Book Notices

The Ute of Utah Lake

By JOEL C. JANETSKL (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1991 xiv-h 81 pp $20.00.)

The Ute of Utah Lake is a synthesis of the sparse ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and archaeological data on the protohistoric inhabitants of Utah Valley. This short compilation and interpretation by Joel Janetski is useful for a variety of reasons but primarily because it helps significantly to reduce the bias in the historical record of Native American groups in the Great Basin Archaeological evidence increasingly suggests the Basin hunter-gatherers ranged from highly mobile, thinly scattered people living in small groups to virtually sedentary groups in comparatively densely populated regions. Unfortunately, due to the early usurpation of the most productive and well-watered areas by Euro-Americans, we know little about the more complex end of this continuum, and the image of dirty, disreputable, "digger" Indians is the one most commonly portrayed.

In areas like Utah Valley where rich lacustrine and riverine resources are concentrated, such an image is badly distorted Janetski, as have a number of other recent researchers, suggests that factors of transportation and storage are the principal ones that mediate mobility and group size. That is, sedentary populations are found where storable resources occur in tightly packed arrangements that reduce the costs of transporting either products to people or people to products. Janetski contends that fish and to a lesser extent marsh plants from Utah Lake are resources that supported one of the densest, most sedentary populations in the eastern Great Basin.

Janetski thoroughly reviews the evidence for fishing and how lake resources were used by the Utah Valley Utes Combined with a less detailed discussion of information on material culture and social features (much of which is available elsewhere) of the "Timpanogots," this discussion provides a useful counterpoint to the prevailing bias.

The Owl on the Aerial: Poems and Diaries of Clarice Short.

Edited by BARBARA J DUREE. (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1990. 186 pp. $14.95.)

Students and others whose lives were touched by a remarkable professor of English at the University of Utah (194675) will be moved and enriched by the intimate self-portrait of Clarice Short found here. Almost 100 pages of selected diary entries cover some forty years of her life. The poems, almost fifty, take their place beside an earlier collection. The Old One and the Wind (1973).

The diary selections etch themselves into the landscape of the heart A failure in her first teaching positions and in her first attempts to publish poetry and the fruits of her scholarship Short endured and she triumphed—quietly Tested by fire, she spoke with such authority that, without intending it or even being aware of it, she assumed for many students the mantle of a guru Fortunately, her values were rock solid: The great literature of the past is worth studying and reflecting upon In this endeavor, or any other, only your best efforts will suffice.

Barbara Duree, Emma Lou Thayne, and others involved in the production of this book deserve the thanks of Short's many admirers. Nevertheless, one must register a major complaint As a person who, like Matthew Arnold, "saw life steadily and saw it whole," Short and the reader would have been better served had her life as revealed in the diaries been left in chronological wholeness instead of chopped into sections labeled teacher, sportswoman, traveler, etc It is disconcerting to keep jumping back and forth in time, especially when one of the important points of Short's life is how she wove its diverse threads into an apparently seamless whole.

Unitarianism in Utah A Gentile Religion in Salt Lake City, 1891-1991.

By STAN LARSON and LORILLE MILLER (Salt Lake City: Freethinker Press, 1991 xviii-I-381 pp. $24.95.)

The Unitarian faith goes back to at least the sixteenth century when King John Sigismund of Transylvania provided for religious toleration and established a Unitarian church under an edict issued in 1568.The establishment of a Unitarian society in Salt Lake City occurred more than three centuries later when a group of forty-six Utahns met at the Walker House, a local hotel at 246 South Main, on February 24, 1891, to draft and sign a constitution This beautifully designed and published book is a fitting tribute to a group that has made significant contributions to the state of Utah.

The authors, Stan Larson and Lorille Miller, have documented both the successes and scandals that are the Unitarian history in Utah. They have also provided a fascinating glimpse into a religion that"... is part of a tradition of truth-seeking based on human reason... manifest in positions that do not coincide with orthodox Christian doctrines about God and Jesus of Nazareth" (p. 1). The book is divided into two parts, the first half is a chronological history of the church from its founding to the present, while part two includes twenty-three sermons by all but one of the twenty-four Unitarian ministers who have served the Utah church since 1891 The sermons deal with a wide range of theological topics, but the importance of ecumenicalism, individual conscience, and social responsibility are constant threads throughout both the history and the sermons.

