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Written to appeal to professional archaeologists, students, and the interested public alike, this book is a long overdue introduction to the ancient peoples of the Great Basin and northern Colorado Plateau. Through detailed syntheses, the reader is drawn into the story of the habitation of the Great Basin from the entry of the first Native Americans through the arrival of Europeans. Ancient Peoples is a major contribution to Great Basin archaeology and anthropology, as well as the general study of foraging societies. ... Read more

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Steven R. Simms-Anchient Peoples of the Great Basin
This book is great.It challenges the traditional notions of pre-European American and puts early American life in the Great Basin in a realistic perspective.This should we widely read. ... Read more

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Contemporary American Indian basketry in California and the Great Basin has been undergoing a significant revival over the past fifteen years. This book documents several aspects of this revival by featuring the work of some of its leading practitioners representing both known and lesser-known tribes including the Hupa, Yurok, Karuk, Tolowa, Western Mono (Monache) of northern California, and Great Basin tribes including the Western Shoshone, Northern Paiute, Washoe, and Chemehuevi. ... Read more

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The aim of this research is to reconstruct the landscape evolution in the lower Rio Grande drainage basin during the Late Holocene and to detect interrelations between landscape evolution, cultural development, climatic changes and extreme events. Central to this is to identify and, if possible, quantify factors of landscape change. In doing so, the author differentiates natural from anthropogenic factors, i.e. to determine both the natural and the human impacts on the landscape. An important question is whether climatic changes and extreme events have had an in?uence on past societies. To answer these questions, this work goes beyond physical geography approaches to paleoenvironmental reconstruction and includes the wealth of archaeological evidence and interpretations available for the research area. The volume consists of a main section and an extensive appendix containing sketches and detailed interpretations of the investigated sediment pro?les as well as graphs showing the results of the laboratory analyses. ... Read more

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Rock art is one of humankind's most ancient forms of artistic expression, and one of its most enigmatic. For centuries, scholars and other observers have struggled to interpret the meaning of the mysterious figures incised or painted on natural rocks and to understand their role in the lives of their long-vanished creators. The Great Basin of the American West is especially rich in rock art, but until recently North American archaeologists have largely ignored these most visible monuments left by early Native Americans and have given little attention to the terrain surrounding them.

In Great Basin Rock Art, twelve respected rock art researchers examine a number of significant sites from the dual perspectives of settlement archaeology and contemporary Native American interpretations of the role of rock art in their cultural past. The authors demonstrate how modern archaeological methodology and interpretations are providing a rich physical and cultural context for these ancient and hitherto puzzling artifacts. They offer exciting new insights into the lives of North America's first inhabitants. This is essential reading for anyone interested in the petroglyphs of the American West and in the history of the Great Basin and its original peoples. ... Read more

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Scholarly, in-depth scrutiny and hypothesis
Edited by Angus R. Quinlan, Ph.D. (deputy director of the Nevada Rock Art Foundation), Great Basin Rock Art: Archaeological Perspectives is an anthology of essays by learned authors concerning some of the most ancient cultural and artistic relics known to humankind. Topics include petroglyph dating, native and anthropological interpretations of cultural identity, a gender-inclusive view of the social context of rock art, and much more. A handful of black-and-white photographs and diagrams illustrate this scholarly, in-depth scrutiny and hypothesis of what rock art has to tell us of prehistoric culture. ... Read more

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The Shoshone have traditionally lived in parts of California, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. These lands continue to be home to modern-day Shoshone as well. ... Read more

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A land of mountains, forests, wetlands, lakes, and rivers, the Klamath Basin spans the Oregon-California border. Farms and ranches, logging towns, and back-to-the land communities are scattered over this 10-million-acre bioregion. There are Indian reservations at the headwaters, at the estuary, and across the major tributary of the Klamath River. In this place that has witnessed, ever since the Gold Rush, a succession of wars and resource conflicts, myths of the West loom large, amplifying the differences among its inhabitants.

