Book Notices

Tales From Utah Valley.

By D.Robert Carter.(Provo:The Daily Herald,2005. 147 pp.Paper,$19.95.)

This book is a collection of twenty-five absorbing accounts of Utah Valley history,originally composed for the Provo Daily Herald ’s History Page.The stories,recounted by Utah Valley historian D.Robert Carter,concern incidents that few know and subjects that few study.One article,“Making Sugar—A Bittersweet Experience,”recounts the early efforts of settlers to produce sugar.It describes everything from John Taylor’s investigations in France to the arduous trek to carry the machinery for sugar production across the plains to the “manna”discovered on the leaves of cottonwood trees in a time of drought.These are fascinating pieces of history and Carter relates them in clear,straightforward language. The sugar article is one of five in the first chapter entitled “Pioneer Life.” There are six chapters that follow.“Parks and Monuments”affords snapshots of the history of Provo’s Pioneer Park.“The Wasatch Mountains” contains stories that took place in the peaks surrounding Utah Valley. “Crime and Punishment”gives the history of two criminal cases in territorial Utah,one of adultery and one of murder.“Around Town”details miscellaneous happenings in Provo such as its May Day celebrations and the 1938 visit of composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.“The Dinky Durban”presents a history of the Salt Lake & Utah Railroad,and “Utah Lake”gives an idea of the role of this body of water in the history of the valley.These articles not only provide interesting historical information but they are also an example of how distinct and fascinating Utah history can be.

Derricks and Determination: Oil Exploration in a Portion of Southwestern Wyoming,1847-1982.

By Walter R.Jones.(Casper,WY:Mountain States Lithographing,2005.xiii + 189 pp.Paper,$19.95.)

This book covers almost 140 years of the history of the Wyoming oil industry. Focusing on Evanston and Uinta County, it deals with many aspects of this history, from exploration and discovery to settlement and organization. Author Walter Jones is head of Western Americana at the University of Utah Marriott Library. He divides his book into two parts: “History of an Oil Boom,” with four chronological chapters covering the years 1847 to 1982 and “Life and Labor in the Evanston Oil Fields,” which includes four chapters on five individuals—“Charles O. Richardson, Superintendent of Oil Fields,” “Clem Morrison, Recluse of Spring Valley,” “Arthur Whiteman, Daddy of the Spring Valley Oil Fields,” and “Maude Byrne and Ira Taylor, an Oil Field Tragedy.”

Utah at the Beginning of the New Millennium: A Demographic Perspective.

Edited by Cathleen D.Zick and Ken R.Smith.(Salt Lake City:The University of Utah Press, 2006.xvi + 270 pp.Paper,$22.95.)

While statistics certainly do not reveal the whole story,they are a good start,and this collection of Utah’s demographic statistics provides valuable information about Utah as it enters the twenty-first century. This volume uses nearly two hundred figures and tables to demonstrate a wealth of statistics about Utah and how it compares with the rest of the United States.Thirty-two scholars have written twenty-two chapters to explain the data.The book has three parts.Part One,“Basic Demographics” includes chapters on the age structure in Utah,the implications of Utah’s high fertility rate,past and present family papers,marriage and divorce, death,and the impact of migration.Part Two,“Quality of Life Issues,” examines the economics of Utah households,consumption patterns,social risk factors,health,education,crime,religion,and the wellbeing of children and adolescents.Part Three,“Emerging Population Issues,”considers singleparent households,the elderly population,immigration,race and ethnic segregation and inequality,political change,life in urban and rural Utah, and concludes with an essay on how data helps policy makers plan for the future. Utah at the Beginning of the New Millennium is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the state of Utah and where it is headed.

The Willie Handcart Company

By Paul D.Lyman.(Provo:BYU Studies,2006.279 pp. Paper,$21.95.)

This fine presentation of the Willie Handcart Company takes the reader day-by-day from the embarkation of Mormon emigrants onboard the Thornton in Liverpool, on May 1,1856,until the arrival of the company in the Salt Lake Valley six months later on November 9th.This account includes the company’s desperate struggle in the early winter snows of Wyoming and arrival of rescuers sent out by Brigham Young. Using the company journal as the basis for the account, supplemented by three other records—the Journal of Peder Madsen from April 23 through September 8;Levi Savage’s Diary from June 15 through October 25;and the History of William Woodward for July 5 through October 2,the story of the ill-fated company unfolds in the words of the participants. Their accounts are supplemented with explanatory paragraphs by the author, detailed maps of the route, and driving directions to reach important sites along the trail.

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

By Ronald L.Holt. (Logan:Utah State University Press,2006.xxiv + 197 pp.Paper,$21.95.)

