University of Montana Books

I read this book many years ago and then lost my copy of it, so I ordered another one on Amazon. This is the most moving book I have ever read. If you're into non-fiction westerns, this is the book for you. I found the first half a tad slow but the second half was fantastic. To this day, when I think about it, it almost brings tears to my eyes. The story was written from the memoirs of Andrew Garcia, a scout for Custer and tells of his adventures traveling through the west with his native american wives. I loaned this book to a friend and he shares my enthusiasm for it.

I purchased this book for my husband. He enjoyed it and passed it on to other readers.

Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice
This book's handwritten manuscript was found in a dynamite box in its author's Montana cabin after his death at age 88. Garcia was an original Western settler, arriving in Montana in 1878, one year after the famous Nez Perce Chief Joseph's surrender. If you want authentic Old West, here it is. Garcia tells it like he saw it, favoring neither Native Americans or Europeans. He marries three Indian women (sequentially) and leaves his past world behind. This book has romance, beauty, humor, deadly adventure. Danger. Thrillers come nowhere near this true story. Most of all, Andrew Garcia's soul shines through his writing. What a dear, good man. I wish I could have met him.

A Spanish-Texan quits his job wrangling for the Army in Montana to set out trapping and trading with the Indians. His stories - full of grandeur, intrigue, death and romance - never cease to have a ring of truth.
In Garcia's accounts he is never the hero, but rather the hapless greenhorn who escapes by the skin of his teeth and a generous apportionment of luck.
Written in true trapper/trader/rancher dialect, this book is a joy to read and a pity to finish. I love his insights and Tom Sawyer wisdom, self deprecation, and observations about life with the Indians (and life with whites).

this is a great story from one who lived with the indians during the time before their decline. this book is hard to put down.

I am always careful about books written by journalists from back East, especially when they deal with Montana's vigilantes. Frederick Allen, however, has made a worthwhile contribution to a controversial field.

I gave him five stars, although I do not entirely agree with some of his conclusions. It seems to surprise him, for example, when Plummer and some of his contemporaries started bouncing off the walls mentally after shooting somebody.

My experience in law enforcement has been that such behavior is normal. There are some sociopaths out there who just like to kill and don't feel any emotion about it, but they are few and far between despite what Hollywood scriptwriters would like you to believe.

This is a well written book, but it didn't change my opinion that the vigilantes cleaned up a situation that had spun out of control at a time when nobody else would, or could. The country was, after all, engaged in a bloody Civil War and the struggling miners in Montana's goldfields needed something to restore order in their isolated, vulnerable communities. Vigilante justice proved to be better than no justice at all.

One tends to associate the dark legacy of lynching almost exclusively with the South of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but in point of fact the most extensive episode of vigilante justice in American history actually took place in the Montana territories in the 1860s. The Montana vigilantes have long been hailed as heroes in Montana (Montana Highway Patrolmen, for example, still bear a patch honoring these men and their cause), men who took upon themselves the obligation to rid their community of dangerous individuals. In this thrilling historical account, however, Frederick Allen pries open the chinks in the vigilante movement's historical armor to show that their brand of frontier justice eventually descended into something much darker and much less defensible.

In the early 1860s, Montana was a wild country overrun by thousands of men clamoring for the new-found gold in its rivers and streams. Even as gold camps began appearing overnight, there was no government of any sort to oversee justice - just miners' courts to settle disputes over claims and the like. The nearest outpost of territorial authority lay hundreds of miles west of the Montana frontier. Thus, it is easy to see how lawlessness could prevail under such conditions; it manifested itself most particularly in the form of stagecoach robberies on the paths leading away from town. A man could lose a whole season's worth of gold dust in the blink of an eye, and such hold-ups could turn deadly on occasion. What could the settlers do to secure their safety and safe passage back to the States or elsewhere? There was no legal system in place in the territory, there were no cells to hold prisoners, and there were no courts or judges to adjudicate cases. There was a sheriff, however, a fascinating man named Henry Plummer - and he really stands at the core of the entire drama. He came to be suspected of complicity in the robberies and murders in the area, and this growing sense of doubt in their sheriff served as the final impetus for the leading men of Bannack and Virginia City to take the law into their own hands. Plummer was among the 21 men hanged during the first six weeks of 1864. There will always be a level of debate as to Plummer's guilt or innocence, and Allen examines this fascinating man's life in great detail. The real question is how a man twice convicted of murder could have become a sheriff in the first place, but this speaks to the true remoteness of the Montana territory in those days.

