Before Yellowstone
Before Yellowstone

Author: Douglas H. MacDonald

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 2018-02-02

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0295742216

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Since 1872, visitors have flocked to Yellowstone National Park to gaze in awe at its dramatic geysers, stunning mountains, and impressive wildlife. Yet more than a century of archaeological research shows that the wild landscape has a long history of human presence. In fact, Native American people have hunted bison and bighorn sheep, fished for cutthroat trout, and gathered bitterroot and camas bulbs here for at least 11,000 years, and twenty-six tribes claim cultural association with Yellowstone today. In Before Yellowstone, Douglas MacDonald tells the story of these early people as revealed by archaeological research into nearly 2,000 sites—many of which he helped survey and excavate. He describes and explains the significance of archaeological areas such as the easy-to-visit Obsidian Cliff, where hunters obtained volcanic rock to make tools and for trade, and Yellowstone Lake, a traditional place for gathering edible plants. MacDonald helps readers understand the archaeological methods used and the limits of archaeological knowledge. From Clovis points associated with mammoth hunting to stone circles marking the sites of tipi lodges, Before Yellowstone brings to life a fascinating story of human engagement with this stunning landscape.

A Place Called Yellowstone
A Place Called Yellowstone

Author: Randall K. Wilson

Publisher: Catapult

Published: 2024-10-08

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 1640096655

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This epic history of America’s first national park explores how a remote Western landscape became an iconic symbol of our country and its vast wilderness so influential to our understanding of the natural world It has been called Wonderland, America’s Serengeti, the crown jewel of the National Park System, and America’s best idea. But how did this faraway landscape evolve into one of the most recognizable places in the world? As the birthplace of the national park system, Yellowstone witnessed the first-ever attempt to protect wildlife, to restore endangered species, and to develop a new industry centered on nature tourism. Yellowstone remains a national icon, one of the few entities capable of bridging ideological divides in the United States. Yet the park’s history is also filled with episodes of conflict and exclusion, setting precedents for Native American land dispossession, land rights disputes, and prolonged tensions between commercialism and environmental conservation. Yellowstone’s legacies are both celebratory and problematic. A Place Called Yellowstone tells the comprehensive story of Yellowstone as the story of the nation itself.

Through Early Yellowstone
Through Early Yellowstone

Author: Ray Stannard Baker

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780985818265

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A collection of entertaining accounts of travel through Yellowstone from 1871, before it was a tourist destination, until 1916, when autos were allowed into the park. The adventurers include an intrepid mother who posted the sign "Park or Bust" on her family's covered wagon, a strong cyclist and hikers who traversed the whole park for fun, and an expert guide on skis. These travelers experience the geysers without boardwalks, bushwhack trails before maps, handle horses, and encounter bears. Featuring a color gallery of 26 watercolor paintings from 1884 by Thomas Henry Thomas, shown for the first time outside Wales.

Yellowstone Cougars
Yellowstone Cougars

Author: Toni Karen Ruth

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1607328283

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"Examines the effect of wolf restoration on cougar population in Yellowstone National Park. No other study has addressed theoretical and practical aspects of competition between large carnivores. A thorough examination of cougar ecology, how they interact and [are] influenced by wolves, how this knowledge informs management and conservation"--Provided by publisher.

Preserving Yellowstone's Natural Conditions
Preserving Yellowstone's Natural Conditions

Author: James A. Pritchard

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2022-10-05

Total Pages: 625

ISBN-13: 1496234251

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Preserving Yellowstone's Natural Conditions describes in fascinating detail the historical origins and development of wildlife management in Yellowstone National Park, alongside shifting understandings of nature in science and culture. James A. Pritchard traces the idea of "natural conditions" through time, from the introduction of this concept by early ecologists in the 1930s. He tells several overlooked stories of Yellowstone wildlife, including a sensational scientific hunt for bears with bow and arrow, and the episode of the predator pelicans, which facilitated a fundamental shift toward protection of all wildlife in Yellowstone, and for the National Park Service as a whole. A prolonged debate regarding the elk herd on Yellowstone's northern range is addressed, along with the origins of the notion of natural regulation, and the reasons for ending direct reductions of elk. This story emphasizes how ecological science came to Yellowstone and to the National Park Service, subsequently developing over a period of decades. In the new afterword to this book Pritchard summarizes recent developments in wildlife science and management--such as the "ecology of fear" and trophic cascades--and discusses historical continuities in the role of the park as a wildlife refuge and the inestimable values of the park for wildlife conservation.

