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Show BOOK: NOTICES Desert between the Mountains: Mormons, Miners, Padres, Mountain Men, and the Opening of the Great Basin, 1112-1869 By Michael S. Durham (Reprint ed.; Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997. 336 pp. Paper, $18.95.) The title aptly describes this work. Largely a narration of various explorations but also including chapters on Mormon settlement, polygamy, and the Utah War, Desert between the Mountains has little to say about the lives of indigenous peoples. Both the title and the content imply that the Great Basin was a closed, unknown, and useless place before Europeans and Americans arrived. As a single volume on the first non-native incursions into the Great Basin, this book may be useful to some readers. But the accounts are summarized from standard sources-readers familiar with Utah history will find the material mostly familiar-and little attempt has been made to create new interpretations. The narrative does not even remain focused on the book's subject; for instance, it follows Jedediah Smith around the entire West instead of covering more deeply his time in the Great Basin. And a certain shallowness of research comes through at times; for instance, the author recounts without a blush the apocryphal story of J im Bridger offering Brigham Young $1,000 if the pioneers were able to raise a bushel of corn in the Salt Lake Valley. Although the book jacket calls this "the definitive, dramatic, and multifaceted study of the Great Basin," the book is something less than that. Sanpete Tales: Humorous Folklore from Central Utah By William Jenson Adams (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1999. xxii + 128 pp. Paper, $15.95.) In 1930 Edgar M. Jenson, the author's grandfather, began writing down the impudent folk tales told by the Scandinavian settlers of Sanpete County. An example: "When Doc Olstein was called in to see Requel Nielsen's wife, who was very ill, he made a very careful examination, but finally shook his head and said, 'Requel, I am worried. I yoost don't like your wife's looks at all.' 'Veil, I neffer like dem either,' answered Requel, 'but she surely haf been a faithful vife oond modder"'(57). Although these stories had entertained and united the community for decades, by 1930 the old tradition of storytelling was dying out, and the then-current generation of Sanpeters was mostly ashamed of the dialect and situations in these tales. Though many disliked the way the stories made the settlers look unsophisticated, Jenson loved the stories, and he wanted his children to know them. Lucky for us. The hand-typed, hand-illustrated volumes he left for his posterity have been compiled and abridged into this volume. Besides making us laugh, the dry humor in this collection helps us to enjoy the people-the "tough-bodied, 285 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY warm-hearted, sly-humored" (xx) Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes who passed them around. Home Away from Home: A History of Basque Boardinghouses By Jeronima Echeverria (Reno and Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press, 1999. xv + 359 pp. $44.95.) T h e many Basque b o a r d i n g h o u s e s and hotels-o s t a t u ak Amerikanuak-located in towns around the West nourished Basque immigrants in many -ways. Here, newcomers could find compatriots who also spoke Euskara and -who would help them adjust to America. Here they could dance, eat, listen to music, and celebrate as they had in their native country. They also might find -work, a spouse, or various kinds of social support through the boardinghouses. In Utah, the cities of Ogden, Salt Lake City, and Price all had Basque hotels, including the Hogar Hotel run by John and Claudia Landa in Salt Lake City. Here, J o h n helped many sheepherders find work on Basque-owned ranches; Claudia's "legendary cooking skills" provided countless meals; and the couple regularly cared for injured herders. The Landas opened their hotel in 1927 and ran it for fifty years. Basques, who claim to be Europe's oldest ethnic group and who speak Europe's only remaining pre-Indo-European language, cherish their ethnicity. They have "for centuries...spoken of themselves as a unique people and believed it fervently" (15). This book explores the role of a unique institution within this distinctive culture. Where Rivers Change Direction By Mark Spragg (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1999. 270 pp. $21.95.) A couple of annoying questions too often intervene in the reading of a personal essay: Did this really happen as the writer says it did? Is this writer, as he seems to be, really so much wiser, braver, and more present in the moment than the rest of us mortals are? Maybe yes, maybe no. Writers do exploit the opportunity of looking back at memory and either finding or creating a meaning that was not apparent at the time. Like anybody narrating the past, they have the opportunity to shape their history; like anybody, they can choose to assume a pose through their stories, making themselves larger than they really are. In the case of this book-essays looking back at a boyhood spent working the family dude ranch on the Wyoming/Idaho border-those bothersome questions 286 BOOK NOTICES could loom large. This is no ordinary life. The boy must shoulder a man's responsibilities, handling horses, dudes, blizzards, accidents. The events he recounts are astonishing. But this is writing that gets each moment right, putting the reader into the "kidney-warm manure cake of the corrals," at the side of a mentor who has just nearly sliced part of his hand off, or on the bare backs of horses walking belly-deep in a river. And because the moments as well as the instincts of these stories-of relations between males, animals, and land-are right, the question of authenticity does not intrude on the reading. Factual or not, the stories are true and completely compelling. What E'er Thou Art Act Well Thy Part: The Missionary Diaries of David O McKay Edited by Stan Larson and Patricia Larson (Salt Lake City: Blue Ribbon Books, 1999. xlviii + 301 pp. $24.95.) At