Book Reviews

Fort Douglas, Utah: A Frontier Fort, 1862-1991

By Charles G Hibbard (Fort Collins, Colorado: Vestige Press, 1999, xiv + 281 pp. $45.00.)

EXPANDING UPON HIS PH.D. dissertation, "Fort Douglas 1862-1916: Pivotal Link on the Western Frontier," Charles G Hibbard has authored a more complete history of Fort Douglas. Hibbard's new effort incorporates the fort's twentieth-century service, its use as a POW installation during World War I and as headquarters for the Ninth Service Command during World War II, and its diminishing role in the post-World War II era, culminating with its closure on October 26, 1991 For the most part, Hibbard has provided a broadly researched account of Fort Douglas; however, his failure to provide a full explanation of certain events, coupled with errors that could easily have been avoided through careful fact-checking and prudent editing, prove distracting to what is an otherwise positive contribution to both military history and Utah state history.

The strength of Hibbard's monograph manifests itself in his account of Fort Douglas during the nineteenth century He painstakingly illustrates the origins of the founding of Fort Douglas, the tense relations between Mormons and the California Volunteers stationed at Fort Douglas, the various Indian campaigns in which Fort Douglas units participated, and the tenure of black soldiers as a garrison force. The highlights of the early chapters are Hibbard's description of the military expedition led by Colonel Patrick Connor against the Shoshone Indians at Bear River and his insightful portrayal of the nineteenth-century soldier, which instills in the reader an appreciation for the hardships soldiers endured.

Nevertheless, the positive merits of the early chapters are blemished by seemingly avoidable errors. The fact that Connor's disdain for Mormons is indisputable causes the reader to be baffled when Hibbard claims that relations between Connor and Mormons eased in 1865.The book does not provide an explanation for this occurrence. An equally peculiar situation is the author's omission in explaining why Connor hired Orrin Porter Rockwell to guide his columns to Bear River in January 1863,when five months earlier Connor had characterized Mormons as "a community of traitors [and] murderers." The reader also might wish that Hibbard had devoted more time in describing the conciliatory efforts made by Colonel Philippe Regis de Trobriand and Captain Charles H. Hempstead toward the Mormon populace. The presence of both factual and textual errors further undermines the otherwise-solid foundation laid in these early chapters. These include a description of the start of construction on the Transcontinental Railroad as beginning two years too late, a claim that General Philip Sheridan was the acting Secretary of War in 1888, a misidentification of Carl Schurz as "Shurz," an incorrect statement that there was complete racial segregation between black and white military personnel during World War II, and the presence of too many stylistic errors for a work of this length.

Hibbard commendably portrays the story of the imminent closure of Fort Douglas throughout its existence during the twentieth century, only to be twice forestalled due to the United States becoming an active participant in two world wars. Both world wars revitalized Fort Douglas through its being an induction center and intern camp for POWs, of which Hibbard gives an excellent account He also expertly describes the installation's inadequacies to properly support a modern military force, the piecemeal selling of the land by the government to civilian organizations, and the constant attempts made by the Department of Army to close the fort

This monographic history is informative, and it personalizes the experiences of the soldiers stationed at Fort Douglas. One hopes that Charles G Hibbard will compose an improved edition free of minor errors and episodic ambiguity

MARK MULCAHEY Brigham Young University

Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata's Art of the Internment

Edited with text by Kimi Kodani Hill (Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books,2000.xviii + 147 pp.$19.95.)

TOPAZ MOON IS A POIGNANT account of the life and art of Japanese American artist Chiura Obata, emphasizing the years 1942—45, when he was interned at Tanforan Assembly Center and Topaz (officially, the Central Utah Relocation Center).The beauty, harshness, and cruelty of the World War II concentration camp is portrayed in images and text in this slim volume, the initial publication of the California Civil Liberties Public Education Project, which was formed to present information to students and the general public about racial discrimination.

