Book Notices

Henry Sugimoto: Painting an American Experience

Edited by Kristine Kim (Berkeley;Heyday Books,2000.xiv + 141pp.Cloth,$50.00;paper,$24.95.)

Born in 1900 in Japan, Henry Sugimoto came tothe United States in 1919. He was determined to follow his dream of being an artist, and he studied inSan Francisco and France, where he painted landscapes influenced by the impressionists and post-impressionists. With Roosevelt's signing of Executive Order 9066 and the incarceration of the Sugimoto family at the relocation camp inJerome,Arkansas, the painter's subjects and style changed. Painting with a limited palette on cloth that his wife somehow obtained for him, he began to document the pain of the Japanese American internment experience. After the "war, although he had to work for income inatextile factory, Sugimoto continuedto create art, working with internment themes and also with theJapanese immigrant experience

This book puts Sugimoto's art in context with his life and times and beautifully reprints much of his work.

Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary, 1840—1865

By Peter E.Palmquist andThomas R. Kailbourn (Stanford: Stanford University Press,2001. 704 pp.$125.00.)

After fifty years (between them) of photo-historical research, the authors have produced a volume that profiles some 1,500 photographers, retouchers, printers, makers and dealers ofequipment, publishers, lithographers, and engravers The scope of the book covers the professional and, when possible, private lives of individuals who worked inthe North American West (west of the Continental Divide) and all of Central America It also includes careful, complete documentation, a great boon for those who engage in future studies. Martha A. Sandweiss minces no "words of praise in her foreword: "Photographic history, long a stepchild of art history, has been slow to acquire a basic set of reference tools," she writes "This volume immediately rises to the very top of the pack" (xi).

Mormons and Mormonism: An Introduction to an American World Religion

Edited by EricA Eliason (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press,2001. 296 pp. Cloth, $39.95; paper, $17.95.)

The essays in this volume reflect an "explosion of interest"in Mormon studies The editor writes that, since the establishment ofIslam, only three movements—Mormonism, Sikhism, and Baha'i—"can lay reasonable claim to the status of a new "world religion based on their longevity, population, world- wide distribution, and doctrinal uniqueness" (15) This book reprints scholarly studies of the religion's evolution and culture. Both Mormon and non-Mormon scholars have contributed insightful essays, "writing on such topics as how early Mormons viewed themselves, -whether Mormons are Christians, the Book of Mormon as a key to understanding the religion's social history, music within the international church, and the dynamics behind the church's growth.

Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience

Edited by Lawson Fusao Inada (Berkeley: Heyday Books,2000 480 pp Paper,$18.95.)

Letters, government documents, poems, memoirs, diary excerpts, newspaper clippings, photos, sketches, and more create a fascinating anthology on the internment experience The book highlights the inner and outer lives of interned Japanese Americans but also documents Caucasian attitudes, the experiences of non-interned camp -workers, and even such related experiences as those of a Japanese Peruvian and an interned Italian opera singer—all demonstrating Americans' escalating hysteria and prejudice duringWorldWar II

General William S. Harney, Prince of Dragoons

By George RollieAdams (Lincoln and London: University ofNebraska Press,2001 xix + 389 pp $50.00.)

Spanning forty-five years, Harney's army career included garrison duty, fighting in the Indian Avars and the Mexican War, keeping the peace in volatile Kansas, heading a campaign against the Sioux, and commanding and organizing the Utah Expedition of 1857—58.His military career ended when President Lincoln, believing untrue accusations that Harney sympathized with the South, removed him from his command in Missouri.This first scholarly full-length biography of the general, "who "was ambitious, violent, bold, arrogant, innovative, and courageous, competently examines the man and his times.

All but the Waltz: A Memoir of Five Generations in the Life of a Montana

Family By Mary Clearman Blew (1991;reprint, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,2001.223pp.Paper,$12.95.)

Family and land are inseparable in these essays.Blew shows us the sharp uniqueness and universality of her kin as they "work their lives on the difficult land of central Montana Love, discord, understanding, misunderstanding, and unlived expectations are the inevitable traits of family explored here Always, the landscape is part of the narrative, shaping the stories as relationships evolve, fade, and intertwine within theJudith Basin.

Balsamroot: A Memoir By Mary Clearman Blew

(1994;reprint, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,2001.211 pp.Paper, $12.95.)

"Auntie"—the author's greatly loved, never-married Aunt Imogene—is slipping into dementia. In caring for a relative whose mind is becoming murky, the author herself finds greater clarity in other aspects of life Just as she clears out Imogene s house overlooking the Strait ofJuan de Fuca, Blew begins a sorting process that brings into focus family relationships, childhood and young womanhood (ofboth herself and her aunt),place,history, and life choices.

Idaho's Malad Valley: A History

By Thomas J McDevitt (Pocatello,ID:Little Red Hen, 2001 x + 230 pp Paper,$25.95.)

Filled with an assortment of loosely organized, sometimes-quirky anecdotes—including stories of deaths, earthquakes, Three Nephites, Ben Waldron's twisted amputated leg, and Jesse James's courtship of a Malad widow— this book is dedicated to the "wonderful, funny people of Malad Valley." It may not be academic, but it is fun reading

Tell Them We Are Going Home: The Odyssey of the Northern Cheyennes

By John H Monnett (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,2001 288 pp $27.95.)