first glance, this book, with its sentimental dustcover illustration, appears to be more concerned with promoting an image than with scholarship. A heartfelt tribute to LDS church president David O. McKay by Marion D. Hanks strengthens that impression. But essays by Leonard Arrington and Eugene England show that neither the book nor its subject is one-dimensional. Arrington discusses McKay's open-mindedness and other positive qualities but also mentions that McKay was sometimes "arrogant and subject to toadyism" (xvi). England describes a man who valued intellectualism and who combined conservative, moderate, and liberal thought; believed in evolution as God's method of creation; disbelieved in the "curse of Cain" justification for denying the LDS priesthood to African Americans; and took important steps that led toward a reversal of that policy. With such introductory essays, the diaries of this influential man during a formative period in his life become more interesting. The entries show McKay's intellectual curiosity, his spiritual and emotional development, and his growth as a leader through his experiences in Scotland. As the editors point out, this is a rare look at the private writings of someone who was not at the time a general authority but who would later become church president; no other such missionary diaries have ever been published. Along with a solid and insightful introduction to the diaries, the editors have provided annotations and period photographs of sites mentioned by McKay. 287 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY The Animals Came Dancing: Native American Sacred Ecology and Animal Kinship By Howard L. Harrod (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2000. xxv + 171 pp. Cloth, $35.00; paper, $17.95.) A professor of social ethics, sociology of religion, and religious studies, Harrod writes about the relationships between Northern Plains Indians and animals. The myths and rituals of these tribes show a view of animals as transcendent others-not only sentient, intelligent beings but also powerful agents who could mediate between humans and the natural and supernatural worlds. In these stories animals are creators, rescuers, husbands and wives, parents, and providers of food, well-being, and renewal. In a final chapter, the book explores and deconstructs humans' current relationships with animals. In almost all cases the North American culture views animals from a utilitarian standpoint: that animals, including wildlife, exist to serve human needs and desires. Though the author speaks against a direct appropriation of Native American attitudes-such appropriation would lead to shallow sentimentality, disembodied traditions, and continued cultural imperialism-he does argue for a reimagining of our relationship to animals. If our culture can view animals as sentient, complex, transcendent, and other, he says, -we can transform the current paradigm of the natural world as commodity. To Build, to Create, to Produce: Ephraim P. Ellison's Life and Enterprises, 1850-1939 By William G. Hartley (Ellison Family Organization, 1997. xvii + 556 pp.) A no-nonsense businessman, leader in his LDS congregations, and father of nine, E. P. Ellison was one of those men -who shaped Utah through his entrepreneurship. His business interests were many and included enterprises in Canada as well as in the Mountain West. With Jesse Knight as a sometimes partner, he directed operations in banking, sugar processing, flour milling, livestock, and merchandising. Perhaps among his largest contributions -was his work as vice president and president of the Davis and Weber Counties Canal Company when it built the East Canyon and Echo dams. Using a variety of primary sources, this volume details the history of Ellison's businesses, his church and civic work, and his family. Although the progress of the companies may be tracked, Ellison himself, who was not prone to show or write about his deepest feelings, is somewhat more cryptic. But the book is a valuable account of economic activity in a variety of enterprises. 288 U T A H S T A T E H I S T O R I C A L S O C I E TY Department of Community and Economic Development Division of State History B O A R D O F S T A T E H I S T O R Y RICHARD W. SADLER, Ogden, 2003, Chair CAROL CORNWALL MADSEN, Salt Lake City, 2001, Vice-Chair MAX J. EVANS, Salt Lake City, Secretary PAUL ANDERSON, Salt Lake City, 2003 MICHAEL W. HOMER, Salt Lake City, 2001 KIM A. HYATT, Bountiful, 2001 JOEL CJANETSKI, Provo, 2001 PAM MILLER, Price, 2003 CHRISTIE SMITH NEEDHAM, Logan, 2001 ROSS PETERSON, Logan, 2003 PAUL D.WILLIAMS, Salt Lake City, 2003 WALLY WRIGHT, Salt Lake City, 2001 A D M I N I S T R A T I O N MAX J. EVANS, Director WILSON G. MARTIN, Associate Director PATRICIA SMITH-MANSFIELD, Assistant Director STANFORD J. LAYTON, Managing Editor KEVIN T.JONES, State Archaeologist The Utah State Historical Society was organized in 1897 by public-spirited Utahns to collect, preserve, and publish Utah and related history. Today, under state sponsorship, the Society fulfills its obligations by publishing the Utah Historical Quarterly and other historical materials; collecting historic Utah artifacts; locating, documenting, and preserving historic and prehistoric buildings and sites; and maintaining a specialized research library. Donations and gifts to the Society's programs, museum, or its library are encouraged, for only through such means can it live up to its responsibility of preserving the record of Utah's past. This publication has been funded with the assistance of a matching grant-in-aid from the National Park Service, under provisions of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 as amended. This program receives financial assistance for identification and preservation of historic properties under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The U. S. Department of the Interior prohibits unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, or handicap in its federally assisted programs. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to: Director, Office for Equal Opportunity, Department of the Interior, Washington, DC, 20240. |
