A Tour on the Prairies: An Account of Thirty Days in Deep Indian Country

In 1832, Washington Irving, America’s first literary superstar, returned to the United States after seventeen years abroad and swiftly set out to explore Pawnee country—the wild uncharted territory deep in the young nation’s interior. It was a part of the country few white men had set foot in and even fewer had written about it—and certainly none as famous as Irving.

Owing to a chance encounter on a steamboat with the newly appointed Indian Commissioner, and embracing an opportunity to silen...