Utah Historical Quarterly Volume LVII

UHQ 1989 - Volume 57 - no 2 - Book Reviews And Notices

180 Utah Historical Quarterly Juanita Brooks: Mormon Woman Historian. By LEVI S. PETERSON. (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press and Tanner Trust Fund, University of Utah Library, 1988. xxiii + 505 pp. $19.95.) Juanita Brooks: Mormon Woman Historian is perhaps the best biography of a Utah individual to date and a work of major historical importance. Its sub­ject, a towering figure in twentieth-century Utah and Mormon history, re­ceives her full due from Levi S. Peterson, a professor of English at Weber State College. A number of factors contribute to the book's success, not the least of which is the fortunate pairing of sub­ject and author. Both grew up in small Mormon towns far from the Wasatch Front - Brooks in Bunkerville, Nevada, and Peterson in Snowflake, Arizona. This shared rural back­ground undoubtedly gave Peterson a key to understanding Juanita, whose ties to her heritage colored everything she did. Peterson had access to a rich lode of primary sources-Juanita's vo­luminous correspondence with family, friends, and a large group of intellec­tuals, including mentor Dale L. Mor­gan, and diaries kept by Juanita and her husband Will - and he mined it with great skill. As a result, sections of the biography pack a "you are there" punch, and in places one can almost hear Juanita's husky voice uttering a homespun metaphor. Finally, Peter­son did not let his admiration for his subject cloud his judgment. The por­trait he paints of Juanita is fully rounded, showing her foibles and fail­ures as well as the achievements for which she will always merit acclaim. Juanita led an exhausting life full of family reunions, weddings, domestic chores, studying, teaching, collecting and transcribing diaries, child rearing, night bus rides, corresponding, histori­cal research and writing, church as­signments, travel, squabbles with neighbors, speeches, politicking, mov­ing, helping her large extended family and friends, and so on. She became in the midst of this not only a historian and exorcist of the Mormon past but as legendary a figure in Utah history as Jacob Hamblin and even John D. Lee, two of her own biographical sub­jects- a metamorphosis few historians achieve. What Peterson's biography delineates so well is Juanita's transfor­mation from "Hen Leavitt's Boy" (chapter one) to "a spirit remarkable for curiosity, integrity, and tolerance and for the ability to reconcile faith and critical reason" (page 423). While some literary folk will con­tinue to look for "the great Mormon novel," I came away from this biogra­phy feeling as if I had just read it - not, let me emphasize, that Peterson has given us anything but a sterling work of nonfiction or that he has employed any of the devices of fiction or even of that dubious genre psycho-biography; rather, Juanita's life is the very stuff of great novels. It is a life Book Reviews and Notices 181 lived with intensity and purpose, cour­age and compassion - a heroine's journey, an archetypal tale as old as lit­erature. It seems to me that the Mormon lit­erary genius has revealed itself best in the journals and diaries Joseph Smith admonished his followers to keep and in a broad group of historical works that includes biography, reminis­cences, and folklore studies as well as traditional narrative history. Given the faith's pragmatism that should not be surprising. Juanita brought many of the pioneer diaries to light and made major contributions to history in her study of the Mountain Meadows Mas­sacre and other works. Now Levi Peterson has added this superb biogra­phy to a growing and impressive body of nonfiction that examines the distinc­tive Mormon experience and ulti­mately the human condition. This is literature, and it is a literature of which Mormons can be proud. MIRIAM B. MURPHY Utah State Historical Society Establishing Zion: The Mormon Church in the American West, 1847-1869. By EUGENE E. CAMPBELL. (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1988. x + 346 pp. $20.95.) Establishing Zion was conceived and written primarily to be a part of the LDS church's multi-volume sesquicen-tennial history. As a result the author does not try to give the historical ante­cedents prior to the Utah experience. His work centers on the 1847-1869 period. Some readers may find this absence of historical context troubling. However, the author's general outline within the text makes it very readable. This work had not been readied for publication before his death, yet it clearly is Professor Campbell's tour de force. Family members, colleagues, editors, and the publisher are to be commended for following through and seeing the work in print. It is a major contribution to a narrowly defined seg­ment of Mormon and Utah histories. His excellent scholarship is enhanced by the inclusion of many interesting pictures, useful maps, and a index. The author develops his book around two primary themes: coloniza­tion and confrontation. Nevertheless, many of his chapters do not fit these themes directly. In them, Campbell provides readers with good insights into the Mormons and the California gold rush. While Brigham Young did seek gold in tithing and directly from Sam Brannan and others, he refused to endorse any major Mormon effort to capitalize on their early advantage of discovery and proximity. The author suggests that exploitation of California gold and later mineral developments closer at hand could have served Young's objectives for the kingdom. Campbell discusses Mormon Indian policy, noting that the treatment of the native peoples followed traditional pat­terns of displacement more than they did Young's "feed rather than fight" policy, which evolved after the first confrontations. Mormons did not "quiet" title to the Indian lands, claiming the higher law of stewardship applied. The Mormon pro-bias toward their "Lamanite" brothers can be seen in their missions, their Indian farms, their preaching, and in their opposi­tion to the slave trade. Still, the In­dians proved to be pawns between the Mormons and the federal officials, whom the Mormons supported in their attacks on the Northern Shoshone (1863) and in relocating the Utes to reservations soon after. 182 Utah Historical Quarterly Campbell's chapters on the develop­ment of church organization and on the evolution of its doctrines and prac­tices are very useful. He traces the so­lidifying of church organizations famil­iar today under President Young's direction. He notes, perceptively, that much of this development was experi-entially derived, a contrast to the reve­lations that seemed to be so much a part of the Prophet Joseph's style. Able apostles supported both the missionary efforts and the colonization taking place in Zion. But the bishops were the backbone of settlement activities. Pub­lic proclamation of the practice of po­lygamy, of the principle of Blood Atonement, Adam-God speculation, and the Reformation generated addi­tional problems both within and from without the Mormon community. The author discusses the Mormon settlement of Fort Supply in detail. He also reviews particulars of Brigham's dealings with the transcontinental rail­road builders and his wins and losses. Campbell sees Young as an astute and pragmatic leader, generally, who did in fact establish "Zion," if not in the "tops" of the mountains at least in the valleys. Campbell classifies the 250-odd set­tlements in four groups. The first was establishing a base in the new Zion. The original pioneers succeeded, not in the barren desert setting many have pictured early Salt Lake Valley to be, but succeed they did against the odds of distances, the unexpected influx of colonists for the first winter, and the damaging frosts and crickets