In 1941, Obata, an Issei trained in Japan, was an accomplished artist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He and his family lived a secure, comfortable middle-class life in a community known for its tolerance, but they were swept up with the rest of the West Coast Japanese American community in the racist hysteria following Pearl Harbor, and they were interned. Obata used his experiences as subject matter for his art, chronicling the beauty of their California home, the family's departure from the Bay Area, and their sorrow and confusion as they were shuttled from Berkeley to temporary quarters at the Tanforan racetrack then moved by train through the desolation of the desert to a barren camp in central Utah. Topaz, which was in reality a concentration camp, took its name from a nearby mountain Obata continued his work, painting, drawing, and also teaching art as he established a school for the internees as he had previously at Tanforan. The Topaz art school held an exhibition just two weeks after its establishment, for Obata, a sensitive and politically aware man, wished to lift people's morale Topaz, at its peak the fifth largest city in Utah, held a sizeable community of artists, more than any other of the ten camps, and Obata was its best known The Topaz artists instructed children and adults with the limited materials available, helping to document their lives and the desolation of their surroundings Obata sketched camp life and captured the beauty of the remote surroundings in oils and watercolors. Captions for his art were composed by Obata's wife Haruko, a talented teacher of the art of ikebana (Japanese flowerarranging)

Obata's paintings gained wider recognition when two commissioned works were sent to War Relocation Authority director Dillon Myer and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The loyalty oath imposed in 1943, ostensibly to ease resettlement for so-called "loyal" Americans in the camps, brought a crisis for Obata, who was unjustly suspected of being an administration spy and was brutally attacked by an unknown assailant. But the Obata family was released from Topaz and resettled near St. Louis, where Chiura and Haruko worked in commercial art After the war's end the Obatas returned to Berkeley; Chiura resumed his professorship and the couple resided again in their old home.

Topaz Moon is lavishly illustrated with Obata's paintings and occasional photographs. Excerpts from Chiura's and Haruko's letters add poignancy to the text. Although the author, Obata's granddaughter, clearly believes the incarceration to have been a grave injustice, she lets the story convey her feelings without polemics. The Obatas survived the ordeal and suffered no over- whelming economic loss as a result, unlike so many others. They shared their talents with the other internees, and Obata's works provide a legacy of beauty and documentary evidence of an episode that should still shame the nation.

This book is readily accessible to young people and adults alike, beautifully written and illustrated. Unfortunately, this reviewer's copy contained a printer's error that omitted twenty-five pages of text on Tanforan and printed an equal number of duplicate pages

SANDRA C TAYLOR University of Utah

Guide to Rock Art of the Utah Region: Sites with Public Access

By Dennis Slifer (Santa Fe:Ancient City Press,2000.x + 245 pp.Paper, $15.95.)

UTAH'S CANYONS, CLIFFS, and boulders are graced with some of the most striking and awe-inspiring ancient art in the world. The Fremont culture, for example, a relatively little-known horticultural society that thrived here for nearly one thousand years before abruptly disappearing 700 years ago, is renowned among rock art aficionados worldwide for its distinctive and mysterious pecked and painted images The earlier Barrier Canyon style of art is equally celebrated and written about in numerous guides, scholarly publications, coffee table publications, and even web sites. Do we really need another guide to the rock art of the area?

Guidebooks to this or that—all purporting to convey some sort of insider's, privileged information and insight—have been appearing on the shelves of bookstores and tourist wallows by the bucketload in recent years. Judging from the sheer number of guides out there, the books must sell Unfortunately, some guides direct readers to places that might not be safe or that are not prepared to receive visitors Some readers may follow the book's directions and drive and perhaps even hike to some secret undiscovered wonder, and then, being totally unfamiliar with the place, do the stupid and destructive things some tourists do, leaving a degraded wonder for the next bumbling, book-following, mile counting adventuring explorer to relish.

