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Show REVIEWS AND RECENT PUBLICATIONS A Ram in the Thicket, By Frank C. Robertson. (New York, Abelard Press, 1950, 357 pp. $3.00) In this "autobiography" Mr. Robertson has done a job that has long needed doing-he has painted a picture of life in a small, poverty-stricken Western community as it actually was lived a few years back, and through the bitter stick-to-itiveness of the hardworking people, their emergence into a somewhat better life. It is not particularly introspective. In fact, the reader learns very little of what went on in young Frank Robertson's mind. But Frank's vital storytelling ability has enabled him to stand off from himself and to see his family with calm and objective eyes. His sympathy and understanding of human frailities has been the magic element that gives the story poignancy; and his love of people has enabled him to present the whole community, and not just his own family. That is the great value of the book to Westerners-this clear picture of one family against the background of community living. And Mr. Robertson has accomplished this so fully that the book can stand as a vital contribution to the understanding of Western pioneer life. It is an extremely personal book, withal. The reader knows Will Robertson, the big Texas cowboy who woos and wins a preacher's daughter, only to find himself no longer the kingpin as he was before. Belle Robertson's mental and social superiority over her husband left him no refuge except in tantrums and moods. He became a difficult man to live with, but Belle hung onto her marriage and through sheer determination brought it to peaceful last years. Mr. Robertson has pictured his mother with loving sympathy, so that she becomes a symbol of all those toiling, hand-roughened pioneer women, whose energy and loyalty and vision withstood the dreadful hardships of a tough frontier. The author's admiration for his brothers and their personalities; his understanding of motives; his lack of any looking-down-his- nose at anyone, no matter how lowly or lawless, are the slant- 94 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY ing side lights that illumine the author's character for the reader, who is given very little tangible material on this subject. In this respect the autobiography is far different from most of this type of writing, where the author's main concern is generally to explain himself, justify his views, and prove to the world that he is better than they thought him. So much for the writing. The material deals with Will Robertson's family-his wife and three sons-and their life in a tiny community in the panhandle country of Idaho. Here the settlers were rough and tough and sometimes lawless, but their chief amusements were Church, dancing and debates-and they all made the most of these. Later the family moved to Chesterfield, Idaho, and then to Utah. But wherever they were, they were a part of the community, and so the book gives one the feeling of actually having lived in these places and known these people. Salt Lake City, Utah Olive W. Burt Indian Agent, By Albert H. Kneale. (Caldwell, Idaho, The Caxton Printers, 1950, 429 pp. $5.00) For thirty-six years A. H. Kneale was an agent of the government, living and working with the Indians of the West. For the major portion of that time he operated in the capacity of agent or superintendent, having charge of several of the more important Indian reservations. For readers interested in the Intermountain region it is significant that he spent a good portion of his official life in that region, having charge of reservations in Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Utah. In the latter state he served his longest tour of duty among the Utes at the Uinta-Ouray Reservation- a period of nearly ten years. Surely such a person should be qualified to write giving firsthand and reliable information on what has been an important and thorny problem in this country for many years. In the area of appreciation and understanding of the problems faced by the man in the field, Indian Agent is a contribution to the literature on the subject. However, Kneale has probed only superficially into many of the basic problems involved in the relationship between the American Indian and his Anglo-Saxon wards in the U. S. Indian Service. REVIEWS AND RECENT PUBLICATIONS 95 The most important contribution this book gives, in the opinion of this reviewer, is in the mass of detail of agency operation, duties and activities of the agent, and the customs