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National parks like Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Glacier preserve some of this country's most cherished wilderness landscapes. While visions of pristine, uninhabited nature led to the creation of these parks, they also inspired policies of Indian removal. By contrasting the native histories of these places with the links between Indian policy developments and preservationist efforts, this work examines the complex origins of the national parks and the troubling consequences of the American wilderness ideal. The first study to place national park history within the context of the early reservation era, it details the ways that national parks developed into one of the most important arenas of contention between native peoples and non-Indians in the twentieth century.
National parks like Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Glacier preserve some of this country's most cherished wilderness landscapes. While visions of pristine, uninhabited nature led to the creation of these parks, they also inspired policies of Indian removal. By contrasting the native histories of these places with the links between Indian policy developments and preservationist efforts, this work examines the complex origins of the national parks and the troubling consequences of the American wilderness ideal. The first study to place national park history within the context of the early reservation era, it details the ways that national parks developed into one of the most important arenas of contention between native peoples and non-Indians in the twentieth century.
Introduction: From Common Ground
1: Looking Backward and Westward: The "Indian Wilderness" in the
Antebellum Era
2: The Wild West, or Toward Separate Islands
3: Before the Wilderness: Native Peoples and Yellowstone
4: First Wilderness: America's Wonderland and Indian Removal from
Yellowstone National Park
5: Backbone of the World: The Blackfeet and the Glacier National
Park Area
6: Crowning the Continent: The American Wilderness Ideal and
Blackfeet Exclusion from Glacier National Park
7: The Heart of the Sierras, 1864-1916
8: Yosemite Indians and the National Park Ideal, 1916-1969
Conclusion: Exceptions and the Rule
Mark David Spence is Assistant Professor of History at Knox College, Illinois.
"A landmark historical reconstruction of a forgotten story--the
eviction of American Indians from a troika of our nation's major
parks: Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Glacier. Spence documents the
separate but symbiotic developments of the Indian reservation and
recreational park systems, the former to corral Indians, the latter
to sequester nature; with the twain never to interact therafter.
Spence underpins his three compelling narratives with a clear
exposition
of the evolving 'wilderness' and 'preservationist' ideologies which
spelled exclusion for Indian residents of these natural wonders.
His riveting chronicle concludes with current tensions, as
Indians
are attempting to reclaim special rights to these sacrosanct areas
and parks are struggling to correct a century of native
dispossessions and misrepresentions of the cultural/historical
record."--Peter Nabokov, Department of World Arts & Cultures and
American Indian Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
"Mark Spence reminds us that the national parks of the United
States, which most Americans today regard as sublimely uninhabited
wilderness areas, were once home to native peoples who were
dispossessed as the parks were created. This book is an important
and thought provoking contribution to our understanding of the
American landscape and its history."--William Cronon, Frederick
Jackson Turner Professor of History, Geography, and Environmental
History,
University of Wisconsin, Madison
"Stimulating, provocative, and richly researched, Dispossessing the
Wilderness pushes us to reassess traditional views of the creation
of our national parks in the light of contemporary policies and
attitudes toward Indians. Spence's work opens a new dimension in
our country's environmental history of interest to all who care
about wilderness, justice, and the American landscape."--Carolyn
Merchant, Professor of Environmental History, University of
California, Berkeley
"...Spence provides insights into Native American histories and
their associations with the dominant Anglo culture....[An]
excellent book."--CHOICE
"[C]risp prose, exciting subject, and clear argument...[E]xtremely
useful for students of environmental, western, and Native American
history. Anyone who has marveled at the beauty and wildlife of our
national parks will have second thoughts about their cost after
reading this book."--American Historical Review
"Dispossesing the Wilderness has many virtues. Accurate, detailed
accounts of the creation of Yellowstone and Glacier national parks
rest on solid research...Ethnography of pre-park aboriginal use is
excellent. So is the selection of photographs."--The Journal of
American History
"The book is so well documented and skillfully written that Spence
does not need to launch any direct attacks on park personnel or
policies. Through his research and storytelling, cultural
imperialism speaks for itself. However, Spence goes beyond exposing
this shameful story to explain why shifting policies of racial
inclusion and exclusion made sense, at the time, within
Euro-American culture. No one, after reading this book, will view
the national parks in
the same way again."--Pacific Northwest Quarterly
"Spence unpacks the myth of pristine nature preserved and promoted
in the national parks...This succinct study opens up new areas of
research in park service scholarship and paves the way for a more
comprehensive study of the role and place of Native Americans in
the national parks."--The Historian
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