of 1848. From this base the first phase of col­onization began, called the "Inner Colonies." They were characterized by contiguous settlement, strongly based family connections, and less for­mality in their organization. Such col­onies reached north to Ogden, south to Utah Valley, and even to Sanpete in 1849. Next came the "Outer Colonies" where colonization was more formally directed, where bishops, the designated group leaders, were clearly in control, and where the needs of the new communities were an­ticipated and met by selecting settlers with a variety of skills. Few of the newly arriving converts, most courtesy of the Perpetual Emigration Fund, were even farmers, let alone familiar with irrigation, absolutely essential to successful farming in valleys of the mountains. These settlements reached to Parowan and San Bernardino on the south and to Box Elder and Cache valleys on the north. Some of them had specific economic assignments, such as the Iron Mission at Cedar City, in keeping with Young's policy of a self-sufficient kingdom. Later, new colonies were called to settle in Utah's Dixie to the south, and to Rich County and Idaho on the north. There had been colonies in Las Vegas, on the Lemhi River to the northwest, at Elk Mountain on the Colorado River, and in Carson Valley in western Nevada; but most of them had been recalled with the approach of federal troops in 1857-58. Though Campbell gives Young excellent grades as a colonizer, he does note that there were failures and unnecessary suffer­ing at times. Confrontations included conflicts with the gentiles - 49ers and others; with public officials; with the military and the miners; and, finally, with the federal government. Confrontations also occurred inside Mormonism, first with wayward Mormons, at least so perceived at the time of the Reforma­tion (1854-55); with the Morrisites in 1861-62; and with the Godbeites, an able and liberal group, later during the same decade. Mormons generally tried to treat their minority gentile visitors with Book Reviews and Notices 183 fairness and openness. But many ap­pointed public officials were viewed as hostile, insensitive, and without scruples or sympathy for the Mormons' plight. Conflict was in­evitable with neither side seeing any validity in the other's arguments. Mormon alliances with the Indians were a form of treason to federal ap­pointees. Distant appointments and authority did not address the Mormon concept of democracy. In these con­frontations Young's and Heber C. Kimball's public rhetoric did little to assist Delegate to Congress John Bern-hisel and others in their public rela­tions with either the press in the East or with the United States Congress. Because of these frozen attitudes. President Buchanan was persuaded to send an army to Utah to put down a rebellion and Governor Young and his people decided to repel the invasion with force as needed. Campbell as­sesses blame on both sides. The conse­quences were a number of heroic ven­tures by the Mormons to explore, to flee, and to oppose. The timely negotiations of Thomas L. Kane were critical to a relatively peaceful solution. That was the silver lining. The dark side was the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Political confrontations were inevi­table as long as the Mormons believed that their higher laws of God gave them a right to interpret and to oppose the laws of the land, even though they had been passed by the official repre­sentatives of a majority of the Ameri­can citizens, of which the Mormons were only a small minority in the body politic. Campbell shows how effec­tively enemies of the Mormons used polygamy to discredit them. He notes also the inflexible policies of President Young regarding the future. Young's position reflected his belief in and hope for an "impending Millennium." That sense of the kingdom was his vi­sion and the hope of his followers. It was the source of much of their strength; it was also the cause of many of their conflicts. The author grades Young's handling of these confronta­tions much less generously. Professor Campbell^s approach to writing this history has been to present readers with "historical" data in con­text and to allow those excerpts to speak from the time of the actual events themselves. Readers are given history as "on the spot" information gleaned from diaries, letters, day­books, and journals that were contem­porary to the events themselves. The result is intimate history devoid of the added meanings and interpretations that time and distance from events often tempt historians and others to presume. Secondary views too often become "larger than life" interpreta­tions and for some even a "Godly view" of history. Campbell demythologizes the his­tory he writes. This book could be seen as a series of critical historiccd essays intended to provide relevant commen­taries and corrective historical addenda to already extant histories. The book deserves a wide reading by both schol­ars and lay persons. MELVIN T . SMITH Mount Pleasant, Utah Exploration of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. By HOWARD STANSBURY. (Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988. xvi -H 431 pp. Paper, $24.95.) The war with Mexico brought to the United States a huge southwestern area about which there was insufficient scientific knowledge. The Corps of 184 Utah Historical Quarterly Topographical Engineers, under Col. John J . Abert, had sent out the famous expeditions of John C. Fremont and one under Lt. William H. Emory, but many regions had not been examined or mapped by trained engineers and scientists. This was particularly true of the Great Salt Lake Valley and the Mormon settlement which had sud­denly gained importance as a halfway house for thousands of California-bound gold rushers in 1849. Colonel Abert was determined to dispatch an expedition to the Great Salt Lake for a scientific investigation of this portion of the Great Basin. As commander of the expedition, Abert chose Capt. Howard Stansbury, a civil engineer and non-West Pointer who had established himself as a com­petent member of the Topographical Corps. Stansbury was to prove himself as an able military leader and sur­veyor, a skilled literary craftsman, and an adroit diplomat who was able to win the support of Brigham Young and the other Mormon leaders for the gov­ernment expedition. His second-in-command was Lt. John Williams Gun­nison who became a congenial and trusted subordinate. Albert Car-rington, the private secretary to Brigham Young and a college-trained individual, acted as the straw boss for the mostly Mormon crew. A fourth important member of the expedition was John Hudson, a well-educated young Englishman, who was chosen as the artist for the exploration of the Great Salt Lake and whose sketches of the area grace the Stansbury report. Stansbury used the journals of his three colleagues to supplement and fill out his own journal account of their adventures. The major objectives of the expedi­tion, as outlined by Colonel Abert, were eight in number: to observe and "confirm" the Oregon Trail as far as Fort Hall; to reconnoiter a new road from that place to Great Salt Lake; to locate a "landing place" on the lake for shipments of goods from the Mor­mon settlement to Fort Hall; to survey Great Salt Lake and determine its ca­pacity for navigation; to survey Utah Lake and the Jordan River; to ascer­tain the ability of the Mormon settlers to provide food and other supplies for Fort Hall and overland travelers; to re­port on the population, mills, work force, and Indians of the Salt Lake re­gion; and to locate a site for a military post in the Great Salt Lake area. The expedition accomplished most of these goals. Leaving Fort Leavenworth the end of May in 1849, Stansbury and Gun­nison, with a crew of