Synopses & Reviews
On August 27, 2007, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an earlier district court ruling that sport climbing on a Washoe Indian sacred site in western Nevada must cease. Cave Rock, a towering monolith jutting over the shore of Lake Tahoe, has been sacred to the Washoe people for over five thousand years. Long abused by road builders and vandals, it earned new fame in the late twentieth century as a world-class sport rock-climbing site. Over twenty years of bitter disputes and confrontation between the Washoe and the climbers ensued. The Washoe are a small community of fewer than 2,000 members; the climbers were backed by a national advocacy and lobbying group and over a hundred powerful corporations. Cave Rock follows the history of the fight between these two groups and examines the legal challenges and administrative actions that ultimately resulted in a climbing ban. After over two centuries of judicial decisions allowing federal control, economic development, or public interests to outweigh Indian claims to their sacred places, the Courtandrsquo;s ruling was both unprecedented and highly significant. As the authors conclude, the long-term implications of the ruling for the protection of Native rights are of equal consequence.
Review
andldquo;Danger, ancient legends, and a legal fight for the sacred. This powerful book . . . is a balanced account of the legal struggle over an important historic site.andrdquo; -- Donald L. Fixico, author of American Indians in a Modern World
Review
andldquo;Lucidly told history, sparkles with engaging anecdotes, this will interest both the historian and general reader.andrdquo; --Brian Q. Cannon, Director, Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, Brigham Young University and#160;
Synopsis
The story of a momentous legal decision in the history of Native American rights
Synopsis
This Mormon settlement, flooded by Hoover Dam in 1938, remains a place of historical significanceand#160;
Synopsis
The history of St. Thomas, Nevada, the remains of which today lay under the high water mark of Lake Mead, begins in 1865 with Mormon missionaries sent by Brigham Young to the Moapa Valley to grow cotton. In 1871 the boundary of Utah territory was shifted east by one degree longitude, and the town became part of Nevada. New settlers moved in, miners and farmers, interacting with the Mormons and native Paiutes. The building of Hoover Dam doomed the small settlement, yet a striking number of people still have connections to a town that ceased to exist three-quarters of a century ago. Today, the ruins of this ghost town, just sixty miles east of Las Vegas, are visible when the waters of Lake Mead are low. Located in a national recreation area, the National Park Service today preserves and interprets the remains of St. Thomas as a significant historical site. Touching as it does upon on early explorers, Mormons, criminals, railroad and auto transportation, mining, water, state and federal relations, and more, St. Thomas, Nevada offers much to Mormon and regional historians, as well as general readers of western history.
About the Author
Matthew S. Makley is assistant professor of history at Metropolitan State College in Denver.
Michael J. Makley is the author of several studies of Nevada history, including The Infamous King of the Comstock: William Sharon and the Gilded Age in the West and John Mackay: Silver King in the Gilded Age, and coauthor of Cave Rock: Climbers, Courts, and a Washoe Indian Sacred Place, all from the University of Nevada Press. He lives in the eastern Sierra Nevada.