After army troops destroyed Dull Knife's winter village in 1876, the survivors suffered cold and hunger and finally were sent to Indian Territory But there the northern Cheyennes grew ill from warm-climate diseases and longed for their home in the high country of Montana When army officials refused to let them return, chiefs Little Wolf and Dull Knife escaped with 300 of their people This book tells the story of their conflict with the U.S Army and their journey.

Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir

Edited by Lavina FieldingAnderson (Salt Lake City: Signature Books,2001 ix + 947 pp $44.95.)

Various versions of the memoirs of Lucy Mack Smith, mother of Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, have been published at various times This hefty volume makes a major contribution by comparing Lucy's rough draft of 1844—45 with the version edited by Martha Jane Coray and Orson Pratt and published by Pratt in 1853.The rough draft, created largely from notes Coray took as Lucy reminisced, reveals Lucy's colloquial voice and her individual memory of early LDS church events; the Coray/Pratt edited version "corrects" her memory and makes the language more formal.The book also contains a biographical sketch of Lucy by Irene Bates, an essay on her "domestic spirituality," an explanation of the history of the manuscript, a chronology of the church and the book (including an examination of Brigham Young's furious response when Pratt published the memoir without Young's permission), an epilogue on Lucy's last years, and thumbnail sketches of individuals mentioned in the memoir

Chinese on the American Frontier

Edited byArif Dirlik (Lanham,MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001.xxxvi + 506 pp.$79.95.)

Compiling articles from a variety of sources, this anthology seeks to fill a gap in scholarship.According to the editor, most studies on the Chinese in America have focused on the Pacific Coast, but this volume includes explorations of the Chinese presence in the Southwest, Rocky Mountains, and Northwest. Many of the articles come from state historical journals and other regional sources, and some were originally printed in less-scholarly sources and, as the editor warns, are at times uncritical in their approach The book covers a great deal of territory; still, there is really no valid excuse for this faux pas: A map of "Chinese Mining Activity" shows only one site in Utah, "Brigham Canyon," located east of the Great Salt Lake.That is unfortunate, because even though readers of the Utah Historical Quarterly may know better, the students for whom this volume is mainly intended may not.

The Plains Indian Photographs of Edward S. Curtis

(Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press,2001. 186 pp.$50.00.)

In 1900 Edward S Curtis attended a Sun Dance gathering in Montana. From a mountain top, he could see a "circle of tipis nearly a mile wide" and thousands of participating Indians It would be the last great gathering of Indians in North America, and later Curtis "would say that this stunning sight "was the "start of my effort to learn about the Plains Indians and to photograph their lives" (69). The result of that effort would be the twenty-volume The North American Indian (1907—1930), which, though it reflects the biases and methods of its time, also has inherent power. Besides, the project's "flaws" are in themselves culturally revealing and -worthy of study Three strong essays in this volume explore the photographic traditions within which Curtis worked, the complexity of a project that sets out to describe reality in text and pictures, and the aesthetics behind the photographs.

America's National Scenic Trails Kathleen Ann Cordes

(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,2001. 320 pp.Paper, $19.95.)

Congress has designated eight continuous routes along significant natural corridors as National Scenic Trails. The trails include the Appalachian (2,160 miles long), the Continental Divide (3,260 miles from Mexico to Canada), Florida (1,300 miles through varied ecosystems), Ice Age (1,000 miles through Wisconsin's glacially formed topography), Natchez Trace (planned to be 110 miles on an ancient footpath in Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee), North Country (4,195 miles through seven midwestern and northeastern states), Pacific Crest (2,650 miles from border to border), and Potomac Heritage (700 miles) national trails.The book gives an overview, history, and guide to points of interest for each trail.

My Several Lives: An Autobiography

By Paul W. Hodson (Midvale,UT: Keeban Publications, 2000 iii + 268 pp.)

The author's several lives include childhood and youth, an LDS mission in Nazi Germany, courtship and marriage, graduate studies at Harvard and Stanford, intelligence work during World War II, a vice presidency for business at the University of Utah, educational assignments in Latin America, and the development of the Dimple Dell community. In his foreword, William Mulder writes, "Each 'life,' all those dramatic turns in a long career, reveal the narrator's courage and initiative, enriched throughout by his philosophical reflections."

Sifters: Native American Women's Lives

Edited byTheda Perdue (NewYork: Oxford University Press,2001 xii + 260 pp Cloth, $49.95;paper, $19.95.)

Cherokee women were "sifters," so called after their most important tool With these loosely -woven baskets, they processed foods in a variety of ways, nourishing their families Although the roles of women in various Native tribes—as sifters and far more—were vital to the continuation of their people, the lives of Native "women have largely gone unrecognized and unrecorded, both in documentary sources and in modern historiography This unique collection of essays gathers scholarship on diverse individual lives

These women, ranging from Pocahontas to Ada Deer, whose career in working for tribal sovereignty and self-determination led to an appointment as head of the BIA, are not anonymous, as so many of their sisters are, only because they did something that someone considered worth noting. But most of the essays do not simply recount these exceptional lives; they also examine processes, meanings, and implications. The account of the murdered activist Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash explores sexism and schism within the American Indian Movement as one manifestation of the obstacles encountered by Native -women trying to reclaim their traditional powerful roles within their tribes.The essay on Pocahontas explains the development of the often-told myth as an attempt by those powerful Virginians whose blood was "tainted" by Indian ancestry to legitimize themselves while justifying their domination over other Native people With such essays, the reader of this volume will understand Native women's lives on a deeper level