Not only do a great number of these guides direct people to visit places that are not prepared for visitors, they may also hasten the destruction of the very special places they describe; if the destination is a remote and fragile historic, archaeological, or paleontological site, the mere trampling by visitors may be damaging, let alone the havoc wreaked by herds of scouts, rampaging teenagers, or souvenir-seeking trophy-takers

While many guidebooks are primarily hiking or sightseeing guides that include archaeological and historical sites in their lists of places to visit, Dennis Slifer's book is a guide to a specific kind of historic site As such, it is a delightful departure from the common irresponsibly written and published guidebook. Readers are not simply directed to places where they can see rock art; they are treated to a rich and well-researched presentation of information about the early inhabitants of the region and the various styles and typologies of rock art classification that have been developed, and they are even given a lesson in the often-difficult art of photographing rock art. Site etiquette—guidelines about how to behave when visiting rock art sites (Don't touch it! is only one of many important admonitions to keep in mind)—is carefully explained and presented. That the book is well researched and documented is evidenced by the extensive bibliography, annotated resource list, comprehensive index, and chapter end notes

The rock art itself is clearly described and well illustrated with numerous black and white photographs, clean line drawings, and twenty-six color plates. Most notably, Slifer not only indicates how to find a particular site but he also provides a solid description of the panels and their elements, informing the reader about the styles represented, the time period and cultural affiliation of the art, and the physical setting of the site. He also offers some ideas about possible interpretations of the panels but is careful to present these as hypotheses and not as some kind of truth, as some writers have done

I am most impressed by Slifer's choice of sites to include. The book's subtitle, Sites with Public Access, indicates an intention to direct readers to visit sites that are either open to the public, and hence prepared for visitors, or that are located on public lands and are reasonably accessible. The result is a very good sampling both of prepared sites in national and state parks, where visitors will find well-marked trails and interpretive information, and of sites away from the paved road and prepared trail In all cases, the sites have been chosen because of the fabulous art they harbor, and visitors are treated to a good description of each site and suggestions about how to behave when there

Guide to the Rock Art of the Utah Region is more than a hiking or visitor's guide. It is a very readable, accurate, and responsibly written introduction to the rock art of the area Slifer has a good understanding of the prehistory of the region, the artistic traditions of its ancient cultures, and the delicate nature of these artistic treasures. His book is a solid contribution to the popular literature on rock art and will make a fine traveling companion

KEVIN T. JONES Utah State Archaeologist

An Enduring Legacy: The Story of Basques in Idaho

ByJohn Bieter and Mark Bieter (Reno: University of Nevada Press,2000 xvi + 191 pp $31.95.)

AN ENDURING LEGACY: THE STORY of Basques in Idaho is the story of the Basques coming to the Boise, Idaho, area and assimilating into and surviving as a group in the American culture. The introduction describes two lone Basque sheepherders in the desert, dramatizing to the reader the impact of total isolation that the Basques experienced as immigrants into the United States From this austere beginning the Basques have been accepted into mainstream America. Beginning with sheepherders' experience, they have aspired to and prospered in every professional walk of life that America has to offer.

As a first-generation American-born Basque, I found An Enduring Legacy very close to my heart Coming from Eureka, Nevada, where both of my parents were Basque immigrants working in the sheep industry, I experienced "our" assimilation into the American culture After high school I moved to Salt Lake City and lived in a Basque boardinghouse called the Hogar Hotel for eight years During this time, I witnessed the inner survival activities of a Basque community as I experienced the acceptance and non-acceptance of our Basque culture in Utah An Enduring Legacy gives an outstanding overview of this process. This acceptance process was not an easy one The Basque language, traditions, and culture are unique within and different from the American mainstream Because of these differences it was not easy for the Basques as individuals or as a community to be accepted into mainstream America

The Basque boardinghouse played an important part in this process, as An Enduring Legacy illustrates. It was because of the boardinghouse that the Basque culture was introduced to the American community at large. At the same time, the immigrants themselves were learning about the new customs of America This occurred in Boise as well as in other towns and cities where Basque boardinghouses existed in the United States.