eighteen French- Canadians and accompanied by six emigrants under a Charles C. Sackett, traversed the Overland Trail to Salt Lake City, which the combined party reached by August 11. From this point, Gunnison led the expedition into Salt Lake Valley, while Stansbury spent the autumn of 1849 exploring a new route to Salt Lake City; making a reconnaissance of a road to Fort Hall; and, finally, in a daring trip around the north end of Great Salt Lake, trav­eling across the Salt Desert to Pilot Peak and back to the Mormon capital. After the winter of 1849-50 spent in Salt Lake City, which provided both Stansbury and Gunnison with insight into Mormon culture, the expedition occupied the spring and summer of 1850 in the survey and triangulation of Great Salt Lake. Leaving Salt Lake City on August 28, 1850, the Stans­bury party arrived back at Fort Leavenworth on November 6, after re-connoitering a new road through southern Wyoming which later be­came the route of the Union Pacific. With the exception of the omission of Appendix G, Meteorological Obser- Book Reviews and Notices 185 vations, the Stansbury report is an exact reprint of the original document published in 1852 and is one of the "classics of western discovery and ex­ploration" now being issued by the Smithsonian Institution Press. The book has an excellent introduction by Don D. Fowler of the University of Nevada, Reno, and includes the origi­nal appendices concerned with the flora and fauna of the areas traversed by the expedition. Today's readers will find much interest in the well-written and descriptive journal accounts of Captain Stansbury as they follow him in his adventures to the Salt Lake of the Great Basin. Of particular appeal to Utah and Intermountain residents will be Stansbury's friendly and inci­sive description of the Mormon people and their religion. BRIGHAM D . MADSEN University of Utah To No Privileged Class: The Rationalization of Homesteading and Rural Life in the Early Twentieth-century American West. By STANFORD J. LAYTON. Charles Redd Monographs in Western History No. 17. (Provo, Ut.: Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, 1988. vi -\- 105 pp. Paper, $6.95.) Students of the American West are perhaps too familiar with the U.S. Census Bureau's announcement in 1890 that the nation's frontier line had disappeared. The great significance commonly attached to that announce­ment makes it easy to forget that the great age of homesteading took place during the twentieth century, not the nineteenth. Indeed, more homestead acreage was patented after 1910 than during the first forty-eight years fol­lowing the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862. Homesteading's most suc­cessful single season occurred in 1912- 13 when settlers "proved up" on over ten million acres. As historian Fred A. Shannon once observed, "the filling up of the West had merely begun by 1890." Contributing to this "filling up" of the twentieth-century frontier West were five new homestead laws enacted during the Progressive era: the Kin-kaid Homestead Act (1904), the Forest Homestead Act (1906), the Enlarged Homestead Act (1909), the Three-year Homestead Act (1912), and the Stock Raising Homestead Act (1916). The origins of this legislation are the sub­ject of Stanford Layton's work, To No Privileged Class, which focuses on the acts of 1909 and 1916. Layton argues that, contrary to the claims of previous historians. Progres­sive era homestead legislation did not represent the victory of greedy special interest groups from the West riding roughshod over the national interest and more principaled advocates of wise resource management. Instead, Lay-ton shows that support in Congress for homesteading was both bipartisan and multi-sectional, the reflection of a na­tional enthusiasm for continued west­ern settlement. He argues that home­steading fit squarely within the utilitarian brand of conservation championed by most progressives, in­cluding Presidents Theodore Roose­velt and Woodrow Wilson. Layton clearly demonstrates that Progressive homestead laws emerged within the context of a national cele­bration of the virtues of farm life and farming that found expression in the Country Life and Back-to-the-Land movements. These two separate but related movements, along with or­ganized efforts in the West to promote irrigation projects and modern dry-farming techniques, combined to ere- 186 Utah Historical Quarterly ate a political climate favorable to homestead legislation. Unfortunately, the links between these various elements and the home­stead laws themselves remain ex­tremely vague. In Layton's account, each act appears simply as the brain­child of western congressmen respond­ing to the petitions of land-hungry con­stituents. Exactly who initiated, circulated, and signed these petitions is unclear. Similarly, no indication is given of who lobbied for the acts as they made their way through Con­gress. In the end, the specific origins of the Progressive homestead laws elude this analysis. A more serious weakness results from the author's decision to avoid de­bate over the merits and performance of Progressive homestead law. By of­fering more generous terms than those provided in the 1862 act. Congress hoped to make homesteading a viable proposition in the arid and semiarid regions west of the one-hundredth meridian. Results, however, fell far short of expectations. Although settlers taking advantage of the laws during the wet and prosperous years between 1900 and 1918 enjoyed temporary suc­cesses, the return of drought and low farm prices after World War I forced many back off the land. Consequently, historians have roundly condemned the laws as impractical, wasteful, un­wise, and naive. Some, like Louise Peffer and John Opie, go even further, suggesting that Congress irresponsibly lured settlers onto marginal lands and certain failure. Is such severe criticism of the laws and of Congress warranted? Layton points out that less than one-half of the land entries made under the Stock Raising Act were ever patented. Still, this performance exceeds that of the original Homestead Act between 1862 and 1890. What is needed here is a more detailed re-examination of the laws in action, along with an assess­ment of the Department of the Interi­or's administration of them. Nevertheless, despite its shortcom­ings, Layton's slender volume pro­vides a convenient introduction to homesteading and federal land law during the early twentieth century. Es­pecially useful is his chapter on the Back-to-the-Land Movement. Based entirely upon primary sources. Lay-ton's reconstruction of this largely for­gotten episode of the Progressive era represents a valuable contribution to the history of American homesteading. MICHAEL MAGLIARI College of the Sequoias Visalia, California The Protestant Clergy in the Great Plains and Mountain West, 1865-1915. By FERENC MOR­TON SZASZ. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988. 