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Nebraska
Press Series 1
| Archaeology
and Ethnohistory of the Omaha Indians: The Big Village
Site
John Ludwickson, John M. O'Shea, Cloth: 1992,
xviii, 374, CIP.LC 89-35986,0-8032-3556-9
Studies in the Anthropology of North American
Indians Series
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For seventy years, from about 1775
until 1845, Big Village was the principal settlement
of the Omaha Indians. Situated on the Missouri River
seventy-five miles above the present city of Omaha,
it commanded a strategic location astride this major
trade route to the northern plains. A host of traders
and travelers, from Jean-Baptiste Truteau and James
Mackay to Lewis and Clark and Father De Smet, left descriptions
of the village. Although John Champe of the University
of Nebraska carried out a comprehensive archaeological
investigation of the site from 1939 to 1942 (the only
intensive, systematic archaeological study of any Omaha
site), the results of his work have heretofore remained
unpublished. Now John M. O'Shea and John Ludwickson
have combined Champe's findings with major historical
accounts of the Omahas, providing significant new insights
into the course of Omaha history in the preservation
period.
The emphasis on material culture gives
a unique view of the daily life of these people and
illustrates clearly the integration of European trade
items with traditional technologies. Here the fur trade
is seen in a fresh perspective, that of the suppliers
of furs and recipients of trade goods. An examination
of Omaha demography rounds out this important new ethnohistorical
sketch of the Omaha Indians.
John M. O'Shea is an associate professor
of anthropology and associate curator of the Museum
of Anthropology at the University of Michigan and John
Ludwickson in an archaeologist with the Nebraska State
Historical Society. They have both published widely
in professional journals and books.
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