and manners of the various Indian tribes where Kneale served. Indian Agent is autobiographical in character, written purely from memory and recollection with no reference to journal or diary. The style is informal and chatty with much use of the personal pronoun. To the critical reader this volume has several shortcomings. There is no index or bibliography of any kind, but then the author used only his memory for information. The illustrations- some thirty in number-are all lumped together in the middle of the book. The thirteen chapters are poorly balanced, varying in size from slightly less than one page in the case of one chapter to about ninety pages in another. Chapter One (two and one-half pages) is really prefatory or introductory in nature and should have been so indicated. The story is broken by many interruptions and digressions, so that the subject matter of one chapter becomes inextricably involved in the subject matter of several other chapters. One digression, for instance, lasts from page 128 to page 137. It begins on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, goes to the Navajo country in northern New Mexico, thence to the Pimas in Arizona before getting back to Wyoming eleven pages later. Considering the way in which the book was written, perhaps historical inaccuracies are of small moment, but the student of the Rockey Mountain fur trappers will be surprised to learn that Jackson Hole (Wyoming), was named for the leader of a "notorious gang of cattle thieves and outlaws." If there is one theme that runs through the volume it is criticism, criticism of anyone in a higher echelon of command in the Indian Service. He is especially bitter of all rules and regulations originating in Washington, and especially of any inspection or supervision imposed from above. Apparently the author felt, and perhaps with some justification, that only the local agent had any understanding of the Indian and his problems. In any difference of opinion the government and Indian Bureau always comes off second best. All this would be received with better grace had the author been more modest in reciting his own accomplishments in particular, and all Indian agents in general. In fact the reader 96 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY is left wondering why the author spent a lifetime laboring for such an inept and incompetent organization as the U. S. Indian Service. Utah State Historical Society A. R. Mortensen The Mountain Meadows Massacre. By Juanita Brooks. (Stanford, California, Stanford University Press, 1950, 243 pp. $5.00) Nearly one hundred years have passed since the blackest day in Utah history-the day of the Mountain Meadows massacre. Shrill denunciations, and impassioned denials have been made ever since with no one apparently, until now, getting down to the basic causes of that tradegy without prejudice and without bias. In her new book. The Mountain Meadows Massacre, Juanita Brooks has approached the matter with pity for the victims, and understanding of human nature is peculiarly fitted for a study volved in a mass crime of which no individual among them would have been guilty. Mrs. Brooks, having lived within sight of the Mountain Meadows all her life, and being a capable historian with a broad understanding of human nature is peculiarly fitted for a study of this kind. What happened does not concern Mrs. Brooks nearly so much as why it happened, although she has written perhaps the best documented account of the affair that has yet been published. The massacre itself, brutal and gruesome as it was with its coldblooded murder of a hundred and nineteen men, women and children is not so important to us now as the events which went before. Mrs. Brooks' thesis is that the crime was due wholly to mass hysteria brought on by real or imagined dangers, fanned to fever heat by inflammatory speeches, and not by any criminal characteristics of the participants who were in the main Godfearing, religious men. The seeds of the Mountain Meadows atrocity were planted at Haun's Mill, Missouri. The bitterness invoked there was carried into the mountains by the doomed emigrants. Foolishly they made threats which were but repetitions of threats made by far more important people to drive the Mormons from their homes. The Saints had been exhorted to stand firm and fight. They were ex- REVIEWS AND RECENT PUBLICATIONS 97 cited and anxious. They turned loose the Indians, and finding themselves faced with the alternative of helping the Indians or fighting them they completely lost their heads. Whole