Description
Neither Wolf Nor Dog: American Indians, Environment, and Agrarian Change examines American federal assimilation policy directed at the Northern Utes, Tohono O'odham, and Hupas during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The government sought to change the economy of these peoples into agrarian farming and ranching. The author is an associate professor of history at Utah State University. He examines the environmental and cultural history of each of the specific Nations under study and compares the impact of forced social change on each Nation's economy. The Nations lived in diverse environments with various subsistence economies. The failure of the government policy is expected and the author provides detailed explanations for each Nation's role as active agents in the government failure. Each Nation selected alternative ways of dealing with pressures to change and continued to maintain their cultural values and practices. The communities gave up the farming option long before the federal government officially changed its policy in the 1960s. This is a valuable study of agricultural and environmental history of the southern United States. The book contains photographs, maps, a bibliography and an index.