Book Reviews

Rough-water Man: Elwyn Blake's Colorado River Expeditions.

By RICHARD E WESTWOOD (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1922 xxii + 259 pp $27.95.)

In July 1921 twenty-four-year-old Elwyn BlakeJr took a root beer break from his printing job at the San Juan Record in Monticello, Utah At a local drugstore he ran into a friend, the fifty-two-year-old miner Bert Loper The older man was heading to Bluff where he was to be the head boatman for a USGS survey of the San Juan River. The crew needed one more rodman, and Loper's subsequent recommendation with chief engineer Kelly Trimble landed the job for Blake. This serendipitous beginning led to three eventful and exciting summers with the USGS for young Blake as he became an accomplished boatman, participating in some historic and far-reaching surveys of the Colorado River Basin.

Author Richard Westwood, Blake's nephew, has reconstructed those three trips—the San Juan in 1921, the upper Green in 1922, and the Grand Canyon in 1923—using Blake's and other participants' field notes, Blake's autobiography, and other primary and secondary sources (In a short chapter he also summarizes the 1921 Chenoweth survey of Cataract Canyon).

Westwood's account thoroughly recreates those trips, detailing the survey work accomplished, the problems each trip encountered and the day-today social dynamics. In doing so he actually tells two stories While he focuses on Blake and his contributions to the surveys, he also is narrating the story of the USGS's efforts to map "the last deep canyons of the Colorado River system and to find possible dam sites." No one before Westwood has told us so much about these important surveys whose work has had so much impact on the Colorado River system.

Besides the well-known Loper, other important figures from Colorado River history who walk in and out of this story are Hugh D Miser, Kelly Trimble, Claude Birdseye, Raymond Moore, Eugene C LaRue, Emery and Ellsworth Kolb, Lewis Freeman, and Frank Dodge Some like Emery Kolb added to their fame with these trips; some went on to greater work; some became famous just for these trips. Blake himself never did much more river work after 1923. The pressures of supporting a young family forced him to seek steadier employment in the newspaper printing business. Yet clearly those three summers were the formative adventures of his life, as he spent much time later writing about them in an autobiography and in poems he composed.

Westwood does an excellent job of conveying just what it was like to head down the river in the early 1920s His details often contain some real gems, like the account of the Birdseye Emery Kolb argument over filming the trip through the Grand Canyon Occasionally, though, the details get a bit repetitive. Also, Westwood sometimes narrates very specific information about Blake's private thoughts and impressions without citing the source This can be confusing.

Nevertheless, this is a valuable contribution to Colorado River history. River runners, western water historians and those with a general interest in the Colorado River will find this a good, often exciting read.

JIM ATON Southern Utah University

Beneath These Red Cliffs: An Ethnohistory of the Utah Paiutes.

By RONALD L. HOLT (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992. xvi + 197 pp. $29.95.)

Beneath These Red Cliffs is a history of the Southern Paiute Indians of Utah. It is a book about the century and a half of suffering endured by a proud people at the hands of Europeans who immigrated into Paiute country, usurped traditional Paiute lands, forever disrupted their lives, and denied them their most fundamental right, self-determination The book was written by someone who knows the twentieth-century Paiutes: Ronald Holt taught at Southern Utah University in Cedar City for several years and worked closely with the Paiutes as he formulated his ideas for this book.

The Paiutes are a people with a poorly known history At the time of European arrival they lived in southern Utah, southern Nevada, and northwestern Arizona. Chapter 1 sketches the contact period lives of Utah Paiutes and attempts some definition of traditional homelands utilizing the available ethnographic literature. Early, often ethnocentric, descriptions of the Paiutes typically characterized their traditional lives as struggles for existence in what was perceived as a barren landscape.

Chapters 2 through 6 document the Paiutes' struggle for survival in a very different landscape—one filled with amorphous government agencies, changing political climates and laws, extreme paternalism, ideological agendas, and Western European economics Holt's first four chapter headings: "Occupation and Dependency," "From Neglect to Lethargy: The Trust Betrayed," "The Agony of Termination," "The Forgotten Tribe," which take the reader from the 1850s up to the 1970s, reflect the numerous difficulties endured by the Paiutes over more than a century of Indian-white interaction.