At the core of the contemporary controversy is overallocation of the waters of the Klamath Basin. This dispute has pitted farmers and ranchers against locals whose cultures and livelihoods depend upon fishing and others who would forestall the extinction of wild salmon. Yet it has also revealed the unity of the Klamath Basin, the interdependence of economic recovery with ecological restoration, and the urgency for all the communities within the basin to find common ground. ... Read more

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A River Runs Through It
"History is something like a river," we read in the introduction to this extraordinary book that loops and turns from the mountains all the way to the sea. Weaving myth, history, biology, the stories of salmon, Yurok, Karok, Hupa and immigrant farmers, Stephen Most tells the story of one of California's most beautiful and storied rivers. One feels the sacredness of it. If you love wilderness books and river books and if the land for you wears a beautiful face, don't miss this book. It will take you there. ... Read more

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Three Cultures Competing in 19th Century NV & UT
In this adaptation of his Unv. of Utah history dissertation, W. Paul Reeve examines the early interactions of Southern Paiutes, Mormons, and miners in southern Utah and Nevada.The three groups guarded differing aspirations, worldviews, and concepts of space.To Dr. Reeve the miners represented mainstream America and its capitalism, to which the other groups had to warily adapt.An early chapter discusses the meaning of the land in the three cultures, and a later chapter contrasts views on death and burials.The middle chapters focus in turn on each group and their approach to interactions with the other two.

The book's scope is limited in time (from about 1860 to 1910) and space (to a few southern counties in Utah and Nevada).Much of the narrative takes place in Hebron, Utah and Pioche and Panaca, Nevada.Indications of the extent to which the experiences of these communities generalized are not as abundant as I would have preferred. Dr. Reeve's writing is professional and engaging.It clearly emphasizes his themes and repeats them in the chapter conclusions.Interesting historical incidents support each theme and make the read enjoyable.

Making Space on the Western Frontier
W. Paul Reeve's book is one of the best I have read.Utah becomes a battleground for Indians, Mormon settlers and those seeking mining fortunes.The stories draw the reader in.You begin to understand the conflicts that still exist today and the historical significance of them.This is a must have book for anyone who is interested in Western history.He is a gifted writer. ... Read more

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Shrouded in the lore of legendary Indians, Mt. Timpanogos beckons the urban populace of Utah. And yet, no “Indian” legend graced the mount until Mormon settlers conjured it—once they had displaced the local Indians, the Utes, from their actual landmark, Utah Lake. On Zion’s Mount tells the story of this curious shift. It is a quintessentially American story about the fraught process of making oneself “native” in a strange land. But it is also a complex tale of how cultures confer meaning on the environment—how they create homelands.

Only in Utah did Euro-American settlers conceive of having a homeland in the Native American sense—an endemic spiritual geography. They called it “Zion.” Mormonism, a religion indigenous to the United States, originally embraced Indians as “Lamanites,” or spiritual kin. On Zion’s Mount shows how, paradoxically, the Mormons created their homeland at the expense of the local Indians—and how they expressed their sense of belonging by investing Timpanogos with “Indian” meaning.

This same pattern was repeated across the United States. Jared Farmer reveals how settlers and their descendants (the new natives) bestowed “Indian” place names and recited pseudo-Indian legends about those places—cultural acts that still affect the way we think about American Indians and American landscapes.

Customer Reviews (4)

an informational read
My husband is enjoying reading the book, On Zion's Mount. This book was on a list of recommended readings for the staff and employees of the Church History Library.

Great reading
I saw this book mentioned on a blog, and thought I would pick it up. I have lived in Utah for 43 years, and have always felt that there is something magical to this area of the world as far as the terrain is considered. What I would give to see Utah and the western region before modern man enveloped it. This book is a terrific history to imagine just that. What it was like before modern man moved westward. I really enjoyed the history, and the way it was written. Never boring, always moving in a direction. Very enjoyable read, and I highly recommend it to anyone that enjoys the Utah region and historical significance.

Mount Timpanogos
I enjoyed this book very much.I have always loved Mount Timpanogos and appreciated the old and newer folklore and fact about it. Thanks Jared!

An overview of what has largely been forgotten
For the past several years, I have lived in a place with Mount Timpanogos practically in my backyard and a great view of Utah Lake close by. I have been aware of some of the recent history of American Fork and Provo canyons and Utah Lake as well as the folklore told about Timpanogos Cave. However, like most people in Utah Valley, I have been unaware of where these places really fit in history. This book was written to inform us of the forgotten history - that Utah Lake was once the dominant feature that this valley was known for, and that Mount Timpanogos (often referred to locally as "Timp") is actually a very recent landmark. The book is made up of a long introduction, which gives a good summary of the entire book, followed by three parts that tell different aspects of the same story.

In the first part, the book tells about the Indians that inhabited the valley (not the mountains) and depended on the lake and rivers for trout and other food fish. When the Mormon pioneers came, they coexisted with the Indians in both the Salt Lake and Utah valleys for a time, sharing the hot and warm springs near the Great Salt Lake as well as the fishing places at and near Utah Lake. At that time, the mountains to the east were simply that - "the mountains." The Indians were eventually forced out to reservations, and the settlers continued using Utah Lake until the 20th century when it was polluted and forgotten, except as a shallow lake mostly populated with trash fish, and the site of Geneva Steel.

