to step out of "The Osage Indian Murders." The book is that dry, that dusty. Yet from the author's chapter-and-verse narrative and bare-bones prose comes a haunting look back at a lawless time and place.

In 1870 Congress forced the Osages to sell their lands in Kansas and buy lands from the Cherokees in what was then Oklahoma Territory. The price quoted was 25 cents an acre. When the Osages hove into sight, of course, the Cherokees upped the price to 70 cents an acre. It was a seller's market.

Who could know that the "poor grave" (as the Osages called the new reservation) would start gushing oil in 1897? The real tragedy of things to come was these once-proud Plains warriors had never wanted money. They wanted to hunt buffalo, plant a few field crops and steal horses -- a special passion of the Plains Indians.

But the oil flowed, the Osages spent money with both hands and the vultures circled. One way for a white thief to get his hands on Osage money was to marry an Osage woman, have her killed and inherit her headrights.There was always someone willing to pull the trigger -- a shiftless hanger-on or an outlaw hiding in the woods of Osage County.

This, then, was the setting for a string of Osage Indian murders that terrorized both Indians and whites. In 1923, the FBI was called in. Agents worked undercover for three years, turning over one rock at a time to put their case together. Trials began in 1926 and eventually several life sentences were handed down.

Author Lawrence J. Hogan -- a former FBI agent and former U.S. congressman -- did voluminous research for this book. He quotes from original documents, interviews and confessions, and organized an interesting bibliography.

Old black and white photos of Indians and outlaws, murder scenes and city streets evoke the time and place in ways that words never can. The people in the photos bring the story to life. They look straight out of the page and their eyes speak volumes.

After a while it sinks in: They were real people, and they really did those things.

Note: This review is excerpted, with permission, from a review I wrote for The Hanford Sentinel newspaper.

This book provides valuable information regarding the legal status and psychology of mixed-blood "white" members of Indian tribes. The author, a journalist, started out by investigating the death of his maternal grandmother, who was part-Osage Indian and an enrolled member of the tribe. Concentrate on the history and ignore the author's attempt to impose a "one drop of Indian blood" rule on himself and his family - using the "one drop of black blood" myth to justify it. I note that in the many book reviews that appeared when the book was first published, McAuliffe's historical research was praised but no one took his claim of being a white "Indian" seriously - quite the opposite of what happens when whites claim to be "black" (e.g., Gregory Howard Williams).

I came upon this book accidentally when it first came out, while I was working in a large bookstore. It was the most fascinating story about Native Americans that I had read in a long time. With a plot better constructed than any mystery novel that tells an important and largely unknown part of our country's history, I couldn't figure out why the book didn't catch on and make it big. It certainly deserved to. Rarely have I read a family history in which the author was able and willing to look at his own shortcomings while he explored his family's past. An amazing, wonderful book on many levels. A true shame it has gone out of print. One day it will be brought back and find the audience it deserves.

Mr. McAuliffe reveals, once again, the ugliness of the White Man take-over of Native Americans. The appalling truth is presented in a style that leads the reader as through a well-written mystery novel. For those who don't understand the desire of Native Americans to retain their culture,or White Man to pompously declare themselves "better" than most, this book is insightful

This was a very riveting book. I wasn't too sure how much I'd enjoy it when I started. . . it seemed at first like the author was simply out to trash white people. Maybe that was my own guard going up. . . I don't know.

Regardless, this turned out to be a very good book. The author finds out late in life that his grandmother committed suicide. As he investigates his family history, it turns out she was murdered, instead.

This all happened in the "Reign of Terror," a time back in the 1910's and 1920's in which literally hundreds of Osage Indians were murdered for their land and money (they had recently become quite rich because of the discovery of oil). McAullife's grandmother was caught up in this terrible tragedy.

At times I found it hard to follow who the author was talking about. Fortunately, the front of the book contains the author's family tree--this was very useful at times in helping me figure out who was related to whom.

This book tells about a shameful time during our state's (and nation's) history. It is worth reading, if for no other reason that we won't repeat our mistakes.

I originally bought this book because I thought it sounded like an interesting fiction. It quickly became obvious that it wasn't a fictional story at all, but rather another atrocity in American history that is only known through rumors and campfire stories. This book is a expert mix of personal obstacles for the author and unbiased historical documentation of an Osage tribe and its gift/curse of oil wealth. I doubt many people are strangers to the tales of Native abuses by whites, but I've asked many people if they've ever heard of the Osage murders at the turn of the century when oil was struck on their land. None had. This is a wonderfully wrought piece. I recommend it to anyone with a flare for history, the glorified as well as the darker chapters.

I read this book with my book club members which culminated with a "speakerphone" chat with the author. I must say that this was a wonderful and powerful novel that gets the reader thinking. I am not an Indian, and I am ashamed to say I had no idea about the Reign of Terror or the prejudices felt by Indians of any tribe. This book opened my eyes. I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see how this true murder mystery was going to turn out. In the meantime, I got an awesome history lesson that I will never forget.