Chapters 5 and 6 are more positive as they narrate die successful, although incredibly drawn out, process of restoration from the 1960s into the 1980s, culminating in the securing of limited reservation lands. As Holt points out, restoration provided the Paiutes with some semblance of dignity and increased opportunity; however, their struggle for self-reliance continues as unemployment and economic insecurities still plague tribal members. Hope, in the form of greater political visibility and intercultural understanding (to which uiis book contributes), hovers on die horizon for Paiutes as this difficult century ends.

Minor criticisms can be made of the characterizations of Paiute homelands and lifeways in chapters 1 and 2 which are a bit glib in their treatment For example, the failure to mention the importance of Panguitch Lake struck me as an important oversight given the key role it played for die Panguitch band (Kelly 1964)—a role comparable to that of Fish Lake, which is mentioned several times by Holt as playing an important economic role for the Paiutes during the historic period. Fish Lake, however, is considered by most (Steward 1938, Stewart 1942, Kelly 1964) to have been in Ute country at the time of contact I also wondered why Holt never referred to the Pahvant as Utes The vagaries and dynamic nature of cultural boundaries during the historic period make these issues difficult to deal with, however, and do not detract from the primary contribution of the book. On the other hand, I agree completely with Holt's resistance to Stoffle and Dobyns's (1982) suggestion that the precontact Southern Paiutes had developed a political system that included "theocratic chiefs" (Stoffle and Dobyns 1982:47, cited in Holt 1992:12).

In general, the book is well written and well researched. A few instances of what might be called oblique logic exist in chapter 2 wherein Holt discusses "Mormon Prejudice and Neglect" (lack of tolerance, paternalism, failure to develop organized efforts) and illustrates these with examples that seem somewhat off the mark Again, these are minor distractions in what is otherwise an absorbing work.

Professor Holt has made an important contribution to the literature on Utah's diverse cultural legacy with this text As noted at the onset, he writes from personal experience and with exceptional sensitivity The issues raised (prejudice, paternalism, neglect, among others) are complex and elusive, as are their long-term consequences on a people who have had few opportunities to wield political power. Scholars interested in the histories of ethnic peoples can find much to build on here.

JOE L CJANETSKI Brigham Young University

Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage.

By B. CARMON HARDY. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992 xxiv + 445 pp $34.95.)

Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage is a fascinating culmination of decades of intensive research and thought by B. Carmon Hardy. Given his earlier work, it is no surprise that this book is the most comprehensive and insightful look at post-Manifesto plural marriage yet to be published, but it is more than that Solemn Covenant closely examines and provides fresh information and new insights into the practice of plural marriage throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth and should quickly be recognized as the standard not only for the difficult, troubled official end of polygamy but as one of the standards for understanding the practice throughout its history.

The book is generally organized chronologically. The first chapters summarize the beginnings of plural marriage and present support for a continuing theme in the book—that polygamy was of central importance in the nineteenth-century church. With the move west the practice "acquired momentum," but pressure to control the "twin relic of barbarism" and the church that sanctioned the practice grew significantly as well Hardy draws intriguing parallels between the treatment of the South following the Civil War and of polygamous Utah He adds his voice to the running debate among historians of nineteenth-century Mormonism on the question of whether Mormon polygamy or political hegemony contributed more to the persistent efforts of federal officials and others to impose control over Utah. Hardy cogently concludes that it is difficult to separate the two—that the public objection was "polygamic theocracy," but he clearly believes that plural marriage was the more important cause.

A captivating chapter discusses the various curses, medical and otherwise, attributed to polygamous households by opponents and the blessings attributed by Latter-day Saints to the "Abrahamic household." Interestingly, Hardy finds that Mormons and non-Mormons did not necessarily have differing views of such wonderfully Victorian concepts as "spermatic depletion" and its supposed ill effects Under Hardy's analysis Mormon leaders such as George Q. Cannon seem as much a part of their time as, for example, Sylvester Graham, father of the graham cracker and cracker-barrel theories about the debilitating effects of sapping such "life-giving fluids" as semen.

