A geographic region of the south-central United States defined by the Ozark Plateau, the Ozarks encompass much of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas as well as small portions of Kansas and Oklahoma. This was the home of the Osage tribe prior to 1830 when the Indian Removal Act forced them to relocate and opened the area to white settlement.
“Like most other Ozark families, my people came from various places across the Appalachia Mountains,” says folklorist Brandon Weston. “We Ozarkers have always had a hard time defining ourselves. We’re not quite Southern, not quite Midwestern, not quite Appalachian.”
Ozark Folk Magic is Weston’s collection of folklore and healing knowledge gathered from years of study and generations of accumulated hillfolk wisdom. What some call superstitions are recorded as legitimate beliefs and lifeways. “We still plant by the moon and read omens out of crow calls, owl hoots, and cicada hums,” Weston says. “Even tales of witches, boogers, and other mountain monsters, usually told around campfires for entertainment, have an edge of reality to them.”