Yellowstone's Destabilized Ecosystem
Yellowstone's Destabilized Ecosystem

Author: Frederic H. Wagner

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2006-05-25

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 0198033796

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Wagner, one of our most distinguished wildlife biologists, is a strong critic of ecological practices in the national parks. This book provides an assessment of the ecological history of Yellowstone's northern range, since before the park existed, showing the impact of US Park Service policies on the health of the areas they oversee. He demonstrates that elk had been historically rare throughout the region and that overgrazing by elk has seriously degraded the landscape and altered the structure of the area. This is a major contribution to reconstructing the ecology of this region over the course of the past 500 years. It is also a critique of US Park Service management policies and their stewardship of the nation's most cherished natural areas. Wagner's book will generate substantial attention and debate both in the scientific and policy/management communities.

Before Custer
Before Custer

Author: M. John Lubetkin

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2015-02-25

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 0806149191

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Hoping to complete its transcontinental route, the Northern Pacific Railroad set out in 1872 to survey the Yellowstone Valley. An emissary from the Lakota chief Sitting Bull had warned the two surveying expeditions (eastern and western) not to enter the valley. But no one—certainly no Northern Pacific investor—was worried about taking the Indian threat seriously. As it turned out, the Indians were deadly serious—and successful. The firsthand accounts compiled here by M. John Lubetkin document the survey’s three-month struggle with the Lakotas and other Plains Indian people. Before Custer: Surveying the Yellowstone, 1872 tells the story of a military and public relations disaster. Much to the surprised dismay of U.S. Army strategists and railroad executives, the Indians repeatedly harrassed army forces of nearly a thousand men. One surveying party turned back, without meeting its objectives, after a determined attack led by Sitting Bull. The other also retreated, and one ambush it encountered resulted in the death of a member of President Ulysses S. Grant’s family and the narrow escape of the railroad’s lead engineer. The previously unpublished documents that Lubetkin has collected and annotated also tell a parallel story: that of the dire consequences of the railroad’s problems for the country. When the Northern Pacific’s expansion plans were thwarted, the nation’s largest private banking house failed, leading to the Panic of 1873. The fighting brought Sitting Bull to national attention and led directly to George Armstrong Custer’s transfer to the Department of Dakota. The vivid eyewitness accounts artfully assembled here reveal the failures of alcoholic army commanders and show personal encounters between soldiers and Indians, among them the formidable Lakota warrior known as Gall. Before Custer tells of a little-known but crucial episode in the history of westward expansion and Native peoples’ efforts to halt that expansion.

Restoring a Presence
Restoring a Presence

Author: Peter Nabokov

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2016-01-18

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 080615408X

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Placing American Indians in the center of the story, Restoring a Presence relates an entirely new history of Yellowstone National Park. Although new laws have been enacted giving American Indians access to resources on public lands, Yellowstone historically has excluded Indians and their needs from its mission. Each of the other flagship national parks—Glacier, Yosemite, Mesa Verde, and Grand Canyon—has had successful long-term relationships with American Indian groups even as it has sought to emulate Yellowstone in other dimensions of national park administration. In the first comprehensive account of Indians in and around Yellowstone, Peter Nabokov and Lawrence Loendorf seek to correct this administrative disparity. Drawing from archaeological records, Indian testimony, tribal archives, and collections of early artifacts from the Park, the authors trace the interactions of nearly a dozen Indian groups with each of Yellowstone’s four geographic regions. Restoring a Presence is illustrated with historical and contemporary photographs and maps and features narratives on subjects ranging from traditional Indian uses of plant, mineral, and animal resources to conflicts involving the Nez Perce, Bannock, and Sheep Eater peoples. By considering the many roles Indians have played in the complex history of the Yellowstone region, authors Nabokov and Loendorf provide a basis on which the National Park Service and other federal agencies can develop more effective relationships with Indian groups in the Yellowstone region.

Yellowstone's Wildlife in Transition
Yellowstone's Wildlife in Transition

Author: P. J. White

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2013-04-01

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 0674076419

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The world's first national park is constantly changing. How we understand and respond to recent events putting species under stress will determine the future of ecosystems millions of years in the making. Marshaling expertise from over 30 contributors, Yellowstone's Wildlife in Transition examines three primary challenges to the park's ecology.