This history of Utah’s Paiutes by Weber State University Professor Ronald Holt was originally published in 1992 by the University of New Mexico Press and reviewed in the Summer 1993 issue of the Utah Historical Quarterly. This is an updated version with a new foreword and comments by the author. The book begins with a general overview of Paiute society, making it clear that knowledge before contact with white settlers in the 1850s is scarce. Holt focuses on how white settlement impacted the Paiutes in a process that moved from occupation to dependency, neglect to lethargy, termination to forgetfulness, and finally restoration.

Touched by Fire: The Life, Death, and Mythic Afterlife of George Armstrong Custer.

By Louise Barnett.(Lincoln:University of Nebraska Press,2006.xi + 540 pp. Paper,$17.95.)

In its second edition (the first being published in 1996),this biography of George Armstrong Custer is full of fascinating,detailed information and aims to provide a realistic view of Custer and his life while also taking a serious look at the myths which,along with the efforts of his widow,have kept him in the public’s eye.In addition to the account of Custer’s life,the book also presents valuable information regarding life on the American frontier.

American Indian Education: A History.

By Jon Reyhner and Jeanne Eder.(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,2004.x + 370 pp.Paper,$19.95.)

Covering a span of more than four hundred years, American Indian Education examines the methods and motives of European immigrants to the Americas and their descendants as they attempted to educate the indigenous people they encountered. From the Colonial Era up to the twenty-first century, each chapter deals with a general subject such as “Mission Schools” and “Government Boarding Schools,” or a specific period like “Reservations:1867-1887,”and “Termination and Relocation, 1944-1969.”With an extensive bibliography and helpful subheadings, this book is a great resource for anyone interested in the educational and social history of Native Americans and the efforts by churches and the federal government to “Christianize and civilize American Indian children.”

Taking Charge: Native American Self-Determination and Federal Indian Policy, 1975-1993.

By George Pierre Castile.(Tucson:University of Arizona Press,2006.164 pp.$35.00.)

The sequel to an earlier book by the same author entitled To Show Heart: Native American Self-Determination and Federal Indian Policy, 1960-1975 ,this book picks up where the other left off, covering the administrations of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush, s well as the actions of Congress throughout the period. It examines how each of these addressed Native American concerns, especially the question of self-determination and concludes that many of the questions and issues remain unresolved.

Tribal Water Rights: Essays in Contemporary Law, Policy, and Economics.

Edited by John E.Thorson,Sarah Britton,and Bonnie G.Colby.(Tucson:University of Arizona Press,2006.xii + 291 pp.Cloth,$50.00.)

The intended audience for this book includes professionals in water management or inter-jurisdictional conflict resolution,and those already introduced to topics related to tribal rights in the United States. The book consists of fourteen essays that discuss the general issues surrounding tribal water rights,such as “Groundwater,Tribal Rights,and Settlements”and “‘What Makes Water Settlements Successful?”plus a concluding essay that explains “The Significance of the Indian Water Rights Settlement Movement.”The writers of these essays are experts in law and land.While the book focuses on contemporary law and policy, it traces their emergence back more than a century and a half to the establishment of the first Indian reservations.

The Mormon History Association’s Tanner Lectures: The First Twenty Years.

Edited by Dean L.May and Reid L.Neilson with Richard Lyman Bushman,Jan Shipps,and Thomas G.Alexander.(Urbana and Chicago:University of Illinois Press,2006.xi + 406 pp.Cloth,$70.00;paper,$30.00.)

More than twenty years ago the Mormon History Association decided to invite non-Mormon scholars to lecture at their annual meetings.In these lectures the scholars were to discuss Mormonism and its history,drawing on their “outsider”perspectives and their knowledge in a particular field.With men such as Gordon S.Wood,professor of history at Brown University,using his expertise in early American history to lecture on Mormonism’s origins and place in Evangelical America,and women such as Laurie F.Maffly-Kipp,an associate professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill analyzing the growth of Mormonism in the Pacific Islands this volume is full of unique insights and thoughtful interpretations.This book compiles essays from the first twenty years of Tanner lectures,with brief explanatory introductions to the entire collection and to specific sections.The three sections are “Beginnings,”“Establishing Zion,”and “Mormonism Considered from Different Perspectives.”These essays make for an enlightening and educational read.

Race, Religion, Region: Landscapes of Encounter in the American West.

Edited by Fay Botham and Sarah M.Patterson.(Tucson:University of Arizona Press,2006.viii + 190 pp.Cloth,$40.00.)

