Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country
- ISBN-10
- 0295988819
- ISBN-13
- 9780295988818
- Category
- History / Indigenous Peoples in the Americas
- Pages
- 391
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2009
- Publisher
- University of Washington Press
- Author
- Marsha Weisiger
Description
Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Countryoffers a fresh interpretation of the history of Navajo (Diné) pastoralism. The dramatic reduction of livestock on the Navajo Reservation in the 1930s -- when hundreds of thousands of sheep, goats, and horses were killed -- was an ambitious attempt by the federal government to eliminate overgrazing on an arid landscape and to better the lives of the people who lived there. Instead, the policy was a disaster, resulting in the loss of livelihood for Navajos -- especially women, the primary owners and tenders of the animals -- without significant improvement of the grazing lands.
Livestock on the reservation increased exponentially after the late 1860s as more and more people and animals, hemmed in on all sides by Anglo and Hispanic ranchers, tried to feed themselves on an increasingly barren landscape. At the beginning of the twentieth century, grazing lands were showing signs of distress. As soil conditions worsened, weeds unpalatable for livestock pushed out nutritious native grasses, until by the 1930s federal officials believed conditions had reached a critical point. Well-intentioned New Dealers made serious errors in anticipating the human and environmental consequences of removing or killing tens of thousands of animals.
Environmental historian Marsha Weisiger examines the factors that led to the poor condition of the range and explains how the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Navajos, and climate change contributed to it. Using archival sources and oral accounts, she describes the importance of land and stock animals in Navajo culture. By positioning women at the center of the story, she demonstrates the place they hold as significant actors in Native American and environmental history.
Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Countryis a compelling and important story that looks at the people and conditions that contributed to a botched policy whose legacy is still felt by the Navajos and their lands today.
Marsha L. Weisigeris associate professor of history at New Mexico State University.
"I cannot think of any book that weaves a more compelling narrative from the collision of Indian, American, and scientific understandings of nature. Weisiger's painstaking reconstruction of the region's biotic communities and her careful attention to biologists' thinking and their meanings for historians places this book in a class by itself." -- Louis Warren, University of California, Davis
"An ambitious, masterful work that addresses fundamental issues about relationships of power between the state and the people it attempts to control, the relationship between nature and cultures, and conflicts between different ways of narrating stories." -- Sherry L. Smith, Southern Methodist University
"Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Countryultimately presents a tragedy that could have been largely avoided. In this important book, Marsha Weisiger leaves us with an enhanced appreciation of victories and victims. She portrays resilient people who will do all they can to remain on the land and a persisting sadness nourished by dreams of a time gone by and a world to which sheep are unlikely to return." -- Peter Iverson, Regents Professor of History, Arizona State University
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
The Great Frontier War: Britain, France, and the Imperial Struggle for North America, 1607-1755
By William NesterAnderson , F. W. “ Why Did Colonial New Englanders Make Bad Soldiers ? Contractual Principles and Military Conduct during the ... Andre , Louis , Michel le Tellier et l'Organization de l'Armee Monarchique . Paris : Felix Alcan , 1906 .
-
Shawnee!: The Ceremonialism of a Native Indian Tribe and Its Cultural Background
By James Henri Howard... them from their lands toward the Rocky mountains ; that Tecumseh was a great general , and that nothing but his premature death defeated his grand plan ( J. Mooney The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890 : p .
-
The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke Volume 1: November 20, 1872--July 28, 1876
By John Gregory BourkeThese volumes are a first person narrative of a soldier in the West during the Great Sioux War and the Cheyenne Outbreak as well as other important Indian battles.
-
The Navajo Indians
By Dane Coolidge, Mary Roberts CoolidgeThe Navajo Indians
-
American Indian and Alaska Native Newspapers and Periodicals, 1925-1970: 1925-1970
By James W. Parins, Daniel F. LittlefieldAmerican Indian and Alaska Native Newspapers and Periodicals, 1925-1970: 1925-1970
-
Authentic Indians: Episodes of Encounter from the Late-Nineteenth-Century Northwest Coast
By Paige RaibmonShe looks at three historical episodes: the participation of a group of Kwakwaka’wakw from Vancouver in the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago; the work of migrant Aboriginal laborers in the hop fields of Puget Sound; and the ...
-
Legend and Lore of the Americas Before 1492: An Encyclopedia of Visitors, Explorers, and Immigrants
By Ronald H. FritzeFurthermore , knowledge of storm - blown in the manner of the Unthe Unknown Pilot story was not confined known Pilot story . In Morison's opinion , to the Spanish world . Sir Thomas Herbert , the true source of the story lay among the ...
-
The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
By Mary White RowlandsonThe Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
-
Lulu Linear Punctated: Essays in Honor of George Irving Quimby
By George Irving QuimbyDennis E. Lewarch, Hella McIntosh, Sarah Studenmund, and Elizabeth Vance also assisted with aspects of the computer ... Mary D. Dunnell, Donald K. Grayson, Jan F. Simek, Julie K.Stein, and Robert Whallon read the manuscript in draft and ...
-
Sovereign Nations Or Reservations?: An Economic History of American Indians
By Terry Lee AndersonUnfortunately , the search turned up a dearth of data ; nearly a dozen years lapsed before I returned to the research agenda . The rekindling of my interest in Indian economies came from Chip Mellor ...