Book Notices

Puebloan Ruins of the Southwest. By Arthur H.Rohn and William M.Ferguson.

+320 pp.Cloth,$60;paper, $34.95.)

This colorfully illustrated volume explores twenty-five hundred years of Pueblo culture and architecture.The authors cover Mesa Verde in Colorado’s Northern San Juan River region,Canyon de Chelly and the Grand Canyon ruins in the Kayenta region,and the Chaco Canyon,among others.The authors mix historical commentary with images and aerial photography to paint a remarkably complete picture of Pueblo life.

The Archaeology of Chaco Canyon:An Eleventh-Century Pueblo Regional Center

Edited by Stephen H.Lekson.(Santa Fe:School of American Research Press, 2006.xvi + 544 pp.Paper,$29.95.)

A companion to the book Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin,this volume results from nearly four decades of research on Chaco Canyon.The exact purpose of the Chaco Canyon ruins is still debated— some archaeologists believe it to be a city,some see it as a ceremonial center.The contributors to this book address the themes of environment,organization of production,architecture,regional issues,society,and polity,among others,placing Chaco in its regional and historical context.

After Lewis & Clark:The Forces of Change,1806-1871

By Gary Allen Hood. (Norman:University of Oklahoma Press,2006.96 pp.Paper,$24.95.)

Hood’s work, After Lewis & Clark,narrates the period of the Lewis and Clark Expedition via the artwork that that period and event produced.A collection of paintings currently housed in the Gilcrease Museum of Tulsa, Oklahoma,this extensively and necessarily illustrated book also provides context, background,and explanations of each painting included.As artists often accompanied the explorers of the American West in the nineteenth century,these visual renderings are some of the most vivid and telling accounts of the frontier period. Hood includes sixty-seven beautifully done illustrations and accompanying text.

By His Own Hand?:The Mysterious Death of Meriwether Lewis

Edited by John D.W.Guice.(Norman:University of Oklahoma Press,2006.xxi + 208 pp.Cloth, $24.95.)

In By His Own Hand,four writers analyze the death by gunshot of Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.The format and chronology of the book is that of a trial—evidence is presented by the first author,the case for suicide is made by the next,followed by an analysis of such a possibility by the third author,and finally the strengths and weaknesses of both the suicide and murder explanations are assessed.Primary source documents are included for the reader’s perusal and add significant historical depth to the publication.

The Southwestern Journals of Zebulon Pike,1806–1807.

Edited by Stephen Harding Hart and Archer Butler Hulbert.(Albuquerque:University of New Mexico Press, 2006.vi + 280 pp.Cloth,$27.95.)

In 1806 U.S.Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike was assigned to explore the headwaters of the Arkansas and Red rivers.Along the way,Pike recorded in detail his observations about the land and the peoples he encountered. Long out of print and reissued for the bicentennial of Pike’s journey through the American Southwest,this volume includes extensive commentary on the journals, as well as essays by Hart and Hulbert on the significance of the expedition and a new introduction by historian Mark L.Gardner.

Thomas Moran’s West: Chromolithography, High Art, and Popular Taste

By Joni L. Kinsey.(Lawrence:University Press of Kansas,2006.xii + 260 pp.Cloth,$45.00.)

Published as a portfolio of chromolithographs in 1876,Thomas Moran’s watercolor images of Yellowstone offered many Americans their first glimpse of the country’s first national park.Moran’s images are reproduced in this beautiful book,along with two dozen other color plates and over one hundred black-and-white illustrations.A preeminent authority on the artist,Joni Kinsey argues that Moran’s chromolithographs had an important place in American visual culture and shaped the public’s fascination with the West.

Clarence Edward Dutton:An Appraisal

By Wallace Stegner.(Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press,2006.xvi + 40 pp.Cloth,$25.00.)

This reprint of Wallace Stegner’s 1936 publication is a facsimile of a once rare and out of print book.A professor of English at the University of Utah,Stegner’s account of Clarence Edward Dutton is well-written,at times gripping,and consistently accessible.The assessment of Dutton’s life also touches on his geological expertise,his involvement with John Wesley Powell,and his authorial abilities.

The Oatman Massacre:A Tale of Desert Captivity and Survival.

By Brian McGinty.(Norman:University of Oklahoma Press,2006.xiv + 258 pp.Paper,$14.95.)

On February 18,1851,a band of southwestern Indians attacked the family of Roys Oatman near the confluence of the Gila and Colorado rivers in present-day Arizona.McGinty uses firsthand accounts and recent work on nineteenth-century southwestern Indian peoples to demythologize the story of the Oatman Massacre and correct the anti-Indian bias so prominent in previous tellings.

