A Tour on the Prairies

A Tour on the Prairies is a travel narrative by Washington Irving, detailing his 1832 expedition into the American West (modern-day Oklahoma) with a government mission to the Pawnee and Osage tribes. Irving kept a daily account of his excursion, and upon his return home, turned his notes into a bestseller. With unparalleled descriptions of the natural terrain-a land of giant flowing rivers and endless golden plains-and vivid depictions of the lives in Native Americans, A Tour on the Prairies stands as a classic portrait of what life was like out West before chronic warfare left the plains and the population decimated.