Although Hardy's chapters on the beginnings, early strifes, and medical interpretations of polygamy make for fascinating reading, the grist of Solemn Covenant is in the chapters leading up to and following 1890. He makes a convincing case that Mormon leaders, either wittingly or not, began the transition to the abandonment of polygamy in the 1880s as they began distinguishing between "celestial" and plural marriage His description of the issuance and difficulties surrounding the Manifesto is noteworthy for its grasp of the issues and its documentation of the troubles the matter created. Taking issue with some other historians, Hardy asserts that the Manifesto must be viewed in the context of intense millennial fervor, which he traces from the crusade against polygamy through Lorenzo Snow's presidency. In this light the Manifesto was simply a means of "buying time," and the sub rosa practice of polygamy that continued through the next years with the sanction of church leaders was simply an attempt to preserve the practice for the contemplated short period of time before the second coming of Christ.

Enlarging on his and Victor Jorgensen's earlier study published in the Utah Historical Quarterly in 1980, Hardy traces the difficult period of transition as church leaders, who often had differing views of the continuation of polygamy, brought the church into the twentieth century He focuses on the views and actions of Wilford Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow, and Joseph F. Smith with respect to continued polygamy as they successively presided over the Mormon church during this period of transition. He chronicles the secrecy and deception employed by certain church leaders, even with other leaders.

The continuation of polygamy in Canada and Mexico are described at length, as are the involvement of church leaders in the continued practice in both these foreign lands, on vessels off the coast of the country, and in the United States A lengthy and thoroughly researched appendix lists in substantial detail the marriages of 220 post-Manifesto polygamists.

Professor Hardy also treats at length the Smoot hearings and the effects they had on church leaders' opinions of continued polygamy. The views of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles changed as new members were appointed in others' places through death or resignation and as older members, polygamists themselves, sought to rid the church of new polygamy Hardy makes a strong, though entirely circumstantial, case for the proposition that Joseph F Smith secretly continued to authorize a carefully chosen few to continue the practice of plural marriage well beyond the time of his 1904 "Second Manifesto."

The closing essay in Solemn Covenant addresses the intricacies and implications of "lying for the Lord." He discusses openly, although quite sympathetically, the questions raised by church leaders' and members' ability to lie to the world and even to each other as they attempted to preserve the principle of plural marriage.

Hardy's work is well written and at times even brilliant I was required to resort to my dictionary at times and to diagram a few complex sentences to understand them, but his use of language only occasionally got in the way He sometimes provides more than ample support for a point; other times he places too much reliance on questionable sources. One is left with little doubt that Hardy feels comfortable addressing controversial issues and discussing them without trepidation; indeed, editorial commentary is provided perhaps too much. These slight failings notwithstanding, Solemn Covenant should rightfully take its place as a work that any student of nineteenth-century Mormonism and polygamy must read and study carefully.

KENNETH L CANNON II Salt Lake City

Prisoner for Polygamy: The Memoirs and Letters of Rudger Clawson at the Utah Territorial Penitentiary, 1884-87.

Edited by STAN LARSON (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993 xii + 256 pp $29.95.)

Clawson's memoirs have been available (in several forms and readings) for decades to serious scholars and to casual readers alike. Why now prepare and publish what amounts to a critical edition? Until now Clawson's "Memoir," its genesis, its several revisions, and its autobiographical and historical relevance have not been united into a single bound source Larson has now accomplished that task, and the result is a highly readable and technically elegant volume And it's fun to read, too.

Larson's exhaustive research draws freely from published and manuscript sources; he makes use of previously unavailable diaries and letters. He treats his prime document respectfully and his supportive materials with discretion and respect. His introductory essay is masterful Indeed, the approach taken in the essay and the straightforward, explicatory style in which it is written reassure the reader and lend gravity to Larson's conclusions.

This volume has much to recommend it: It is neither faith promoting nor politically correct. Best of all, Larson does not deify his subject. These absences elevate the work beyond much recent biographical writing in Utah.

A few mechanical problems mar the book's presentation, e.g., four endnotes were dropped from the introductory essay; in a couple of instances emendations appear to have been edited too severely But these matters are more irritating than serious.

