Ronald Holt recounts the survival of a people against all odds. A compound of rapid white settlement of the most productive Southern Paiute homelands, especially their farmlands near tributaries of the Colorado River; conversion by and labor for the Mormon settlers; and government neglect placed the Utah Paiutes in a state of dependency that ironically culminated in the 1957 termination of their status as federally recognized Indians. That recognition and attendant services were not restored until 1980, in an act that revived the Paiutes’ identity, self-government, land ownership, and sense of possibility. With a foreword by Lora Tom, chair of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah.
Boundaries Between skillfully relates the history of the Southern Paiutes from their first contacts with Europeans through the end of the twentieth century. In an engaging style, Martha C. Knack combines contemporary oral histories, meticulous archival research, original ethnographic fieldwork, and an astute critical perspective on Indian-white relations. Before the arrival of European Americans, Southern Paiutes foraged the arid hills and valleys of the area known today as southern Utah, northern Arizona, southern Nevada, and southeastern California. By all the ?rules? of history and anthropology, such a small-scale, foraging culture should have disappeared long ago, but the Southern Paiutes survive, and their story unsettles assumptions about the role that social complexity, power, and culture play in the dynamics of human history.
The massacre at Mountain Meadows on September 11, 1857, was the single most violent attack on a wagon train in the thirty-year history of the Oregon and California trails. Yet it has been all but forgotten. Will Bagley’s Blood of the Prophets is an award-winning, riveting account of the attack on the Baker-Fancher wagon train by Mormons in the local militia and a few Paiute Indians. Based on extensive investigation of the events surrounding the murder of over 120 men, women, and children, and drawing from a wealth of primary sources, Bagley explains how the murders occurred, reveals the involvement of territorial governor Brigham Young, and explores the subsequent suppression and distortion of events related to the massacre by the Mormon Church and others.
Termination's Legacy describes how the federal policy of termination irrevocably affected the lives of a group of mixed-blood Ute Indians who made their home on the Uintah-Ouray Reservation in Utah. Following World War II many Native American communities were strongly encouraged to terminate their status as wards of the federal government and develop greater economic and political power for themselves. During this era, the rights of many Native communities came under siege, and the tribal status of some was terminated. Most of the terminated communities eventually regained tribal status and federal recognition in subsequent decades. But not all did. The mixed-blood Utes fell outside the formal categories of classification by the federal government, they did not meet the essentialist expectations of some officials of the Mormon Church, and their regaining of tribal status potentially would have threatened those Utes already classified as tribal members on the reservation. Skillfully weaving together interviews and extensive archival research, R. Warren Metcalf traces the steps that led to the termination of the mixed-blood Utes' tribal status and shows how and why this particular group of Native Americans was never formally recognized as "Indian" again. Their repeated failure to regain their tribal status throws into relief the volatile key issue of identity then and today for full- and mixed-blood Native Americans, the federal government, and the powerful Mormon Church in Utah.
Beautiful, moving and utterly absorbing, The House Beneath the Cliffs is a novel of friendship and food, storms and secrets, and the beauty of second chances
A comparative history of the relocation and removal of indigenous societies in the Greater American Southwest during the mid-nineteenth century Lost Worlds of 1863: Relocation and Removal of American Indians in the Central Rockies and the Greater Southwest offers a unique comparative narrative approach to the diaspora experiences of the Apaches, O’odham and Yaqui in Arizona and Sonora, the Navajo and Yavapai in Arizona, the Shoshone of Utah, the Utes of Colorado, the Northern Paiutes of Nevada and California, and other indigenous communities in the region. Focusing on the events of the year 1863, W. Dirk Raat provides an in-depth examination of the mid-nineteenth century genocide and devastation of the American Indian. Addressing the loss of both the identity and the sacred landscape of indigenous peoples, the author compares various kinds of relocation between different indigenous groups ranging from the removal and assimilation policies of the United States government regarding the Navajo and Paiute people, to the outright massacre and extermination of the Bear River Shoshone. The book is organized around detailed individual case studies that include extensive histories of the pre-contact, Spanish, and Mexican worlds that created the context for the pivotal events of 1863. This important volume: Narrates the history of Indian communities such as the Yavapai, Apache, O'odham, and Navajo both before and after 1863 Addresses how the American Indian has been able to survive genocide, and in some cases thrive in the present day Discusses topics including Indian slavery and Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, the Yaqui deportation, Apache prisoners of war, and Great Basin tribal politics Explores Indian ceremonial rites and belief systems to illustrate the relationship between sacred landscapes and personal identity Features sub-chapters on topics such as the Hopi-Navajo land controversy and Native American boarding schools Includes numerous maps and illustrations, contextualizing the content for readers Lost Worlds of 1863: Relocation and Removal of American Indians in the Central Rockies and the Greater Southwest is essential reading for academics, students, and general readers with interest in Western history, Native American history, and the history of Indian-White relations in the United States and Mexico.
