Cross-Cultural Crime and Osage Justice in the Western Mississippi Valley, 1700-1826

This article explores ideas of justice and punishment held by various Indians and Europeans, ending with the trial of several Osage men accused by the United States of the kind of killing that the Osage had done for a century in protection of their trade and land rights. It argues that Indian ways of cross-cultural interaction shaped interactions with Europeans and also changed in order to deal with the new hazards and opportunities that newcomers presented.