Larson's volume commends itself to novice and veteran historians, to lay and professional readers. One hopes it will enjoy the wide readership it deserves.

WILLIAM C SEIFRIT Salt Lake City

Ute Tales.

Collected by ANNE M. SMITH, assisted by ALDEN HAYES (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992 xxx + 175 pp $24.95.)

In 1936 and 1937 Yale University graduate student Anne Smith traveled to the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in northeastern Utah to collect ethnographic information on Northern Ute culture. Of particular concern to her was recording myths and other tales. Smith collected several hundred tales through interviews with her Ute hosts—some told in English but many told in the Ute language and translated for her. These tales formed the data base for Smith's dissertation, entitled "An Analysis of Basin Mythology," which compared and contrasted Ute myths to those of other cultural groups in other culture areas. The Northern Ute tales compiled by Smith were presented in her 1939 dissertation but have not been published until now Students of Ute culture and Native American mythology at last have easy access to 102 tales, representing the three bands (Uinta, Uncompahgre, and White River) comprising the Northern Ute.

A lengthy foreword to Ute Tales by Joseph G Jorgensen provides a valuable introduction to the work It includes a brief biographical sketch of Smith that will be welcomed by those scholars who have relied upon her previously published Ethnology of the Northern Utes. The short discussion of anthropological theory will also be of interest to those working in that field. The foreword also discusses the rather bleak social and political situation on the reservation in the 1930s and the sorry state of white/Native American relations, which underscores Smith's achievement in gaining the trust of her Ute informants.

The tales follow, organized by band, without further introduction or comment. Historic photographs of Northern Utes, some of whom worked with Smith, are interspersed Most of the tales are brief and rely on plot and action rather than characterization or imagery. Description of a single event may comprise one tale; another tale may incorporate the same tale and others to constitute a composite tale Many are violent, some are humorous, and some contain scatological or sexual references. A few are "just-so" stories, explaining why things are the way they are, and few contain clearly stated, moral instructions The tales appear to have been told more for entertainment than for instilling certain cultural behaviors. Traditional animal characters, such as Coyote, Porcupine, and Bear, who also possess human characteristics, predominate.

Ute Tales is both entertaining and educational It presents an oral storytelling tradition rather unlike that of the Euro-American tradition and provides insight into a substantially different culture. Some readers may wish to refer to Anne Smith's Ethnography of the Northern Utes for her short analysis of Northern Ute tales Although this earlier work does not present tales, it summarizes some of the key findings of her doctoral dissertation, and delves into the subject a little deeper than does Jorgensen in the foreword to Ute Tales. The publication of Ute Tales has filled an obvious void in Ute ethnographic literature.

ALAN D. REED Montrose, Colorado

Flooding the Courtrooms: Law and Water in the Far West.

By M CATHERINE MILLER (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993 x + 255 pp $45.00.)

Hot on the heels of The Great Thirst: Californians and Water by Norris Hundley,Jr., is M. Catherine Miller's Flooding the Courtrooms: Law and Water in the Far West. Both newly published books concentrate on water development in the water caldron state of California Miller's study is a "legal biography" of Miller & Lux, a giant land and cattle company in the San Joaquin Valley of California, from 1870 to 1930, the formative years of water law and policy in California and in the West. The cases epitomize the legal struggle between two conflicting water doctrines: riparian and beneficial uses Both share a legal position in California's complex water law.

In six detailed chapters, Miller takes the reader into the courtrooms of the San Joaquin Valley and elsewhere to reveal the legal struggles of Miller 8c Lux to secure, maintain, and develop the soon-to-be-scarce but vital economic resource of water for its large cattle operation and, later, its irrigation distribution systems and cooperative water storage projects. She does a masterful job describing Miller 8c Lux's early successes in the courtroom. The author extensively uses the decisions and legal opinions of local courts as well as the California Supreme Court to frame Miller 8c Lux's private exploitation of water based primarily on riparian use. The author documents the legal affairs and thinking of Miller & Lux through extensive research of the voluminous records of the land and cattle company records.

Miller reveals that the legal web of riparian and beneficial uses of water is magnified within the political economy of the real world of private property and corporate capitalism and the public use, distribution, and management of a scarce public resource.