An Enduring Legacy tells us that the Basque sheepherders found the boardinghouse the closest thing to their homeland. In the boardinghouse they spoke Basque, ate home-cooked Basque-style food, and played a Basque card game called Mus. They also danced and sang Basque songs The Americans could hear, see, smell, and perhaps get invited to a Basque gathering—a wedding or a funeral—and be introduced to this unique cultural experience

The boardinghouse became a two-way street of cultural exchange While the Basques thought the boardinghouse was a refuge of their culture, it also became the place of introduction for the Basques to the American way of life, even though this process was slow. The Basque children in the boardinghouses started going to American schools and brought the American ways into the boardinghouses. The children became involved in various activities and sports such as football, basketball, and baseball For example, a Boise newspaper once nicknamed Savino Uberuaga the "Bounding Basque." This young man, the son of a Basque immigrant, excelled in football.

As the Basque children became accepted into mainstream America, a price was to be paid. They were bringing the "American way" into the Basque community, and the Basque traditions would lose their importance The assimilation process had begun. Because of this, individuals within the Basque community of Boise felt a need for the preservation and survival of their traditions and culture. Dance groups such as the Oinkari Basque Dancers, singing groups, and Basque language schools were started to teach the new American-born Basques these various traditions of the culture

These cultural preservation processes were met with great acceptance, both from Basques and Americans. Basque cultural groups participated in various cities in Idaho as well as at national and international functions. Even though assimilation had taken place within the community, a process to preserve the traditions of the Basques in Boise and America had also taken place.

An Enduring Legacy is definitely a worthwhile read that introduces its reader to the trials, struggles, and survival through the assimilation process that the Basque immigrant experienced both in Boise and the United States It is a must-read for Basques and also for individuals who are interested in them.

ROBERT J ITHURRALDE Salt Lake City

Frontier Children

By Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999.xi + 164 pp.Cloth, $24.95.)

SWEPT ALONG BY THE CURRENTS of westward expansion and the decision of their parents to relocate, American children came west and with their families settled on land that other children, the progeny of native peoples, had claimed for countless generations The vast desert lands, plains, mountains, and coasts of the trans-Mississippi West were already home to Native Americans. In California and the Southwest, Hispanic children, products of earlier encroachment into Native American territory, also lived for many decades prior to this emigration from the United States east of the Mississippi River By mid-nineteenth century, children of these three groups precariously co-existed while thousands of Americans continued to stream westward Before the end of that century, European and Asian immigrant children joined the mix as their parents sought homes or economic opportunity on American soil.

Until recent years, the story of children on the frontier has been for the most part neglected, except in books written especially for children and adolescents. Few historians have given serious attention to childhood in the American West. While much is known and has been written about westward expansion, historians have traditionally focused on the men, the adult white males who headed the families who went west to seek homes, a new life, or mineral wealth During the past four decades, however, historical researchers and writers have endeavored to balance the record by studying the important roles of women and the significant contributions of African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and other ethnic minority groups in the settlement and development of the American West. Finally, in the last few years some historians have turned their attention to the lives of children on the emigrant trails or those who grew up in early settlements, on isolated farms and ranches, in mining towns, and in railroad camps Thankfully, in the past few years a number of books have concentrated on childhood in the West during the nineteenth century, childhoods so very different from youth today Frontier Children, written for an adult audience, is an excellent addition to these books that complete the picture of life on the frontier.

To approach the formidable task of telling the story of frontier childhood, Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith utilized memoirs of men and women who either traveled west as children or who were born and grew up in the trans-Mississippi West (few children wrote diaries) To achieve an accurate and fair balance of the myriad cultures that lived in the West, they additionally researched and included stories of Native American children. Adding vitality and completing the picture, the authors blended in stories and reminiscences of Hispanic boys and girls, children of African-American and Asian-American parentage, and children of European immigrants who sought homes in the Midwest and on the high plains of the Dakotas and Montana during the last decades of the nineteenth and first years of the twentieth century. Because of this mingling of childhood experiences and perspectives, Smith and Peavy have created a very informative book for anyone interested in children or in the West—and especially for those concerned with both, such as teachers and parents.