288 pp. $27.50.) "Those who would make heroes of the western ministers face a difficult task" (214). In this perceptive study of the impact of religious influences on the settlement of the Great Plains and Mountain West, Ferenc Szasz has cer­tainly accepted a difficult task indeed, although he has wisely rejected any in­clination to assign heroic character­istics to the western ministers who are the subjects of his analysis. Instead, he thoughtfully portrays these zealous churchmen as dedicated individuals who worked diligently without regard for personal aggrandizement to en­hance the quality of life in their com­munities. The missionaries were con­vinced that the region where they Book Reviews and Notices 187 labored was destined to provide leaders who would determine the course of the nation's future. Acting on this assurance, they reached beyond the boundaries defined by their ec­clesiastical responsibilities to par­ticipate in numerous social uplift pro­grams intended to re-create in the western wilderness a society patterned on values that had traditionally con­tributed to the nation's robust growth. Selecting the Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational, and Episcopal denominations as targets for his reserach, the author has skillfully developed his study with, first, in­troductory chapters designed to pro­vide a chronological overview of the experiences of some of the more color­ful ministers who planted the first churches in their particular mission fields. Then, in the latter half of the book, Szasz turns to interpretations of attitudes of the Protestant missionaries toward Hispanics, Mormons, and Native Americans or, as they were sometimes described at the time, the "exceptional populations." This sec­tion, perhaps the most illuminating part of the book, provides the reader with an objective and informative ap­praisal in the spirit of the time of the positions adopted by the clergymen as they sought to bring people whom they regarded as nonconformists into the mainstream of American society. A final chapter considers the reaction of western congregations to the issues raised by their brethren in the East who were calling for greater emphasis in the Protestant churches on teaching and applying principles of a new social gospel. The author's conclusion that the Protestant clergy and their churches played an integral part in everyday life in the Great Plains and Mountain West is well supported by evidence of thorough research on his topic. In­deed, a major challenge faced by Szasz was to synthesize the material collected from his vast array of sources into a story that would not appear to the pro­spective reader as dry-as-dust church history. He succeeded admirably in at­taining this objective. His proficient use of many carefully selected anec­dotes to develop his thesis will appeal to the general reader. At the same time, the more serious scholar who wishes to accept his challenge to in­vestigate at greater length the role of Protestant missionaries in the settle­ment of the West will benefit from in­formation provided in copious end­notes and an extensive bibliography. An excellent selection of pictures is also a welcome addition to the text. NORMAN J . BENDER University of Colorado Colorado Springs Historic Sites and Markers along the Mormon and Other Great Western Trails. By STANLEY B. KIMBALL. (Chigago and Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988. xviii -i- 320 pp. Cloth, $37.50; paper, $15.95.) During the almost century and half that has elapsed since the first emigrant wagons bound for Oregon, California, or Utah rolled beyond the Missouri River hundreds of miles of historic trail ruts and countless thousands of arti­facts have been lost or destroyed by man in his attempt to satisfy the needs of an industrial society. Some of the destruction occurred within the very same century of the great migration it­self; scarcely thirty years span the period marked by the arrival of the first wagon party on the Pacific and the 188 Utah Historical Quarterly time when major segments of the origi­nal trail would be obliterated by ballast and steel rails. Furthermore, before the century was out the plow would de­stroy those historic features in the valley of the Platte River that the ear­lier railroad contractors had missed. The twentieth century was hardly kinder, for during this period havoc was perpetrated on the surviving por­tions of the old trails on an even more massive scale with the construction of paved highways, electrical power and gas transmission lines, irrigation net­works, and the exploitation of forest, petroleum, and mineral resources. However, during the last decade, on an almost one-to-one basis, a drastic change has taken place in the relation­ship between the physical destruction of the remaining trail segments and our desire to learn more about them and the people and events with which they were associated. Evidence of this change is manifested in the annual in­crease in the number of markers, mon­uments, parks, schools, museums, ex­hibits, events, and commercial enterprises that greet the recent histori­cally aroused touring public and at­tempt to interpret for them the land­scape of the great migration. It is to this audience that Stanley B. Kimball's guidebook will especially appeal. Kimball, a professor at Southern Il­linois University and author of five books and a similar number of articles on Mormon migration in the Ameri­can West, views the 1980s as the ren­aissance period in overland trail his­tory, citing the commissioning of congressional trail studies, the expan­sion of academic courses to include trail subjects, and the creation of his­torical organizations devoted to trail history and preservation - notably the Oregon-California Trails Association (over 1,500 members) and, more re­cently, a similar group to commemo­rate the Santa Fe Trail - as being an even greater sign of the movement's vitality than the more tangible road­side works. Trained as a historian, Kimball has been engaged in research­ing western trails since 1963 and has personally traveled on foot, four-wheel drive vehicle, and by small aircraft every mile of the trails upon which he reports. No armchair traveler, he has experienced the mystic-like quality of "the power of place and the spirit of locale,'' which he describes throughout the work under review. Historic Sites and Markers is exactly what its author intended it to be, i.e., an illustrated guidebook for the mod­ern traveler who would like to experi­ence the landscape upon which the drama of early Mormon history was enacted. It identifies 415 monumented historic sites and markers along some 10,000 miles of fifteen trails and their variants between New York and Cali­fornia that were utilized by the Mor­mons in their movement to the West. Capitalizing on his earlier publica­tions, Kimball places under one cover the historical geography of the Mor­mon church in its migration from New York in 1831, through Ohio and on into Illinois and Missouri during 1834- 39. Thereafter, the emphasis is upon the location of church migration ac­tivities beyond the valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, the march of the Mormon Battalion to California in 1846, and the Mormon pioneer trek to Great Salt Lake in 1847. Sections of the guidebook are provided for trail variations in Missouri, Nebraska, and Colorado. Overtly restricting the subject of his work to Mormon emigrant usage of the western trails, the author omits any reference to trails to Oregon or Cali­fornia west of Fort Bridger and the later Mormon colonizing trails that ra­diated from Salt Lake City. Book Reviews and Notices As in the case of any guidebook prepared over a lengthy period, the reader can expect to find obsolete in­formation and/or errors. Whereas changing road designations, street names, and the relocation of signs or markers might render ordinary guides useless, Kimball's carefully prepared descriptions, when coupled with a cur­rent auto club map, will easily over­come this irritating problem. On the other hand, some errors did find their way into print, e.g., those persons in­terested in contacting Vallecito Stage Station County Park, San Diego County, California, would be better served using ZIP Code 92123, rather than the one assigned to Vallecito, Calaveras County, as cited in the text (p. 301). This, of course, is minor and does not detract from the overall value of the publication. However, if there 189 should exist any reason to find fault with Kimball's work, it could only be that he could have been more critical with regard to the inscriptions on the monuments themselves, and/or of their provenance. Complete with an annotated bibliog­raphy and a thorough index, il­lustrated with pertinent photographs and appropriate maps, and containing useful information for vehicle travel over the more isolated segments of the old trails, Kimball's guidebook is a welcome addition to the field library of the modern-day explorer and should be of special importance to Mormons who want to experience the power of place and the spirit of locale in the migration history of their people. TODD I. BERENS Santa Ana, California Southern Arizona Folk Arts. By JAMES S. GRIFFITH. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1988. xvi + 234 pp. Cloth, $29.95; paper, $14.95.) Jim Griffith has produced a highly recommended, very readable, humor­ous and informative introduction to the folk arts displayed in southern Ari­zona. While predictably divided in at­tention between Anglo-, Hispanic-, and Native-American, it also provides the reader with information on recent immigrants - both the "snow birds" who have brought many artistic tradi­tions from other American regions and the recent arrivals from rich cultural traditions in Latin America and the Pacific rim. Underlying this feast of foreign cultures is the realization that modern life changes but does not di­minish the importance of all traditional arts. As the social and economic posi­tion of these cultures change, individ­ual forms of artistic expression rise or fall in importance for the public ex­pression of personal and collective aesthetics. Griffith, a folklorist, un­folds this story with a wit and wisdom gained from a life spent seeking, study­ing, and presenting the diversity and artistic integrity of the many groups who live on the lower desert. Southern Arizona Folk Arts seeks to ac­complish the impossible mission of covering the broad expanse of the re­gion's folklife in a short introduction. While every major ethnic, religious, and occupational distinction is men­tioned, not every art form can be de­scribed. After an important chapter on celebration (the context of most of these folk arts), the continuing artistic traditions of Mexican-American mu­sic, foodways, murals, and even low-riders mix with a discussion of modern variants of cattle culture, Nor­wegian and Ukranian decorative arts, and Tohono O'odham baskets. The book presents a cornucopia of musical traditions -the blues, fiddle associa- 190 Utah Historical Quarterly tions, Yaqui music and powwows, bluegrass and eastern European dance music - and, thanks to Griffith's writing style, the description of these richly textured folk heritages never de­scends to a formulaic and repetitive discussion of mindless examples. In­deed, the deeper organization of this work is best understood by reading the introduction and final chapter first - before diving into the meat of the mes­sage. Or read it twice; its good enough to be repeated! This book is a welcome addition to the classic commentaries on Arizona history and cultures. In the larger arena, it should be seen as part of the maturing process of state-sponsored folk arts programs. Having collected and presented the arts of local com­munities in festivals and exhibitions for more than a decade, Griffith, the head of the Southwest Folklore Center, is sharing his insights in a more perma­nent form. This volume specifically ac­knowledges the definition of folk arts used by the Folk Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Smithsonian Institution's Festival of American Folklife as models of broad inclusive formats, stretched and strengthened for this time. Hopefully, this thoughtful essay will replace ear­lier visual presentation styles oi Arizona Highways and other local-color maga­zines- adding art to our view from what Griffith calls ' 'outside the myth.'' Southern Arizona Folk Arts represents one way to organize the materials col­lected within a particular locale - oriented to the present, explained by the past. It is not intended to substitute for histories of the region, nor is it a cultural correlative to the National Register of Historic Places in southern Arizona. In this context, historical de­scription briefly encapsulates the source of the modern form. These thumbnail sketches confine themselves to what each of us should know about our long-time neighbors. Griffith notes, "All these arts are accessible to the interested public." This is history in the present, not a book of living cul­tures in the past. Therefore, many topics that popular history would lavish attention upon are absent or only briefly mentioned. For example, lives of the saints, pioneer experiences, gunfighters, and the coming of the rail­road are not covered because their im­pact is principally historic. This is a truly revolutionary account of southern Arizona. For students of the Southwest, as well as the casual vis­itor, it expands their knowledge and appreciation of the rich fabric of life on the desert of Arizona. It turns each day into a celebration of the people and the place, and is highly recommended, even if one never visits Tucson. GARY STANTON South Carolina Folk Arts Program Joseph Smith HI: Pragmatic Prophet. By ROGER D . LAUNIUS. (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988. xii -h 394 pp. $24.95.) Born in late 1832, Joseph Smith III experienced the early years of Mor­monism while yet a boy. Following the June 1844 death of his father at the hands of an anti-Mormon mob. Smith grew up at Nauvoo, Illinois. His mother was strongly opposed to Brig­ham Young and the church he headed in Utah, and the youthful Joseph was reared with a like-minded animosity toward Young and, particularly, the practice of plural marriage which he attributed to Young. Joseph Smith III could never countenance the notion that his father was involved with the emergence of polygamy - " I believe Book Reviews and Notices my father was a good man, and a good man never could have promulgated such a doctrine," quotes Roger Launius (p. 200). This premise, quite clearly instilled in the young Smith by his mother, dic­tated the direction of Joseph Smith Ill's life, and, even when the evidence tended to indicate otherwise, he re­mained a staunch advocate of his father's noninvolvement with polyg­amy. Whether the challenges came from Brighamites (Utah Mormons), from faithful members of his own Re­organized LDS fold who had been privy to marital developments at Nauvoo, or from RLDS dissenters who were critical of Joseph Smith, Jr., the son zealously defended his percep­tion of his father. As the author has astutely observed, Joseph Smith III "could never progress beyond his childhood perceptions of his father as a good man and refused to accept [Joseph Smith, J r . ' s role in] the intro­duction of plural marriage" (199). Joseph Smith HL Pragmatic Prophet is much more than another look at the polygamy issue - even if from a dif­ferent perspective - however, because its subject was a dynamic man in his own right. In 1860 he became the first prophet-president of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -a position he held for fifty-four years. And, as Launius has con­cluded. Smith was "a man of prin­ciples and dedication to the truth as he saw it" (369). Not only did he oppose polygamy and try actively to reclaim the, in his eyes, misled Saints of Utah, but he sought to lead the RLDS church into the mainstream of American reli­gious life and to free it from the later nineteenth-century national stereotype that all Mormons were misguided and unpatriotic dupes leading lascivious lives in the deserts of the Great Basin. From Smith's perspective the true Lat- 191 ter Day Saints (RLDS) were loyal, mo­nogamous. Christian people whose reputation had been tarnished by Brig­ham Young and his followers. Roger Launius has written a first-class biography