Data collected in 1972 from three communities in Nebraska, through intensive interviewing of women of childbearing age, are summarized. Rural-urban con trasts in variables related to population growth indicate that Omaha women are having many wanted children (4.5 by age 34). City residents have (and want) families at least as large as those had (and wanted) by reservation residents. Large families are not explained by (a) religious factors; (b) greater desire for children of one sex, i.e. boys, (c) ignorance or disapproval of birth control or (d) rural residence. Explanation appears to lie partly in large-family values derived from an Omaha past laced with disastrous epidemics which struck six times in the 19th century, killing from 50 to 1500 persons or from 5% to 75% of the tribe. INTRODUCTION The overall study upon which this report is based focused upon population trends in two American Indian tribes?the Seminoles of Florida and the Omahas of Nebraska. Field work was conducted in six communities (three in Florida and three in Nebraska) in the summer of 1972, with support from the Center of Population Research of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Develop ment, (Grant No. IRO1-HD-06729-01). Two hundred and fourteen women were inter viewed with a questionnaire expanded from that designed by the Committee on Compara tive Studies of Fertility Planning (of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population) in collaboration with the Popula tion Division of United Nations Secretariat (United Nations 1970). Analysis of 350 variables coded from this instrument will be reported in full in subsequent publications. Here, some preliminary findings from the Omaha tribe are set forth. In dealing with the Omaha data here we will touch upon three areas: (1) some characteristics of modern Omaha society; (2) selected reponses of Omaha respondents to the 1972 interviews; and (3) some possible factors of explanation. Today's 2600 Omaha Indians live in two settings. About half of them (1336 in 1966) remain on their reservation by the Missouri River in eastern Nebraska. The rest (1253 in 1966) have moved from the reservation, mostly to the neighboring cities of Omaha, Sioux City, and Lincoln. Since World War II there have been small Omaha populations in these cities, of a fairly stable nature: families once relocated have tended to remain. A generation has thus by now grown up in urban surroundings. The cities however are 100 miles or less from the Omaha reservation, so that contacts with home are easily maintained, and frequent visits in both directions are possible. The two populations are very similar, with traditional patterns prevailing in family and household arrange ments, extended kinship groups, and associa tions. Pluralism is strongly evident in the city as well as on the reservation: acculturation to mainstream American life has clearly taken place, but at the same time many aspects of traditional Omaha culture remain. The city people show strong conservative tendencies, emphasizing parts of their Omaha heritage in the apparent effort to preserve it for their children. The city, then, has not yet increased Omaha assimilation to any noticeable degree. Some indicators from the 1972 data are summarized in Table 1. In the use of the Omaha language, attendance at powwows, and Native American Church and handgame participation, the city people remain at least as traditional as their reservation counterparts (Liberty 1973: 137ff.). In this situation of relatively slow cultural change among recent emigrants to the city, we were interested in learning whether a generation in town had affected the attitudes of women toward childbearing, or had