The history of these children of the West is enormously complex. The land that shaped their lives is immense; the trans-Mississippi West includes everything from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, from Mexico to Canada. The timeframe is equally daunting; migration and settlement spanned approximately the years from the early 1840s through 1910 The large number, or "infinite variety" (3), of cultures involved in the drama add to the challenge of covering the subject. The enormous diversity in experiences of children between infancy and adulthood, living the different lifestyles of poverty or wealth and associated with various environments, such as a mining camp, rural farm or ranch, military post, town or Indian village, further complicates the writing of a single book about frontier childhood However, Peavy and Smith successfully condense their account into a slender volume of less than two hundred pages

It is important to note that Frontier Children is literally a look at childhood in the West. The text is richly enhanced by a fantastic number of period photographs Approximately half the page space is devoted to them These photographs, which show children in relation to their homes, clothing, work, play, school, families, landscapes, and animals, not only are charming but also significantly enrich the narrative. The photographs were apparently very carefully chosen to supplement the history

Though of a general nature, the narrative does make frequent use of short quotes from a large number of reminiscences, demonstrating a wide variety of experiences and making a colorful and personal picture of childhood Brief stories of specific experiences are interspersed with historical information. The blend of the three makes for very pleasurable reading. The text is well researched, well documented, and professionally written without being excessively scholarly, in a style that will be appreciated by many readers

Chapters focus on the various backgrounds of the children, how they got West, the ways that the land determined experiences, homes and homelife, how children worked and played, family relationships, formal and informal education, and the passage to adulthood. An especially thought-provoking section is about reservation and mission schools for Native American children

Given the usual nature of memoirs written years later, one might suspect that this book paints a romanticized or idealized picture. On the contrary, the text is remarkably frank. The hardships of poverty and child labor, the harshness of discipline, the difficulties of acculturation, the plight of orphans, the unfairness of discrimination, the inadequacies of frontier schools, and the heavy responsibilities parents placed on their children are objectively examined. But again, the authors create balance by also writing of the amusements and pleasures that children experienced

Periodically, the authors add a life sketch, a vignette, a detailed historical tidbit, or diary excerpt to the text Unfortunately their placement sometimes causes an interruption of the reading. As interesting, complementary, informative, and useful as these extras are, they can be a little distracting In most cases, there is no problem since a slightly different color background encloses the extra information in a box that "warns the reader to finish a section of text and come back for the bonus. But occasionally a full-page piece comes along, and the background contrast is not enough to tell the reader to skip ahead to the continuing text. Then the disruption is a bit irritating, especially when the reader is deeply involved in the narrative. Aside from that very tiny flaw this book is extraordinarily well written and arranged It makes a delightful read and an informative look at the children who grew up with the West

LYNDIA CARTER Springville, Utah

Power and Place in the American West

Edited by RichardWhite andJohn M. Findlay (Seattle and London: Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest and University of Washington Press, 1999.xx + 312 pp.Cloth, $35.00;paper, $19.95.)

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT BOOK Each of these essays stands alone as fresh scholarship, an intellectual adventure for the reader But packaged together as an exploration of power relations as they operate within and create space, the essays do what history can and should do. They throw light on old paradigms, change ways of seeing, and open a path for future dialogue

A dominant culture may almost unthinkingly swim in the waters of power and place, phenomena created by the culture itself, largely through economic and political forces. But place, the editors remind us in an essay that lays out the book's conceptual framework, is not an unchanging given. Rather, it is "a spatial reality constructed by people," who impose a conceptual order on space. Power is "the ability of an agent...to influence either people or natural forces to act according to that agent's desire or will" (x) As the book's essays show, the exercise of power is almost always connected to and potent in the creation of place. Whose values and desires will any one place reflect? Those who are able to impose power. These relationships are explored in the book's four sections: "Indians and Non-Indians," "Race in the Urban West," "Environment and Economy," and "Gender in the Urban West."

The first essay, James Ronda's "Coboway's Tale: A Story of Power and Places along the Columbia," brings the book's issues into immediate focus. Identifying a point at the mouth of the Columbia, Ronda queries, "What is the name of this place?" The Clatsop people called it "where there is pounded salmon," a name that describes a place defined by Clatsop life "But if it is Point Adams [as it later became], then the lines of power and meaning run east to the Federal City...and to the name of an American politician" (3).