which, in this review­er's opinion, Utah Mormons, as well as others interested in American reli­gious history, must read. Not just for the sake of enhanced understanding of the LDS-RLDS split but for the illus­trations of patience and reason on the part of a religious leader that Smith's life seems to offer at nearly every turn. For example, in the 1870s and 1880s the RLDS movement was faced with internal dissent from a theologically liberal element that included two church apostles. Joseph Smith III labored long and patiently to work out the difficulties, and only after much ef­fort and at the strong urging of most of the church membership did he move to silence the dissidents. Perhaps his cautious approach was correct and per­haps not, but it certainly reflected the actions of a man who had genuine con­cern for all wehther or not their opin­ions were the same as his own. Launius writes in a balanced, care­ful manner as he directs his readers along the paths Joseph Smith III trod. Developments nationally, in Utah and the West, as well as the more directly significant events within Smith's inner circle are all well chronicled. What emerges from the pages o{Joseph Smith HI is a portrait of the leader of a smaller religious denomination who sought desperately to guide his church forward on the American religious scene, to escape the haunting ties with the Utah Mormons and polygamy, and to provide unity and direction for his own fold. M. GUY BISHOP Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County 192 Utah Historical Quarterly King of Beaver Island: The Life and Assassination of James Jesse Strang. By ROGER VAN NooRD. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988. xii -i- 335 pp. $24.95.) Many continue to be captivated by the story of James Jesse Strang, a bril­liant and ambitious man, who pro­claimed to the world that heavenly messengers and Joseph Smith had anointed and appointed him to head the Mormon church. Of particular re­nown was his theatrical coronation on July 8, 1850, at Beaver Island, Lake Michigan. The king, as he was called by both his followers and detractors, was plagued by internal dissent throughout his ministry and was fre­quently in conflict with the fishing and whiskey-selling community of Mack­inac Island. These people resisted Strang's challenge to their economic dominance in northern Michigan, re­sented Mormon political power, and insisted that the Mormons were a band of thieves. Strife with dissidents and outsiders continued until 1856 when two disillusioned followers of Strang mortally wounded the prophet. The non-Mormon population of Mackinac received Strang's assassins as heroes, after which the fishing community drove the dispirited and unorganized Mormons from the island. This famil­iar outline of Strang's life has been re­lated by so many writers that one may wonder if this tale needs retelling, es­pecially since the last serious biography of the prophet, Milo Quaife's Kingdom of Saint James (1930), was deftly graced with analysis and wit. However, King of Beaver Island, an amply researched and intelligent work, must now be con­sidered the most important study of Beaver Island Mormonism. The thesis of King of Beaver Island is that Strang was a brilliant dreamer who wanted desperately to occupy a permanent place in human memory. He seized the opportunity of Joseph Smith's death in 1844 to advance him­self and resorted to fabrication in order to promote his message and increase his power. This argument is not new; it has generally been the accepted ex­planation for those who have not be­lieved Strang's version of events. Strang's imposture, however, is not the author's sole preoccupation as he examines carefully, and usually dispas­sionately, the many facets and episodes of Strang's career. The scope of pri­mary works utilized in this book is im­pressive, and many of Van Noord's sources were previously untapped. The author permits these sources to speak for themselves, and although he does not avoid analysis the book is more narrative than interpretive. Be­cause Van Noord integrates Strang's youthful correspondence with his coded diary we have a better understanding of Strang's young adulthood, which anticipates his later career as prophet, legislator, and king. The author de­votes greater attention to the Beaver Island years than any previous writer and demonstrates that Strang padded his enumeration of the 1854 Michigan census; instead of a following of over 2,600, the author favors the estimates of contemporaries who suggested that only 500 Saints lived in the Beaver Island vicinity. He also details the fed­eral court proceedings against Strang and his disciples in 1851 (charges of trespassing on government lands, tam­pering with the United States mails, and counterfeiting), of which the Saints were rightfully acquitted. Van Noord provides even-handed treat­ment of the numerous altercations be­tween the Mormons and the fishing community of northern Michigan and makes sense of contradictory primary sources. The chapters on Strang's tenure in the Michigan House of Rep- Book Reviews and Notices 193 resentatives provide new information regarding an aspect of Strang's career that has been largely ignored (although Van Noord could have profited from the insights of Ronald Formisano in The Birth of Mass Political Parties in Michigan, 1827-1861). Although Strang actively sought to pass legisla­tion that favored Beaver Island, his concerns extended beyond his subjects-constituents, suggesting that he was motivated by more than simple self-promotion. Serving as a Democrat, Strang's voice reflected the fundamen­talist wing of the party as he fought the passage of a general railroad bill and a prohibitionist Maine law bill (although he was a teetotaler), both of which he believed subverted individual rights. But Strang was not a hack; his support for black suffrage and his ardent de­nunciation of the Fugitive Slave law demonstrate that he was not afraid of straying from the mainstream of his party (and unlike Brigham Young, Strang refused to exclude black males from the priesthood). Suprisingly, his contemporaries were impressed with his legislative abilities, and otherwise anti-Mormon newspapers praised him as one of the most talented legislators in the state. While Van Noord successfully chronicles the events of Strang's career and suggests motivations, he fails to explain adequately why Strang at­tracted the devotion of several hundred individuals or why Strang's following was so volatile, especicdly during the early years of his ministry. A greater effort to place Strang within a larger context of both Mormon and Amer­ican history might have helped. Did Strang offer a haven for Americans anxious about the enormous social changes in antebellum America? To many Mormons Strang's arguments concerning his prophetic succession seemed very convincing; John E. Page and George Miller were at least two devotees who expressed spiritual con­versions to Strang's claims before per­sonally meeting the prophet. Van Noord correctly points out that Strang's emulation of Joseph Smith's prophetic credentials and his extraor­dinary charisma helped him gain the confidence of many Saints who were unenthusiastic about the administra­tive style of Brigham Young. Also, Strang initially represented a simpler gospel centered on the Book of Mor­mon, direct communication from heaven through a prophet, and con­demnation of polygamy. When these hopes of a pristine faith were dashed a number of Strang's initial converts, such as William Marks, John Gaylord, John E. Page, Austin Cowles, Zenas Gurley, and Jason Briggs, discarded Strang's tenets and those of Nauvoo Mormonism and later sought spiritual solace with the Reorganized, Brewster-ite, or Hedrickite churches. Van Noord directs only brief