Tells the traditional stories and describes the lifeways of some of the first people of the Plains: the Pawnee, Sioux, Hidatsa, Mandan, Arikara, and Omaha Indians. Through these stories, readers learn of the essential ties Native peoples have to the land.

A classic of ethnobotany, "Uses of Plants by the Indians of the Missouri River Region" has been enlarged for this Bison Book edition with thirty drawings, by Bellamy Parks Jansen, of plants discussed by Gilmore. The taxonomic glossary has been updated as well. Readers will find here, conveniently described, the uses that Plains Indians made of the wild plants they collected and of those plants they cultivated for food, clothing, medicine, and ornamentation. This fascinating book, originally published in 1919, reveals cultures that evolved in close harmony with their environment.