Coboway, a Clatsop leader, lived "where there is pounded salmon"—until Lewis and Clark arrived and, through the winter they spent there, imposed a "new definition of space and the power to define space" (7), at least within the fort boundaries. Ronda traces the dispossession of the Clatsops and the evolution of place until 1866, when a newcomer to Fort Stevens, on the site of Coboway's old village, described "a beautiful earthwork bristling with guns and neat as a model, the gravel walks neat and precise—" (18) "Power is "always unstable, unpredictable," Ronda writes "And as power shifts, it transforms place" (19)

Inherent in the shifting of power is the shifting of cultural conceptions In "Making 'Indians' in British Columbia," John Lutz deconstructs the concept of "race." Even historians, he says, have accepted racial categories that were created through mythology and outdated science. But race is not a neutral, fixed category, he says; it varies according to time, place, and power relations In examining this idea, Lutz shows how the concept of Indianness evolved in British Columbia. The earliest trappers had only a slight conception of Indians as Other; the boundaries between groups were fuzzy indeed as the aboriginals and Europeans formed partnerships and marriages Socially and legally the groups "were on equal footing. Later British immigrants, however, did see the Indians as Other—and inferior. These colonists used race as a useful category that expressed the relationship they wished to have with the aboriginals Through discourse and law, they imposed concepts of race that became increasingly hierarchical, until they had passed a law stating that "the term person means an individual other than an Indian" (71).

In a later essay, Paul Hirt explores how the imposition of cultural concepts on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest led to disastrous results ecologically and economically The precipitous decline in the timber harvest beginning in the 1980s, he says, has a history much more complex and interesting than that suggested by the spotted owl debate Choosing a policy guided by wildly optimistic predictions of "sustained yield," forest managers chose to maximize timber production at the cost of the forest's integrity, even when it became clear that such a policy could not be sustained indefinitely. Interestingly, the forest fiasco occurred because managers did not pay attention to history, perhaps "because the lessons of the past and responsibilities to future generations -were only weak abstract notions compared to the economic demands of the present" (228).

Other essays explore power and place on several fronts, including the colonial nature of tourism, the use of rhetoric in industrial development in Oregon, and place and power relations in the construction of ethnicity among Nisei and American-born Chinese Contributors also explore conflicts over salmon management, the market for human captives in New Mexico, men's control over women's mobility, race and rhetoric in Los Angeles boosterism, and how federal agencies challenged racist traditions in Los Angeles during World War II

The editors and the essays themselves remind us that, although places are created and evolve through the exercise of power, that power is seldom absolute or uncontested. In a given situation, resistance to the controlling ideology may be weak, but it usually exists and therefore is a factor in the shaping of place. The interplay of all factors in the creation of place through "perceptions, a mental imposition of order, a parcelization of the earth's surface, a transformation of space—an abstraction—into something more specific and limited" (x) is a subject with ongoing and current relevance This volume, as it makes more clear the controlling forces within historical places and times, stimulates questions about the places we currently perceive and inhabit How have power relationships shaped the West of today? As we evaluate the exercise of power and its influence on our intimate relationships with the land and its inhabitants, will we see the need to change the balance of power? Can growing awareness itself become a power that shapes place?

KRISTEN SMART ROGERS Utah State Historical Society

A Sweet, Separate Intimacy: Women Writers of the American Frontier, 1800-1922

Edited by Susan Cummins Miller (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press,2000 xiv + 447 pp Cloth, $59.95; paper, $21.95.)

I LIKE THE BOOK A LOT; I really dislike the title. That sums things up, but there is more to the story Twenty or more years ago a well-known history professor complained about the title of an article of mine then called "Petticoats with Paychecks: Working Women in Utah...." He said he was tired of "Sunbonnet Sisters" and "Dusty Skirts" trailing across the historic landscapes of the West. And who could blame him? At that time such titles fairly leaped from book jackets and journal contents pages Today I blush at the thought of "Petticoats with Paychecks. "Well I should, for it appears to shunt women off onto a gender-based siding, away from the main tracks of history. I think words like "A Sweet, Separate Intimacy" do the same—despite coming from Mary Austin's fairly muscular collection of essays, The Land of Little Ram. That's a shame, for the women in this anthology wrote about the frontier and the western experience with as firm a grip on their pens as their male counterparts had