nations have lost their heads with less cause. The aftermath is harder to understand. Why did the crime go unpunished for so many years, and why was one man, John D. Lee, finally made the scapegoat for others as guilty, or guiltier than he? Without covering anything up, or offering excuses, Mrs. Brooks shows why nobody wanted to burn their fingers on so hot an issue. Looking back now one can feel sorry for John D. Lee, weeping bitter tears over the ghastly thing he felt impelled to do. He was potentially a great frontiersman, a leader of men worthy to rank in history alongside David Crockett and Kit Carson. One feels that Juanita Brooks has dealt far more justly with this man than did the court which sentenced him to die upon the scene of his crime. One thing this book has done is to forever set at rest the charge that the massacre was committed upon the direct order of Brigham Young, who, as a matter of historical record did all he could to prevent it. Springville, Utah Frank C. Robertson Ruxton of the Rockies. Collected by Clyde and Mae Reed Porter. Edited by LeRoy R. Hafen. (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1950, xxii +325 pp. illus. $5.00) This comprehensive new volume on young George Frederick Ruxton combines not only material previously written by Ruxton and published as two volumes entitled Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains and Life in the Far West, but also much new material obtained through the painstaking research of Clyde and Mae Reed Porter. Their efforts have uncovered several sketches made by Ruxton himself, as well as letters, notebooks, manuscript articles, and correspondence by members of his family. All this has been incorporated in Ruxton of the Rockies, enlivening and shedding new light on his tales of adventure in Spain, Ireland, Canada, Africa, Mexico, and finally the Rockies, to which he was returning when he met his death at the age of twenty-seven. 98 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY The volume is skillfully annotated by Dr. LeRoy R. Hafen who has foregone extensive explanatory notes (of interest only to a scholarly audience) and has reserved explanations for matters relating to Ruxton's Rocky Mountain adventures. It is well illustrated with reproductions of watercolors by Alfred Jacob Miller in addition to the priceless sketches made by Ruxton. Life in the Far West. By George Frederick Ruxton. Edited by LeRoy R. Hafen. (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1951. xviii + 252 pp. $3.75) Dr. Hafen has masterfully annotated a new edition of Ruxton's book on the Far West-a book which has long been regarded by scholars as a classic of its kind but one which has not been generally available to the public. Ruxton was the first of the chroniclers of the Mountain Men. Spending the winter and spring of 1847 at a traders' fort on the site of what is now Pueblo, Colorado, he gathered many tales from the trappers which, together with the adventures recounted by trappers on the upper Arkansas and his own experiences, form his narrative here printed. Life in the Far West is a Actionized history although all the events narrated are true. It is not, therefore, a reliable historical chronicle since he admits that anachronisms exist with respect to people and events. The book is well illustrated and is supplemented with an interesting appendix. Voice in the West: Biography of a Pioneer Newspaper. By Wendell J. Ashton. (New York, Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1950. xv +424 pp. $4.00) Wendell J. Ashton, former managing editor and special editions editor for the Deseret News has here written a history of the News from its beginning in 1850 in a humble adobe shack up to the present day. Voice in the West is keyed for popular consumption, but the author states he has in no instance sacrificed accuracy and historical fact for the sake of reader interest. Ashton's aim has been two-fold in the compilation of his material: first, to set down the facts in an interesting manner without embdlishing them; and second, to document the account sufficiently to make it of value to students of journalism. It is well supplemented with notes, 87 illustrations, and a lengthy bibliography. REVIEWS AND RECENT PUBLICATIONS 99 The Army of the Pacific: Its operations in California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, plains region, Mexico, etc. 1860-1866. By Aurora Hunt. (Glendale, California, Arthur H. Clark Co., 1951. 