Utah Birds: Historical Perspectives and Bibliography.

By WILLIAM H BEHLE (Salt Lake City: Utah Museum of Natural History, 1990.xvi-h355 pp. $25.00.)

Behle, a retired professor of biology at the University of Utah, has written several books on birds in Utah This one begins with the Dominguez Escalante expedition in 1776when the first white men penetrated into northeastern and central Utah The Spanish fathers noted a few birds along their route In about 1824 mountain men recorded casual observations of birds that they encountered Mentions were also made by John C Fremont's party and travelers on their way to California Other important observations were made by the Stansbury party in the spring of 1850 and in the early 1870s by naturalists attached to the King, Wheeler, and Hayden surveys.

Also discussed in this excellent book are early Utah naturalists, local museums' contributions, egg collectors, organizations such as the Utah Audubon Society, Intermountain Chapter of (Hooper Ornithological Club, Utah Nature Society, and others, and information on ornithology and ornithologists at various universities in Utah.

Blood on the Moon: Valentine McGillycuddy and the Sioux.

By JULIA B. MCGILLYCUDDY (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990 xix -I- 291 pp Paper, $10.95.)

First published in 1941, this reprint is a lively narrative of Valentine McGillycuddy's life in the West between 1874 and 1919. He served as an army doctor and so witnessed, or discussed with participants, many of the major events involving the Sioux campaigns to include Gen. Crook's Battle of the Rosebud, the cavalry's starvation march across the Dakotas, the Custer fight, the killing of Crazy Horse, and the flight of the Cheyenne.

The book's central focus is on McGillycuddys service as the Sioux Indian agent on the Pine Ridge Reservation from 1879 to 1886. The story, sympathetically told by his second wife, Julia, portrays his valiant efforts to combat the corruption of white profiteers, pork barrel politics of the Indian Ring, and local white antagonism while wrestling with the problems of a defeated people unused to living in confinement on a reservation. McGillycuddy established an Indian police force, prevented military interference, verbally and psychologically battled Red Cloud for control, instituted a farming program, and developed a tight-fisted approach to running the daily affairs of the agency. According to the author, he was too successful, and though exonerated by frequent investigations, was removed for political expediency.

This book is recommended for those interested in an insider's view of settling the Sioux on reservations, the subsequent cultural impact, and the government's role in this process.

Bounty: A Harvest of Food Lore and Country Memories from Utah's Past

By JANET ALM ANDERSON. (Boulder, Colo.: Pruett Publishing Co, 1990 xiv -I- 177 pp $16.95.)

This nifty little book approaches Utah's past from the perspective of food and the social traditions revolving around growing, preparing, and eating it Food lovers and those who remember grandmother's spice cake with misty eyes and watering mouth will find Bounty a real nostalgia trip It is loaded with historic photographs (55), anecdotes, home remedies, remembrances, and, of course, recipes.

Joseph Smith's New York Reputation Reexamined

By RODGER I. ANDERSON. (Salt Lake City Signature Books, 1990 vi-l- 178 pp Paper, $9.95.)

Rodger Anderson, a graduate in philosophy from the University of Utah, is a freelance writer specializing in nineteenth-century religions. Since the early 1830s Mormons and non-Mormons alike have tried to make sense of the recollections of Joseph Smith's neighbors in New York These recollections, along with Smith's autobiographical accounts, are important sources and comprise almost everything known about Joseph Smith's youth and his family during the 1820s. Anderson includes transcripts of these firsthand reminiscences (some of which are published here for the first time), evaluates the validity of their claims, and discusses the debates that they have started.

This study attempts to analyze the testimonials collected by Dr. Philastus Hurlbut, Arthur Buel Deming, and William and E L Kelley as well as recollections of Lucy Mack Smith and William Smith.

Wilford Woodruffs Journal, 1833-1898, an Index: Typescript Volumes 1-9, 29 December 1833 to 2 September 1889.

Edited by SUSAN STAKER and BRENT D CORCORAN.(Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1991.xxxii -h274 pp. $75.00.)

This work is an index to the nine-volume set that was published between 1983 and 1985 by Signature Books and edited by Scott G Kenney It has both topical and name entries arranged letter-by-letter alphabetically Besides the index, this volume contains a chronology of Wilford Woodruff's life.