The American West has a history of race and religion unique to the region and this history does not always coincide with the eastern experience.Eight essays aim to address how race,religion,and the region known as the American West interacted to form unique communities and identities.In addition to an essay by Armand L.Mauss,“Children of Ham and Children of Abraham:The Construction and Deconstruction of Ethnic Identities in the Mormon Heartland,”other essays focus on Los Angeles in the first half of the twentieth century,the Ku Klux Klan in California, Chinese and Islamic concepts of religion,race,and ethnicity.An introduction by the editors provides a helpful overview of the book and its major points.

San Juan Bonanza: Western Colorado’s Mining Legacy.

By John L.Ninnemann and Duane A.Smith.(Albuquerque:University of New Mexico Press,2006.xv + 85 pp. $24.95.)

San Juan Bonanza gives a visual and historical tour in its attractive presentation of mining in southwestern Colorado’s San Juan Mountains.There,among passes and peaks thousands of feet high,miners long attempted to find fortune.San Juan mining had a rough beginning, middle,and end,and the pictures illustrate this with views of the landscape and historical remnants.The history written by Duane Smith,one of the foremost mining historians of the West,is straightforward and the writing full of feeling.The book is an interesting exploration of a rugged mountain range and the people who sought after its wealth.

Exploring the Bancroft Library.

Edited by Charles B.Faulhaber and Stephen Vincent. (Berkeley and Salt Lake City:The Bancroft Library and Signature Books,2006.vi + 190 pp.Cloth,$39.95.)

The Bancroft Library is one of the world’s elite research institutions.Its holdings on the American West,Utah,and Mormons have drawn serious scholars since its opening in 1906.This attractive volume,with nearly two hundred black and white and color illustrations,celebrates the one hundred year anniversary of the library.Hubert Howe Bancroft began building the reference collection in 1860 and he sold his library to the University of California in 1905. In addition to chapters that provide an introduction to the regional oral history office,technical services,preservation and conservation,public programs,and publications,other chapters cover the six major collections—Western Americana, Latin Americana,pictures,rare books and literary manuscripts,the history of science and technology,and the University of California Archives.

Indian War Veterans: Memories of Army Life and Campaigns in the West, 18641898.

By Jerome A.Greene.(New York:Savas Beatie LLC,2007.387 pp.Cloth,$45.00.)

This compilation of accounts by soldiers serving in the American West during the last third of the nineteenth century offers the soldiers’ perspectives on various aspects of day-to-day army life and first hand accounts of battles and campaigns on the Plains, in the Mountain West, the West Coast, nd the Southwest. Jerome A.Greene, a historian with the National Park Service, also provides an interesting introduction that describes the establishment of veterans’ organizations including the National Indian War Veterans and the United Indian War Veterans, both included veterans of Utah’s Black Hawk War in their membership.

Reminiscences of Early Utah with Reply to Certain Statements by O.E.Whitney

By Robert N.Baskin.(Salt Lake City:Signature Books,2006.xxxii + 282 pp.Paper, $19.95.)

This edition is a reprint of the 1914 book Reminiscences of Early Utah and the twenty-nine page 1916 publication “Reply to Certain Statements by O.F.Whitney.”The latter was written in response to Orson F.Whitney’s History of Utah published in four volumes between 1892 and 1904.Published as part of the Signature Mormon Classics series,this edition includes a twenty-six page Foreword by Brigham D.Madsen.Robert N.Baskin graduated with a law degree from Harvard University and arrived in Utah in 1865 where he spent the rest of his life as an anti-Mormon in the struggle against polygamy and church involvement in government and politics.The book includes twenty chapters with such titles as “The Conditions in Utah which Caused the Opposition of the Gentiles;” “Bill Hickman’s Confession;”“The Danites,or Destroying Angels;”“The Mountain Meadows Massacre and its Resulting Investigations;”“Securing Free Schools in Utah;”and “The Mormon Business System.”

I Am the Grand Canyon: The Story of the Havasupai People

By Stephen Hirst. (Grand Canyon:Grand Canyon Association,2006.xvi + 276 pp.Paper,$18.95.)

This book first appeared in 1976 under the title Life in a Narrow Place:The Navasupai of the Grand Canyon and again in 1985 as Havsuw ’Baaja: People of the Blue Green Water. Now in its third edition,the book is richly illustrated with with historic black and white images and color photographs taken by the author’s wife Lois.The Hirsts lived in Havasupai from 1967 until 1983 where Lois oversaw the education programs and Steven was asked by the Havasupai to research and document their history as part of their efforts to regain their ancestral lands.The photographs and engaging text provide an interesting portrait of a people and their home in one of the most remote and beautiful locations on earth.