“The spring rains yielded to hot summer days, and it was the second hunt of the year ordered by the elders. Several six-foot-tall hunters of the Ni-U-Kon-Ska people quietly padded through the prairie grass that reached above their shoulders. These “Children of the Middle Waters” – called Osage by the early French settlers – were skilled traders, bartering the hunt’s game for implements and weapons at the mercantile store in town. The young store employee who met these Read More …