The final lines of text in the book are these from "Song of Sunlight" by poet Alice Corbin Henderson: Sunlight, I am mad with your light Rocks, I have never known you before. Earth,your red canyons Are sluiced through me. The crests ofyour hills Break over me— I ride upward to meet them

I am a sometime poet myself and her words knocked my socks off That's what it's like hiking in Capitol Reef or Bryce Canyon or dozens of other red earth places! Walt Whitman couldn't have said it better There is nothing sweet about these lines, and the gender of the author is neither apparent nor relevant.

Thirty-four women writers of differing educational and ethnic backgrounds are included in this anthology. Among them are well-known names such as Pulitzer Prize winner Willa Cather, Mary Austin, Ina Coolbrith, Mary Hallock Foote, Sharlot Hall, Helen Hunt Jackson, and Sarah Winnemucca The selections range from poetry, to short stories, excerpts from novels, essays, diary and journal entries, letters, and children's literature Miller has arranged her chosen authors in chronological order—an effective choice for as diverse a group as she presents, for it allows the reader to observe subtle changes in writing styles and use of language over time.

Among the writers new to me, one I especially enjoyed was Alice Cary, represented by a haunting and understated reminiscence of her grandfather's death She demonstrates exquisite taste in selecting simple, evocative details that capture the final moments of a loved one's life and the somber rites that follow— images that burn in one's memory.

Another pleasant surprise for me was the excerpt from Vanished Arizona: Recollections of My Army Life by Martha Durham Summerhayes. Unlike Jessie Benton Fremont or Elizabeth Bacon Custer—both of whom are represented in this compilation— Summerhayes was not the wife of a famous, or infamous, man. Jack Summerhayes appears to have been an ordinary lieutenant posted to many forts west of the Mississippi. Like Mary Austin, Martha Summerhayes soon succumbed to the enchantment of the West's remote, dry places:

I wondered if I had really grown to love the desert I had read somewhere that people did But I was not paying much attention in those days to the analysis of my feelings I did not stop to question the subtle fascination -which I felt steal over me as we rolled along the smooth hard roads that followed the windings of the Gila River I was back again in the army; I had cast my lot with a soldier, and where he was, was home to me.

Summerhayes was a woman fully engaged in a new life very different from her East Coast upbringing Recollections—part love story, part journey of personal discovery—was written for her family. It earned a wider audience and status as a regional classic because it conveys a strong sense of a particular time and place

Two important points need to be made regarding this anthology. The writings of Summerhayes and the others add more to western history in general than just a few engaging footnotes These women were active participants in history Frances Barker Gage recorded Sojourner Truth's first major speech. Maria Ruiz de Burton's romantic novels, based on her own experiences, capture life in California during a time of social upheaval following the end of the Mexican War Eleanor Pruitt Stewart's Letters of a Woman Homesteader detail, as only an eyewitness could, the difficulty of homesteading in the remote open spaces of the West

One must also acknowledge that these women wove part of the American literary tapestry. The thirty-four included here represent but a sampling of women writing in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Of the thirty-four only Willa Cather ranks with the immortals of American literature, but that should not minimize the achievements of Austin, Atherton, Coolbrith, and others They contributed to literary history as writers and in other ways After moving to New York, sisters Phoebe and Alice Cary, for example, organized a well-known literary salon. Poet Alice Corbin Henderson worked to promote the poetry of others by helping Harriet Monroe edit one of the literary world's most influential journals Founded by Monroe in 1912, Poetry: A Magazine of Verse has published the work of virtually every major American poet of the twentieth century

If Women Writers of the American Frontier is intended as a textbook, a more substantial introduction -would have been useful Still, one can easily find studies of the literature and history of the century and a quarter under consideration, while locating some of the selected writers in a public library might prove difficult.