Crazy Horse:A Lakota Life

By Kingsley M.Bray.(Norman:University of Oklahoma Press,2006.xv + 484 pp.Paper,$34.95.)

Historian Kingsley M.Bray revisits the life and context of Crazy Horse the Lakota chief so mythologized in Western American history. Through extensive and meticulous research in primary sources, Mr.Bray has created a more comprehensive and nuanced picture of Crazy Horse. Additionally, the narrative offers insight into the complex relationship between the United States and the Lakota Indian tribe, and the tenuous position of Native American nations in the second half of the nineteenth century. Clearly written and well-noted, Bray’s biography offers a fresh vision of this Native American leader, and the world in which he lived.

Explorers in Eden:Pueblo Indians and the Promised Land.

By Jerold S.Auerbach. (Albuquerque:University of New Mexico Press,2006.vii + 205 pp.Cloth,$34.95.)

Frank H.Cushing,an explorer and author,saw the Zuni Pueblo culture as a pristine community isolated from modernity and reminiscent of a mythical biblical past.Unable to see the ways contact with the Spanish had already changed Pueblo culture,Cushing feared that interaction with Americans would destroy a culture that had until that point been suspended in time.Using a AngloAmericans written and visual depictions of Pueblo culture,Auerbach demonstrates how many Americans,like Cushing,responded to modern urban industrial society by imagining the Southwest as an edenic oasis and envisioning the Pueblo Indians as a wholesome biblical culture.

The Office Journal of President Brigham Young, 1858-1863, Book D.

Edited by Fred C.Collier (Hanna,Ut:Collier’s Publishing Company,2006.xvii + 470 pp.Cloth, $35.00.)

This edited volume is the last of ten known office journals of Brigham Young.Written in third person by various clerks of Brigham Young,the entries are the day-to-day activities of Brigham Young and his many visitors.Most daily entries are very brief.The volume is divided into six chapters corresponding to years of the office journal.The volume contains an extensive index and includes an appendix that contains the minutes of four meetings held during the forepart of 1860 concerning doctrinal disputes between Brigham Young and Orson Pratt.

The U.S. Army in the West, 1870-1880: Uniforms, Weapons, and Equipment.

By Douglas C.McChristian.(Norman:University of Oklahoma Press,2006.xix + 384 pp.Paper,$24.95.)

The late nineteenth century presented a period of development, exploration, and discovery in the American West. The United States military played a pivotal role in the region at that time, and Douglas C. McChristian presents an incredibly detailed and illustrated reference of military equipment and uniforms. Largely a work of material history but with obvious insights into the cultural, social, and political implications, McChristian’s book is an invaluable resource for the student or scholar of the American West. The U.S. Army in the West includes an index of illustrations as well.

National Parks and the Woman’s Voice:A History.

By Polly Welts Kaufman. (Albuquerque:University of New Mexico Press,2006.xxxviii +312 pp.Paper,$22.95.)

Updated a decade after its first publication, National Parks and the Woman’s Voice looks at the work done by women,both publicly and behind the scenes,on behalf of the nation’s national parks.Although Kaufman finds that the ratio of women park rangers to men has not advanced significantly in the past ten years,she finds that women’s perspectives and values—for example,inclusiveness and an emphasis on relationships and networking—have changed the national parks dramatically.

Barn in the U.S.A.

By Bob Crittendon.(Golden:Fulcrum Publishing,2006. xi + 104 pp.Paper,$24.95.)

The result of Bob Crittendon’s four years of first-hand research is this full-color tour of America’s barns and rural history.In 104 pages,Crittendon catalogues some of the nations most architecturally and historically interesting barns,and offers his reader easily accessible stories and information about each. After covering nearly all of the Western United States,Crittendon finishes his book with a series of “Barn Notes,”short pieces on topics from traditional barn colors to historic preservation to typical barn styles.

Decade of Betrayal:Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s.

By Francisco E.Balderrama and Raymond Rodríguez.(Albuquerque:University of New Mexico Press,2006.x + 427 pp.Paper,$24.95.)

In the depth of the Great Depression,desperate Americans sought a scapegoat for their economic problems settled on the Mexican community. Mexicans living and working in the United States faced laws forbidding their employment as well as calls to “get rid of the Mexicans!”The original edition of this work won the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights Award.This revised edition addresses how this event should be included in educational curriculum and the question of fiscal remuneration.