John Joseph Mathews was born on the Osage reservation and after receiving education at the University of Oklahoma and Oxford, England as well as serving in WW1 US Flyer service lived most of his life there. This is a story of transition based largely on the journals of Major Miles a Quaker who headed the government agency for a number of years. The early years in the book show the Osage people attempting to hold onto the old ways. It tells a little of their dances, mourning rituals, beliefs, and shows the pressure put upon them by the "civilized" citizens of the US as their ways are gradually encrouched upon and their youth tought the ways of greed and materialism and to look down upon the way of life and teachings of their elders. It goes through the boom years of the oil finds in the reservation and it's detrimental impact upon the Osage people.

The book brings to life the prairie, and stands of Blackjacks and the author is able to put the reader into the scene. It's a well written book that contrasts the simplistic beauty of what was with the petty harshness of the civilized world. ( )

Wah'Kon-Tah, the name for the Great Spirit in Osage. This book was written by a young man who was part Osage, from a journal kept by Major Laban J. Miles. Major Miles was an Agent on the reservation in the late 1800s and kept a journal of his thoughts and experiences. He was a respected man by the natives he served. A Quaker, he strove to understand the people of the Osage tribe and worried a great deal about how their path would interact with that of the white "savages" around them. He tried to prepare them for that eventuality, but ran out of time when oil was discovered on the land.

This book is beautifully written. The author's use of words plunks you out of your chair and places you in the middle of the blackjack oaks and prairie with all the sights, smells, sounds and feelings. It brings to light a tension filled moment in history. More than a dry history though, it is the portrait of a people and time.

This is a series of interactions with the Major and the Osage people. The author said of the Major, "He believed that if they were allowed to develop in their own way, and retain their admirable characteristics, that they might add brilliance which he felt surely would someday be America's." It brings to light a thought I have often had, what would our country be like if the people who arrived had looked upon the natives with respect and valued their culture, instead of with rapacity and disdain. ( )