The first comprehensive view of women on the North American Plains, these essays explore the richness, variety, and complexity of their experiences. From prehistory to the present, the Great Plains have played a significant role in the lives of women who moved to or across them, cleaving to cultural ideas and patterns while adapting to the rigors of the region. Twelve essays--arranged chronologically within sub-regions--draw upon innovative theoretical and methodological approaches, including gender/transgender studies, decolonization of Native peoples, and the influence of nation states. Richly grounded in the particular, these essays also contextualize the stories of specific women and locales within larger social, political, and economic trends. Individually and collectively, they reveal the intricate relations that tie together people and place. Here are long-needed perspectives on the diverse lives of women who have been--and who continue to be--too often ignored in wider histories of the Plains.

Renee M. Laegreid, associate professor of history at Hastings College in Nebraska, specializes in women's and gender history in the West. Sandra K. Mathews is professor of history at Nebraska Wesleyan University, specializing in the U.S. West, Comparative Borderlands, and American Indian History. (Mathews photo by Dale M. Benham)