455 pp. illus. $10.00) The first attempt has here been made to write the history of this section of the Union Army which was composed entirely of volunteers fighting in a territory one-third larger than the total area of all the seceded states. Aurora Hunt has spent over ten years collecting material for this volume from families of volunteers, from historical societies, public libraries, the National Archives, old newspaper files, and from every other available source. Under the guidance of Dr. Herbert E. Bolton she has written a documented history of the Army of the Pacific and has included a map of the area in question, many fine illustrations, and an extensive bibliography. Prairie Schooner Detours. By Irene D. Paden. (New York, the Macmillan Company, 1949. xi + 295 pp. $3.75) Mrs. Paden has covered completely the routes of the Hastings and Lassen Cutoffs in this book-both by frequent reference to journals and letters of the original Forty-niners and by recounting her own experiences as she and her companions retraced the old trails step-by-step. It is a continuation of her book, The Wake of the Prairie Schooner which dealt with the main Overland Trail in the same manner. This book is not a history of the detours, but rather a travelogue of them, mingling experiences of a hundred years ago with those of the Padens today. Mrs. Paden has spent a great deal of time doing research for her trips and does an expert job of retracing the trails. The First Transcontinental Railroad: Central Pacific. Union Pacific. By John Debo Galloway. (New York, Simmons- Boardmen, 1950. x + 319 pp. $5.00) A graphic account of the engineering and construction of the first transcontinental railroad is set down here posthumously by John Debo Galloway, who will always be regarded as one of the great engineers to be connected with the development of 100 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY Western America. The political, economic, and finandal aspects of this great American epic of the nineteenth century are also covered in this study which began as an avocation of the author and ended as a contribution to the history of the West and of railroading. The volume is distinctively illustrated with 32 pages of fine pictures, but regretably lacks (aside from the end-paper sketches) much-needed maps of the area described in such detail throughout its text. Sun in the Sky. By Walter Collins O'Kane. (Norman, Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma Press, 1950) [Hopi Indians] Western Land and Water Use. By Mont H. Sanderson. (Denver, Colorado, University of Oklahoma Press, 1950) Rocky Mountain Country. By Albert N. Williams. (New York, Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1950) This Reckless Breed of Men: Trappers & Fur Traders of the Southwest. By Robert G. Cleland. (New York, Alfred A. Knopf. 1950) The Three Nephites. By Hector Lee. (University of New Mexico Publications in Language and Literature #2: Albuquerque, Univ. of N.M. Press, 1949) Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier. By Ray Allen Billington, with the collaboration of James Blaine Hedges. (New York, the Macmillan Company, 1949) Yellowstone National Park, Historical and Descriptive. By Hiram Martin Chittenden. Revised by Eleanor Chittenden Cress and Isabelle F. Story. (Stanford, California, Stanford University Press, 1949) Two Captains Wesr: An Historical Tour of the Lewis and Clark Trail. By Albert and Jane Salisbury. (Seattle, Superior Publishing Company, 1950) Navaho Religion, A Study of Symbolism. By Gladys Almanda Rdchard. (2 vols., New York, Pantheon Books, 1950) Gold Rush Album. Joseph Henry Jackson, editor. (New York, Chas. Scribner's Sons, 1949) Coronado: Knight of Pueblos and Plains. By Herbert Eugene Bolton. (New York, Whittlesey House, and Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1949) REVIEWS AND RECENT PUBLICATIONS 101 Cowboys and Cattle Kings; Life on the Range Today. By C. L. Sonnichsen. (Norman, Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma Press, 1950) Rocky Mountain Country. By Albert N. Williams. (New York, Duell, Sloane and Pearce, 1950) Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth. By Henry Nash Smith. (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1950) America's New Frontier: The Mountain West. By Morris E. Garnsey. (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1950) The Eyes of Discovery: The Pageant of North America as Seen by the First Explorers. By John Bakeless. (Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Co., 1950) The Burned-over District: The Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800-1850. By