atten­tion to the spiritual and theological dimensions of Strang and his move­ment. The devotional aspects of the Beaver Island faith are neglected, and only a minimal analysis of Strang's book of scripture, the Book of the Law of the Lord, is provided. The work claimed to be a portion of the Law of Moses hidden from the world for thousands of years, and in the words of Milo Quaife, provided "a complete framework of government . . . ap­plicable to any population, however great, and . . . regulations for the most important relations of human so­ciety." These laws included the cele­bration of holy days and the perfor­mance of plant and animal sacrifice, giving the Strangite church a strong Old Testament flavor. While Strang obviously incorporated many of the Nauvoo innovations into his own the­ology, he also attempted to design a 194 Utah Historical Quarterly faith that diverged sharply from the religion established by Joseph Smith. Van Noord's reluctance to deal with these themes at length may be due to the credence he places in the belief of Clement Strang, a son of the prophet, that James Strang never shed his youthful atheism. Even if Strang was a liar to the core, it seems reasonable that his theology and the spiritual life of his community should have been ex­amined more thoroughly. Despite these shortcomings. King of Beaver Island is a well-written book that surpasses all previous biographies of the prophet. While not the last word on Strang and his kingdom, it deserves scrutiny from students of both Mor­mon and Michigan history. JOHN QUIST University of Michigan Book Notices A Very Eligible Place: Provo and Orem, an Illustrated History. By KENNETH L. CANNON II. (Northridge, Calif.: Windsor Publications, Inc., 1987. 128 pp. $24.95.) Windsor Publications continues its tradition of producing high quality il­lustrated community histories. This volume takes its place alongside the histories of Ogden and Salt Lake City and a similar volume on Utah history produced by the same publisher. The author, a native of the area and a former resident and student in both of these Utah County cities, has nicely summarized a complex history into a few short chapters. His story captures the spirit of Provo and Orem, illus­trating both their similarities and their differences. The photos and art illus­trating the book are well-chosen and interesting and help make this an en­joyable capsule history of these two im­portant Utah cities. "Big Bill" Haywood. By MELVIN DUBOFSKY. (New York: St. Mar­tin's Press, 1987. viii -i- 184 pp. $19.95.) Born in Salt Lake City in 1869, Wil­liam D. Haywood grew to young man­hood there and in Ophir. At fifteen he left Utah for the mining camps in Nevada, Colorado, and Idaho where he began to formulate his views as a labor radical. He joined the Western Federation of Miners in 1896 and quickly distinguished himself as a pow­erful organizer and anti-capitalist ora­tor. For a time he seemed to find his niche in the Socialist party, drawing audiences of up to 40,000 people to his speeches. Soon impatient with the pace Book Reviews and Notices 195 of politics, however, he turned his at­tention back to direct action and the Industrial Workers of the World. By 1916, as general secretary of the I WW, he held a national and international reputation as one of the nation's most prominant labor organizers. Then came World War I, with its air of supercharged patriotism, and the Red Scare, with its reactionary poli­tics, which effectively scuttled the Wobbly movement and drove Hay­wood into exile. Just as Dubofsky's able pen traces Big Bill's rise to suc­cess, it sketches with equal facility his unhappy decline. Especially interest­ing is the account of Haywood's years in the Soviet Union and eventual alienation from that culture. Dying there in 1928, Big Bill was given an elaborate funeral in Red Square. Half his cremated remains were placed be­neath the Kremlin Wall and the other half returned to Chicago for interment next to the Hay market memorial. A man of contradictions and incon­sistencies. Big Bill Haywood is a spe­cial challenge to historians. Dubofsky has proven equal to the task. His brief, well-balanced biography is an illumi­nating analysis of one of Utah's most interesting and under-appreciated native sons. Mormons and Mormonism in U. S. Govern­ment Documents. Compiled by SUSAN L. FALES and CHAD J . FLAKE. (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1989. xiv + 357 pp. $30.00.) U.S. government documents are a rich source for students of American history. Yet, as the compilers of this volume point out, access to govern­ment documents is difficult at best. The purpose of this volume is to take some of the mystery out of research in government documents by listing sources dealing with Mormonism. This bibliography covers the period 1830 to 1930, the first one-hundred years of Mormonism. It coincides with the coverage of Flake's standard refer­ence work, A Mormon Bibliography, 1830-1930, and, where appropriate, provides cross references between the two. The time-frame also matches the period the government was intensely interested in Mormonism. Indeed, by 1920 the interest had waned, as dem­onstrated by the reduction in the number of entries in this volume. Students of Utah history will find this volume valuable, although, by concentrating on Mormonism, it pur­posely excluded secular Utah. Still, the reader will be led to other sources sug­gested by this volume, especially by the list of sources examined (p. ix) and the series index (pp. 355-57). Author/ Subject and Title indexes are also in­cluded. To their credit, the authors have en­livened this bibliography, which, almost by definition, is bound to be pretty dry. They have chosen quotes from some of the sources listed and scattered them throughout the book. These quotes provide the reader with a flavor of what was being published about the Mormons at the time, and they break up the monotony of the bib­liographic citations. Mormons at the Missouri, 1846-1852: "And Should We Die. . . ." By RICHARD E. BENNETT. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987. xii + 347 pp. $24.95.) Between 1846 and 1852 the Mis­souri Valley was the transition between Joseph Smith's Illinois and Mormon Utah. This study is a detailed account of some twelve thousand Mormons during their stay at Winter Quarters, Nebraska, and Kaneville, Iowa. Part I looks at the reasons Nauvoo was aban- 196 Utah Historical Quarterly doned, the Mormon trek across Iowa, the decision to spend the winter of 1846 at the Missouri River, the estab­lishment of Winter Quarters, Mormon relationships with Indians and Indian agents, and the economic order in Winter Quarters. Part II examines Mormon social life in the Missouri Valley, sickness and death, religious life, and the reestablishment of the First Presidency. Asserting that the Mormon sojourn in the Missouri Valley has been over­looked in a hurry to get the story to Utah, author Richard E. Bennett ar­gues that '' Far too much happened in the Missouri Valley to be ignored any longer. Here revelations were pro­claimed, apostolic supremacy and suc­cession pronounced and made firm, and a battalion raised amid formidable obstacles and opposing attitudes. At Winter Quarters women exercised the priesthood, new patterns of worship were implemented, and plans for the great trek were solidified. Polygamy and the law of adoption and other new and barely tested doctrines were prac­ticed in the open. And here faith deep­ened while apostasy flourished." Cactus Thorn. By MARY AUSTIN. (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1988. ix -h 122 pp. $15.95.) This 1927 novella was rejected by publisher Houghton Mifflin, and the manuscript had since Austin's death been in the Huntington Library's col­lection of her papers. Then Melody Graulich, who edited a collection of Austin's short stories for the Univer­sity of Nevada Press in 1987, provided a foreword and afterword for this, its public appearance. Set primarily in the desert country Austin understood so well. Cactus Thorn describes the sojourn of Grant Arliss, a New York reformer with a growing political following, in the "land of little rain" where he finds in­spiration, renewal, and the love of Dulcie Adelaid, a woman perfectly in tune with the desert. According to Graulich, the novella "finished off the final version of a character [Austin] had been creating, in various guises, for years: the radical male whose be­havior falls short of his social vision, who fails to recognize what feminists of all generations have insisted upon, that the personal is political." Some readers will want to see in Arliss a de­piction of Lincoln Steffens with whom Austin had an intense but ultimately disappointing relationship. Life in Alaska: The Reminiscences of a Kansas Woman, 1916-1919. Edited by DOROTHY WYNNE ZIMMERMAN. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988. x -t- 171 pp. Cloth, $19.95; paper, $8.95.) May Wynne Lamb taught school for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in a remote Eskimo village where she met and married a doctor sent there by the U.S. to open a hospital. Her reminis­cences, penned in the 1930s, give readers a view of Alaska that differs markedly from that of the gold seeker and the missionary. Lamb's descrip­tions of daily life, government policy and practice, and the Eskimos during a transitional period are especially valuable. Chester's Last Stand. By RICHARD E. BROWN. (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1988. vi -i- 194 pp. $16.95.) Brown's comic novel, set in Mis­souri during the 1930s, uses American folklore traditions of the yarnspinner, the greenhorn, the fair farm girl who dreams of far away places, and so on to Book Reviews and Notices 197 say something about the American past £ind also about how the individual can escape an apparently smothering destiny. Exploring the Great Basin. By GLORIA GRIFFEN CLINE. (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1988. xviii -t- 254 pp. Paper, $8.95.) During her brief life (1929-73) Gloria Griffen Cline wrote only two books, a study of Peter Skene Ogden and the Hudson's Bay Company (posthu­mously published) and this study of the exploration of the Great Basin, a revi­sion of her 1958 Berkeley dissertation originally pubUshed in 1963. It was enough to assure her a permanent place in the historiography of western exploration, for this volume in particu­lar has become a standard work, now happily available in paperback. Its greatest virtues perhaps are her im­pressive mastery of sources and her skill in interpreting the Great Basin's importance on an international scale. Its only major shortcoming may be its early cutoff date: she concludes her story with the second expedition of John C. Fremont, who by 1844 was able to complete enough of a circum­navigation of the Great Basin to iden­tify it as indeed a basin with no exter­nal drainage and thus constituting a separate geographical province. The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains. By JOHN C. FREMONT. Introduction by HERMAN J. VIOLA and RALPH E. EHRENBERG. (Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988. xviii -i- 323 pp. Paper, $14.95.) With this volume the Smithsonian inaugurates a new series of reprints of official reports of government and mil­itary explorations of the American West. Most are classics in the litera­ture of exploration, yet long out of print and expensive on the rare book market. This volume reprints Fre­mont's reports of his first two expedi­tions beyond the Rocky Mountains: his 1842 trip through South Pass to the Wind River Mountains and his 1843- 44 traverse roughly of the Oregon Trail and into northern California. The immediacy of Fremont's prose narrative and descriptive accounts makes it easy to see how he fired America's expansionist urges and became a national hero. The scientific depth of the reports, particularly in botany, geology, and topography, ought to impress the modern reader as well. The WPA Guide to 1930s Arizona. Com­piled by the WORKERS OF THE WRITERS' PROGRAM OF THE WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION IN THE STATE OF ARIZONA. Foreword by Stewart L. Udall. (Tucson: Uni­versity of Arizona Press, 1989. xxvi + 530 pp. Paper, $19.95.) The WPA Guide to 1930s New Mexico. Compiled by the WORKERS OF THE WRITERS' PROGRAM OF THE WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION IN THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO. Foreword by Marc Simmons. (Tucson: Uni­versity of Arizona Press, 1989. xxxviii -I- 458 pp. Paper, $16.95.) Originally published in 1940 under sponsorship of one of the New Deal's most interesdng programs, these two volumes have been given new titles, colorful covers, and engaging intro­ductions by two very talented stylists. Otherwise, they are the same as those that first emerged from the bindery a half-century ago: Part I describing history, geography, culture, economy, and the people; Part II dealing with cities; and Part III being a tour guide. 198 Utah Historical Quarterly Although much of the material has been superseded by the years of change, these volumes are still valuable to anyone who seeks to under­stand the American Southwest. They will also provide more than a little nos­talgic delight to whoever cares to recall the experience of touring America's hinterland with supplies that included "a few yards of stout rope for towing purposes and in sandy country, a cou­ple of burlap bags to give traction in getting out of ruts.'' In Search of Butch Cassidy. By LARRY POINTER. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977. xviii -i- 294 pp. Paper, $9.95.) This excellent biography of Utah's most famous bad guy was issued as a paperback in September 1988. The Sioux: Life and Customs of a Warrior Society. By ROYAL B. H ASS RICK. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964. xx -f- 374 pp. Paper, $11.95.) Originally published in 1964, this classic study has just undergone its sev­enth printing. The author analyzes the various facets of Sioux life and explores the question of why this tribe has always resisted assimilation into Anglo-American society. Sweet Promised Land. By ROBERT LAX-ALT. (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1988. xxx -1-176 pp. Paper, $9.95.) Sweet Promised Land is a delightful ac­count of a journey Laxalt's Basque father made to his European homeland after forty-seven years as an immigrant sheepman in the American West. It is a tender, comical, and insightful nar­rative of going home only to discover that America has become home. The first edition won critical acclaim in 1957. Indeh: An Apache Odyssey. By EVE BALL. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988. xxiv -t- 334 pp. Paper, $12.95.) First published in 1980 by BYU Press, this award-winning oral history narrative presents a graphic account of Apache history and ethnography, in­cluding glimpses of Apache family life seldom disclosed to outsiders. Nevada's Twentieth-century Mining Boom: Tonopah, Goldfield, Ely. By RUSSELL R. ELLIOTT. (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1988. xiv + 344 pp. Paper. $8.95.) Reprint of a highly regarded 1966 study of the south-central Nevada min­ing boom that differed significantly from the bonanza days of the Com-stock because of such factors as greater stability and protracted labor strife. High Sierra Country. By OSCAR LEWIS. (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1988. x + 291 pp. Paper. $8.95.) Reprint of a popular 1955 anecdotal history of life in the Sierra Nevada during the late nineteenth century.