Miller deserves thanks for introducing and/or reintroducing us to some significant figures in the history of the West and the literature of America

MIRIAM B MURPHY Salt Lake City

Army of Israel: Mormon Battalion Narratives

Edited by David L.Bigler and Will Bagley Vol.4 of Kingdom in theWest: The Mormons and theAmerican Frontier (Spokane: Arthur H. Clark Co.,2000.492 pp.$39.95.Paperback edition, Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press,2000,$24.95.)

WHEN HENRY WILLIAM BIGLER and his cousin Jesse Martin were looking for lost Mormon stock near the Latter-day Saint refugee camps in Iowa during late June 1846, they were approached by an army officer inquiring if they knew the whereabouts of Brigham Young Not knowing the man's intentions, the two Mormons remained tight-lipped As Bigler later wrote in his journal, "We [knew] President Young perfectly well and where his quarters were," but since the officer, Capt James Allen of the First Dragoons, was a stranger, they chose to feign ignorance at this moment (42)

In truth, Brigham Young was happy to see Captain Allen, who bore an offer from President James K. Polk that would facilitate the Latter-day Saints in their westward migration. In the words of the editors, Allen "did his best to solicit the favor and confidence of the Mormon leaders" (43).

Bigler and Bagley have made skillful use of the documents relating to this event in Mormon history The documents have been recognized by historians before, but now they are more readily available to scholars and the interested public at large in Army of Israel. For this the editors are to be thanked Worthy of note, far from the Latter-day Saint emigrants, were the efforts of Jesse C Little and Thomas L Kane to make the Mormon Battalion happen In January 1846 Brigham Young instructed Little, "who rules all the Church east of the Mississippi," in Kane's very descriptive words, to take charge of securing the battalion assignment in Washington, D.C (55) Writing to his parents in Philadelphia in mid-July 1846, Thomas L Kane noted the significance he placed on assisting the Mormons. "You know the importance I attached to the enlistment by the United States of volunteers from the Mormons" (56). Then, calling upon the influence he knew that his family held and the trust that the Mormons had placed in him, he wrote, "Try and write to the President on account of what I have written to you...and at some future convenient period go to Washington and have a few words with him in person" (58-59).

The call of the government to the Latter-day Saints to march west during the Mexican-American War was the well-documented result of politics Editors David L Bigler and Will Bagley have skillfully drawn together much of the fabric of the Mormon Battalion experience into a well-crafted narrative history The depth of their search for relevant primary documents provides a model for such histories These documents tell of hardship, faith, and perseverance for a cause They also tell of other achievements: battalion volunteers were present at the discovery of gold in northern California in January 1848 and helped blaze the northern trail from California to Salt Lake City upon their journey to Utah in 1848

As the editors admit, the military contribution of the Mormon Battalion to the outcome of the Mexican War was "inconsequential" (417). Most historians tend to overlook it altogether in favor of the more colorful episodes of the conflict. Still, the Mormon Utah community remembers the influence of the Mormon Battalion quite profoundly, and the battalion is still widely celebrated within LDS culture and history. Members were remembered fondly by their fellow Utah pioneers for the remainder of their lives; Henry Bigler, for example, was honored by the Mormon community as a battalion veteran to the end of his long life (he died in 1900). In 1896 a fiftieth anniversary reunion was held.

In 1915 LDS historian B H Roberts wrote the first "accurate assessment" of the Mormon Battalion (442) Roberts's version of the story rejected the long-held myth that Brigham Young had "created" to justify the battalion's sacrifice (443) This myth stressed that the Mormon militia was sent to defend the Mormons' religious liberty, and in the late nineteenth-century the standard LDS position on the battalion viewed the call as a villainous act by an evil government But Roberts, a member of the LDS hierarchy, openly wrote of how Mormon leaders had actively sought this assignment

Viewing the battalion experience through the words of the participants helps bring life to the experience. The editors are to be congratulated on their fine effort. The Mormon Battalion has received a good deal of scholarly attention of late, but this narrative, with its deeply researched primary sources, should prove invaluable to students of the subject. Originally published in cloth by the Arthur H. Clark Company as part of their "Kingdom in the West" series, this paperback Utah State University Press version makes the Army of Israel available to a wider audience.

M GUY BISHOP Woods Cross, Utah