In the courtroom Miller & Lux successfully argued that riparian water rights were private property which must be protected at all costs, even at the expense of efficiency and conservation of water Miller 8c Lux's persuasive legal arguments reflected at the time the philosophical views of the state supreme court to protect private property and the right to make money. And, for Miller 8c Lux the means of making money was the unrestricted use of water The results of their persistent efforts in the courts "marked California water law by fixing riparian rights at its foundation" (p 11).

Challenging riparian doctrine based on an economy of abundance, and therefore challenging Miller & Lux's economic base, was a broader economic use of water: the irrigation of larger tracts of land by a growing number of small land users. These new agricultural water users were consumptive, reducing the availability of water to riparian users and others. To add political, economic, and legal muscle to these smaller beneficial users, the California State Legislature passed the Wright bill in 1887 which permitted groups of water users to form irrigation and water districts These districts enabled individual water users to unite politically and economically to fund, build, control, and manage huge water deliver systems which by legal definition are public utilities.

Urban public electric companies such as Southern California Edison also demanded a use of the water for hydroelectric generation Irrigators and public electric companies alike legally fought for the doctrine of beneficial use which "took on a more democratic cast, allowing new entrepreneurs and small landowners to irrigate and retain claims of water" (p 93) The results were lengthy and costly legal cases for Miller 8c Lux The outcome of these new legal challenges to riparian use was the broader use of water vital to a growing economy, based on the reality of an increasing scarcity of water.

Miller points out that these legal, philosophical, and economic conflicts over the use and value of water intensified in California during the Progressive Era. Miller 8c Lux faced a national concern which in part called for reform and careful management of scarce natural resources in the West The mismanagement of Miller & Lux following World War I and its failure to understand the direction of water policy added to the company's legal and financial problems. The Great Depression figured in the company's decline as well.

California legislators in the 1930s viewed water as the economic panacea for the depressed economy of the San Joaquin Valley. The passage of the Central Valley Project Act was yet another legal and economic challenge that Miller & Lux could not match The proposed water project was even bigger than California could afford The federal government and its Bureau of Reclamation were called upon to rescue the project in 1935.

Flooding the Courtrooms is more than the legal wars of a huge land and cattle company. It is an excellent study of the philosophical and economic ramifications of a scarce resource, a resource that must be carefully managed legally and economically if California and the West are to survive and prosper. Flooding the Courtrooms is an important study for anyone interested in the legal developments of conflicting philosophies of riparian and beneficial uses of the scarce water resource found in the arid West.

CRAIG FULLER Utah State Historical Society

The Proper Edge of the Sky: The High Plateau Country of Utah.

By EDWARD A GEARY (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992. 282 pp. Paper, $14.95.)

Edward Geary's book is a delightful look into the geography, the people, and even the literature of the Colorado Plateau region Though not a definitive study of anyone of these topics, it is a vivid montage that touches all of them The author knows firsthand his "Proper Edge of the Sky," seen from Huntington, Utah, by him when looking west toward the mountains of Manti-LaSal National Forest.

In his preface, Dr Geary states: "The pages that follow are neither guidebook, nor travel narrative, nor natural history, nor social history, nor literary history, nor personal essay, though they incorporate elements from all these genres They represent an effort to see and know a richly varied land through my own experience and the overlaid impressions of others who have dwelt in or visited or written of the High Plateau region." (p. 3)

The author uses numerous historic documents, including the reports of Clarence Dutton, John Wesley Powell, John C. Fremont, and other official government explorers He taps the memoirs and writing about Mormon settlers, quoting Elizabeth Wood Kane, Henry W Bigler, Solomon Carvalho, and scores more His scholarship reaches the likes of Wallace Stegner, Dale Morgan, Juanita Brooks, LeRoy Hafen, and current historians of the area: Kent Powell, Phil Notarianni, and Helen Papanikolas. From them he gleans a wealth of information and stories.

His "tour" for readers proceeds along historic trails and current highways, through mountain passes, and down streams into the valley. He describes the area's high mountain plateaus, its inner valleys and colorful canyons, its desert regions, and volcanic intrusions, which create the isolated settings for the "oases" and "worlds" where the people lived.

