As If the Land Owned Us

Robert S. McPherson is an associate professor at the College of Eastern Utah-San Juan Campus in Blanding, Utah, as well as an adjunct professor at the University of Utah. He is the author of a number of books on the history and cultures of the Four Corners region, including Comb Ridge and Its People: The Ethnohistory of a Rock, winner of the 2009 Utah Book Award for nonfiction.

List of Maps Acknowledgments Introduction 1. White Mesa Ute Origins and PuwA-v: Creating the World, Empowering the Universe 2. "It Was as If the Land Owned Us": Ties to the Land, Resources for the People 3. Daily Life in an Austere Environment: Weenuche Beliefs and Life Cycle, 1880s 4. The Invasion Begins: Hispanic Entradas, American Trade, and the Mormon Mission, 1600-1855 5. "Enemies Like a Road Covered with Ice": Expanding Weenuche Dominance, 1855-1870 6. Decade of Decision, 1870-1880: Losing Land, Gaining Restrictions 7. Stemming the Flood, 1880-1882: Miners, Cowboys, and Settlers 8. Winning the Battles, Losing the War: Military Operations and Cowboy Incursions, 1882-1885 9. Agony with Little Ecstasy: Hunting, Travel, and Subsistence Curtailment, 1885-1895 10. The Replevied Present: San Juan County, the Southern Utes, and What Might Have Been, 1895-1900 11. "Only Bullets Talk Now": Turmoil and Dissent in a Shrinking World, 1900-1915 12. Posey and the Last White Uprising: Ending the Cycle of Violence, 1915-1923 13. Avikan: Remembering the Homeland, 1923-1941 14. Education, Economics, and Integration: Establishing the White Mesa Community, 1923-1960 15. People and Perception: Neighbors' Views Across a Chasm, 1860-1960 16. Circles, Trees, and Bears: Empowering the Weenuche Universe 17. Adoption, Adaptation, and Abandonment: Changing Weenuche Religious Practices, 1900-2010 18. Ironic Industries and Traditional Ties: Shifting Fortunes of the White Mesa Utes, 1950-2010 Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index

"McPherson's ethnohistory of the White Mesa Ute people is exceptional. It is story and document, combining indigenous voices with non-Native accounts into a superbly crafted whole. It serves as a worthy model for any history-regional, ethnic, or otherwise-well fulfilling the author's aim to provide a 'bridge to contemporary generations' ?for a long forgotten people, their places, and times."-Catherine S. Fowler, University of Nevada, Reno "An essential source on the White Mesa Ute Indians. Setting the tone for each chapter, a moving introductory quotation from a Ute speaker illustrates attitudes and beliefs of the people, and the author offers several personal descriptions of people and places. A remarkable number of photographs, archival and contemporary, complement the narrative."-Colorado Book Review