Whitney R. Cross. (Ithaca, Cornell Univ. Press, 1950) Rocky Mountain Empire: Revealing Glimpses of the West in Transition from Old to New. Elvin L. Howe, editor, Garden City, Doubleday & Co., 1950) Dale L. Morgan, "A Bibliography of the Church of Christ," Western Humanities Review, Winter, 1949-50. Leonard J. Arrington, "Zion's Board of Trade; A Third United order," Western Humanities Review, Winter, 1950-51. Dale L. Morgan, "A Bibliography of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints [Strangite]," ibid. Clifford P. Westermeier, "The Cowboy-Sinner or Saint," New Mexico Historical Review, April, 1950. Ruth Tressman, "Home on the Range," New Mexico Historical Review, January, 1951. Max L. Heyman, Jr., "On the Navaho Trail: The Campaign of 1860-61," ibid. S. F. Stacer, "Ouray and the Utes," Colorado Magazine, April, 1950. "Artist Brooks on the Trail," ibid. [Oregon Trail in 1859-describes destruction wrought upon Johnston's Army by the Mormons.] 102 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY Nicholas G. Morgan, "Mormon Colonization in the San Luis Valley," Colorado Magazine, October, 1950. Elmo Scott Watson, "John W. Powell's Colorado Expedition of 1867," ibid. Clifford P. Westermeier, "Seventy-five Years of Rodeo in Colorado," ibid. Clarence B. Richardson, "Pioneering Western Trails," Annals of Wyoming, January, 1950. Mary Hurburt Scott, "Wyoming's Oregon Trail West of South Pass," Annals of Wyoming, July, 1950. Kenneth Ross Toole, "The Anaconda Copper Mining Company: A Price War and a Copper Corner," Pacific Northwest Quarterly, October, 1950. Malcom B. Parsons, "Party and Pressure Politics in Arizona's Opposition to Colorado River Development," Pacific His' torical Review, February, 1950. JRay W. Irwin, "The Mountain Meadows Massacre," Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Spring, 1950. Floyd C. Shoemaker, "The Pony Express-Commemoration, Stables, and Museum," Missouri Historical Review, July, 1950. Kirke Mecham, "The Story of 'Home on the Range,' " American Heritage, Summer, 1950. J. Gregg Layne, "Peter Skene Ogden's Expedition into California, 1829-1830," Westways, August, 1950. Muir Dawson, "Southern California Newspapers, 1851-1876," Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly, March, 1950. Vincent C. Kelley, "New Mexico's Position in a Western Iron and Steel Industry," New; Mexico Historical Review, October, 1950. "The Old Spanish Trail to California, 1829-1830," Westways, October, 1950. Al Haworth, "He [Lt. Joseph C. Ives] Explored the Unknown Colorado," Desert Magazine, January-February, 1950. Nell Murbarger, "Buckboard Days at Silver Reef," Desert Magazine, March, 1950. REVIEWS AND RECENT PUBLICATIONS 103 Harold O. Weight, "Black Wood in Utah's White Canyon," ibid. Randall Henderson, "Healing Ceremony in Monument Valley," ibid. Gene Segerblom, "Desert Playground" [Lake Mead, Nevada], Desert Magazine, February, 1950. Charles Kelly, "Murals Painted by Ancient Tribesmen," Desert Magazine, June, 1950 [petroglyphs in Dry Fork Canyon, near Vernal, Utah]. Hope Gilbert, "He [Dr. Herbert E. Bolton] Followed the Trails of the Desert Padres," Desert Magazine, July, 1950. Jay Ellis Ransom, "Guardians of an Ancient Fort," [Pipe Springs National Monument] Desert Magazine, November, 1950. Frank Beckwith as told to Charles Kelly, "Pedro's Lost Gold Mine," Desert Magazine, April, 1951. H. S. Salisbury, "Josephine Donna Smith-Ina Coolbrith," Improvement Era, January, 1950 [well-known, early day western poet; poet laureate of California]. Levi Edgar Young, "The University of Utah: An Institution that Grew from the Ideals of the People," Improvement Era, February, 1951. Eliza R. Lythgoe, "Colonization of the Big Horn Basin by the Latter-day Saints," Improvement Era, February, 1950. Wendell J. Ashton, "A Century of Service . . . The Saga of the Deseret News," Improvement Era, June, 1950. Russell B. Swensen, "Brigham Young University in Retrospect," Improvement Era, October, 1950. Alben W. Barkley, "Brigham Young-A Builder of the West," Improvement Era, January, 1951 [from an address delivered at the unveiling of the Brigham Young Statue in the Rotunda of the Capitol Building, Washington, D.C., June 1, 1950]. William R. Palmer, "Forgotten Chapters of History-Pioneer Fortifications," Improvement Era, March, 1951. Leo J. Muir, "Vigilance Was Their Motto-The Expansion of the L.D.S. Church in Southern California," Improvement Era, April, 1951. Paul Bailey, "Sam Brannan and the Sad Years," ibid. Albert L. Zobell, Jr., "The Mormon Battalion in California," ibid. |