Much of Geary's writing is anecdotal. He regularly introduces a chapter's theme with a familiar saying or story Examples include such phrases as "Stop and Tell Me Red Man," "Streams Ever Copious," "For the Strength of the Hills," and "The Mormon Corridor." His "A Strange and Beautiful Country" chapter begins with the story of a backhoe operator uncovering bones of a prehistoric mammoth, from which the author then discusses the landforms, flora and fauna "Back Houses of Escalante" alludes to that community's historic resources, and "A Woman and Some Cows" is more than merely Emma Lee at Lee's Ferry on the Colorado River.

"A Wife from Sanpete" humorously depicts the trials of those devout settlers—Scandinavians and English. Why marry a wife from Sanpete? Because no matter how difficult conditions might get, she had already seen it worse. His book also discusses settlements, Indian-Mormon problems and practices (less than enlightened at times), ranching (sheep and cattle), the Forest Service, education, and Coops They are all there.

Chapter eleven discusses "The Camps," not cow or sheep camps but the coal camps, wherein the author contrasts their coal-based economy with the Mormon agrarian economy, and tells about the ethnically diverse peoples of Carbon County. It was a different world (almost), with coal mines, coal miners, labor leaders, and labor problems Here the Greeks, Italians, Slavic peoples, Finns, and other minorities settled, labored, and left their imprints on the region Here also were the Winter Quarters/Scofield and Castle Gate mine disasters.

The author knows the High Plateau Country of Utah thoroughly. Readers of his book are advised to have a current Utah road map in hand while reading it. The book is a delightful tour de force, as informative as it is fun to read.

MELVIN T. SMITH Mount Pleasant

Mormon Odyssey: The Story of Ida Hunt Udall, Plural Wife.

Edited by MARIA S ELLSWORTH (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992 xiv + 296 pp $29.95)

Maria S Ellsworth has chosen an interesting method to present Ida Hunt Udall's story She starts with Ida's memories of her childhood, then turns to a "birthday book." Ida recorded the events of her birthday each year from age 14 to 48. Ellsworth next selects entries from Ida's journal of her marriage and the hardships she endured while hiding from government officials who wanted her to testify against her polygamist husband, David K. Udall. The last of the book is a reflection of those who knew and loved Ida.

Traveling to Arizona in company with Jesse N. Smith and his two wives, Emma and Augusta, Ida Hunt Udall wrote that she became aware of "a distinct spiritual quality" in the relationship of the wives and an "unselfish devotion between these wives." Imbued with a Don Quixote idealism regarding polygamy, Ida determined to cancel her engagement and enter the polygamist order Her journal entries depict the reality of the life she chose and a yearning for that ideal unity of family she felt was possible.

The many relatives, friends, and visitors that slide through the story give it a feeling of social life even in the midst of hiding. The bracketed names make the story a valuable historical tool.

It is interesting to note that even though Ida lived in hiding, and later in a less favored position than David's first wife, Ella, she wasted no pity on herself The only time she seemed distraught with her life was while waiting for David's polygamy case to be tried.

Unable to find the idealism she had hoped for in her relationship with Ella, Ida tried to imbue her children with her ideal of polygamy. That David loved her she did not doubt, except for one small period of time. She graciously accepted the fact that Ella was first in his affections. There was a sense of resentment in the children over this favoritism, but one suspects if Ida had edited her own book such feelings would be carefully weeded out.

The book was somewhat tedious to read in the beginning because it was unclear just where Ida was and what her relationship was with the people mentioned in her social contacts Some of the excerpts from her journal entries are rather long and repetitious.

Mormon women had a difficult role to play in colonizing. Left alone while husbands responded to missions, attended to church or civic responsibilities, or were in prison, the women tilled the land, bore the children, and were in fact the real pioneers. Add to their burden the weight of polygamy and it is quite remarkable that this order was lived with any degree of satisfaction The rigors of her life brought Ida Hunt Udall an early death; however, she seems to have lived her difficult life with optimism, enjoying whatever social life was available to her.

JO AN WASHBURN Snowflake, Arizona