Part two explains that as the lake vanished from prominence, Mount Timpanogos was turned into a landmark in the 1910s and 20s in a campaign spearheaded by a BYU faculty member, Eugene Roberts, who led hikes to the top and made up the legend of the Indian princess that is still retold to visitors of Timpanogos Cave. The book goes into great detail about how the hike became an institutionalized yearly event which was repeated into the 1960s before being discontinued, although individuals and smaller groups still continue to make it today. It also traces the history of hiking from Europe to the United States to fit the Timp hike into context, as well as giving a brief history of places such as Sundance, Mutual Dell, Aspen Grove, and Timpanogos Cave.

The third part discusses the history of naming places throughout the United States in memory of the original inhabitants, often creating legends to go along with them. It shows that what has happened in Utah is similar to what has happened in the rest of the country - as the Native Americans were forced out of the land, Indian-sounding names and legends were created to commemorate them, so that what we tend to know about them was largely fabricated. Ironically, some of these legends have now been picked up and retold by Indians living today as authentic - including the one that is retold about Timpanogos Cave, even though the particular formation mentioned is in a part of the cave that was not accessible until a passage was made between the original two caves.

I found most of the book to be very interesting, although parts of it were very tedious to get through. In putting everything in perspective in history, it seemed as if the author was continually going off on tangents, although I'm sure others may find these parts more interesting than I did (there were over 45 pages devoted entirely to "Lover's Leaps," for instance). I also found that a dictionary was often a handy accessory.

The author tends to write very long paragraphs with a single footnote at the end, so it is difficult to pin down many of the sources, and for some of the material which should have had sources cited, there were none. Near the beginning of the notes the author states that many secondary sources regarding LDS history aren't cited because there is a great bibliography available for them, but it would have been much more helpful to not leave the reader wondering where some of the information came from.

The history of the LDS Church is recited in varying degrees of detail from its founding to the settlement of Utah, dealings with the Indians (although they were considered to be descendants of the Lamanites, there was limited success in coexisting peacefully), and then up through the present day in relationship with the subject of the book. However, there are some dubious claims made, some exaggerations, and some things that are arguably untrue. In some cases this is a result of using questionable theories from secondary sources and stating them as facts.

For instance, it is stated that "A reluctant pragmatist, Woodruff meant his 1890 edict (popularly known as the Manifesto) to be a delaying tactic. On the basis of a revelation given to Joseph Smith, many Mormons expected the Millennium to begin in 1891." While there is evidence that some members expected the Second Coming to happen at about that time, due largely to a revelation given to Joseph Smith that is contained in Doctrine and Covenants section 130 (at the end of which Joseph notes that he's unsure of the actual meaning), it seems unlikely that the Manifesto would have even been issued if Wilford Woodruff expected it to be that imminent.

Another example is the statement that "In 1981 the Church quietly revised the Book of Mormon passage relating to the promise of the Lamanites: they would become `pure and delightsome' instead of `white and delightsome.'" The implication is that the text was changed to try to make the Book of Mormon less racist. This change was actually made in the 1840 edition of the Book of Mormon, but was then forgotten (because later editions were based on the 1837 edition) until it was restored in the 1981 edition, where it is noted that "Some minor errors in the text have been perpetuated in past editions of the Book of Mormon. This edition contains corrections that seem appropriate to bring the material into conformity with prepublication manuscripts and early editions edited by the Prophet Joseph Smith." It's doubtful that Joseph Smith had racism in mind when the change was made or other similar verses would have been changed as well.

To Farmer's credit, when he discusses the recent studies that show no relationship between the DNA of "contemporary native peoples of Israel and the Palestinian territories and of contemporary native peoples of the Americas," he states that it's possible that the Lamanites were absorbed by other population groups, and that "The science of historical genetics is young; the evidence is sure to change." However, in the footnotes he only cites the works of those that claim the DNA issue to be problematic.

For anyone interested in the history of Utah, the West, Native Americans, place names, hiking, environmentalism, or any of the other topics covered, there should be something of interest in this book. Even the casual reader can read the parts of the book they find to be of most interest and learn some of the history that has largely been forgotten. It seems that the author has met his goal in writing it - I have a new appreciation for and a renewed interest in the landmarks that make up my surroundings, both the lake and the mountain. ... Read more