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Acknowledgments In writing this book, I incurred many debts, most especially to those Osage who have allowed me to share their perspectives and histories. The early encouragement and patience of the 31st Osage Tribal Council, Julia Lookout, Leonard Maker, Kathryn Red Corn, the Osage Government Reform Commission, Hepsi Barnett, and the Osage Language Department made this research possible. The stories told and the questions asked by various Osage provide the substance of this book. To all these people I will forever be in debt. WhileattheUniversityofFlorida,Iwasfortunatetofindagroupofprofessors and graduate students who nurtured my academic growth. Peter Schmidt continually impressed me with his insights, while his thoughtful reviews and questions kept me on track. Marilyn Thomas-Houston’s support and unwavering confidence in my abilities during my six years at the University of Florida kept me at the university. Through their excellent seminars, Brenda Chalfin and Stacey Langwick provided me with the central theories that inform this book. Without their guidance, I would have been at a great disadvantage. The importance of the critical perspectives provided by Rob Freeman, Roberto Barrios, Lauren Fordyce, Jai Hale Gallardo, Ryan Morini, and Scott Catey cannot be overstated. My research and writing was supported by Osage Nation higher education scholarships, University of Florida fellowships, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill fellowships and a postdoc, in addition to major grants from the National Science Foundation and Wenner-Gren. I offer thanks to these funding sources and to the people who helped make these great opportunities available. I would also like to thank my parents, Gene and Sally Dennison, who provided room and board throughout various stages of the research and writing process. Their home on the Oklahoma prairie has been both my inspiration and my sanctuary. The research for this book was born out of this support, supervision, and generous funding, but the writing grew out of ongoing conversations among current scholars in the fields of anthropology and American Indian studies. This process has shown me the richness of peer review as a tool of collaboration and enrichment. Through the University of North Carolina Press I was fortunate to receive extensive and well-targeted feedback from xiv : : : A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s Kevin Bruyneel and Pauline Strong, both of whom inspired me to push my analysis of the Osage reform process deeper. In addition to the official peer review, feedback from and conversations with my Indigenous studies colleagues Mark Rifkin, Audra Simpson, Robert Warrior, J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, Jessica Cattelino, Joseph Genetin-Pilawa, Garrick Bailey, Steven Rubenstein, and Mario Blaser were essential to this manuscript and my professional development. Throughout my time at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I have benefited a great deal from my colleagues in American Indian studies and anthropology. Perhaps most clearly, I am indebted to Valerie Lambert for her steadfast guidance, her unwavering support, and her critical reading of the manuscript. I also greatly benefited from the mentorship of Dorothy Holland, who was always willing to share her astute understandings of academic culture while facilitating many essential brainstorming sessions on a range of topics, including the title of the book. May all young academics be so lucky to have such devoted mentors. In American Indian studies at UNC–Chapel Hill, I also benefited from the conversations and critiques of Keith Richotte, Michael Green, Theda Perdue, Malinda Maynor Lowery, Tol Foster, Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote, Dan Cobb, and Kathleen DuVal. In the anthropology department, I had similar insightful interactions with Jocelyn Chua, Arturo Escobar, Don Nonini, Silvia Tomášková, Anna Agbe-Davies, Amanda Thompson, Dana Powell, and Courtney Lewis. Many other faculty at UNC–Chapel Hill provided the community support and provocative discussion essential to any book project. These include, but are certainly not limited to, Sara Smith, Michal Osterweil, Neel Ahuja, Nina Martin, Ariana Vigil, Emilio del Valle Escalante, Joseph Jordan, Andrea Benjamin, Laura Halperin, and Jennifer Ho. This book benefited greatly from its editors, who generously gave their time. Special thanks to UNC Press editorial director Mark Simpson-Vos, who provided thoughtful and time-intensive feedback, helping my manuscript mature into the book it is today. From his reading of the earliest draft to his choice of reviewers, and, most importantly, to the First Peoples manuscript development workshop, Mark nurtured my scholarship, refined my vision, and facilitated the discussions necessary to help me best articulate the issues at stake in the 2004–6 Osage reform process...

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