In all, 51 men were killed by the vigilantes over a six-year period. Allen agrees with the consensus opinion that the early stage of the movement was justified, as there is evidence that all 21 of the men lynched in the first six weeks of 1864 were guilty, dangerous men - including Henry Plummer. Were the story to stop there, the Montana vigilantes would deserve nothing but admiration for bringing order and security to their local community. They did not stop, however, and their activities inevitably devolved into acts of personal vengeance and the very perversion of justice. In that first crucial period of early 1864, accused men were given trials of a sort, their fates usually decided by the entire community. Hangings took place in broad daylight, and the identities of the vigilantes were in no way kept secret. As time went on, however, men were summarily executed by individuals acting upon little more than their own authority. With no hope or manner of defending themselves, it is very likely that some innocent men were hanged - and there can be little doubt that many of the guilty had not committed crimes serious enough to warrant death.

As is always the case in history, the most fascinating aspect of this whole story is the lives of the men involved. Allen identifies the vigilantes as leading citizens of the area, an unusual amalgamation of men both for and against the battle for Southern independence being waged during that chaotic time. Politics came to play a significant role in the whole saga, as the appointed leaders of the newly-established Montana Territorial government did themselves no favors by immediately alienating the significant number of Democrats among the local populace. This new government was ineffective at best, with the executive and judicial branches nullifying each other's authority - and this provided the pretext for the vigilantes to continue their operations.

A Decent, Orderly Lynching really is a fascinating book. Allen brings to life the mining camps of gold-rush Montana, recreating all aspects of society there on the remote frontier. He offers penetrating assessments of the men at the heart of this story, those on both sides of the hanging rope, drawing a sharp distinction between the early, honorable activities of brave men determined to establish order in their lawless region and the excesses of those who continued to pursue vigilante justice after Montana's new territorial government had been established. Through it all, he maintains an objective air, making his own judgments based on the evidence in hand - and his research efforts were impressive, to say the least. The story of the Montana vigilantes is a most telling part of the history of America, and Allen has done a superb job telling that story to those of us unfamiliar with it.

This amazing book works on three different levels. It is first of all a compelling, action-packed narrative of Montana's vigilante period - carefully researched, engagingly written, and peppered with memorable characters and dramatic action. Western fans will love it. But Allen does not stop there. His brilliant examination of Henry Plummer, the mysterious and elusive sheriff-protagonist, adds deeper and darker shadings to the story. This is less a black-and-white tale of heroes and villains than one about how power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The author does not trade in the romanticism surrounding the vigilantes. Finally, and most remarkably, Allen's book can be read as an allegory about the uses and misuses of all governmental power. In the nineteenth century, Montana's besieged citizens cried out for help against their version of terrorists -- only to discover belatedly that the response by unchecked governmental authorities could be equally lawless. Who would have thought that the Vigilante Trail led to Abu Ghraib?

People who hate "High Noon" have been known to cite the goings-on in Idaho Territory of the 1860s as proof that an enraged citizenry would never back down from outlaws. According to "eyewitness accounts," a locally formed vigilance committee rounded-up Sheriff Henry Plummer and his bloodthirsty compatriots and, with the aid of lots of rope, soon put an end to the rampant murder and robbery in the gold camps.

While this account made for excellent melodrama, it was a bit too pat to stand the test of time, and of late, had become the center of some arguing and fist shaking in the vicinity of Alder Gulch. Frederick Allen painstakingly examines the players and their times. His conclusions will not please the revisionists nor the vigilante apologists. While the vigilantes started out with the best of intentions and went after the worst of the thugs, their focus was lost in the chaos and power struggles of their era. Like many mavericks, they went from being heroes to embarassments.

But Allen confirms that Henry Plummer, George Ives & Co. were not martyrs of misdirected justice. It's too bad the vigilantes didn't have the forsight to stop while they were ahead.

This is the type of book that gives University Presses a good name. The author is a former political editor and columnist with the Atlanta Constitution and commentator for CNN. He has managed to write a scholarly yet reader friendly book that challenges some standard accounts of the famous Montana Vigilantes and their sometimes extra-legal activities. In what was the deadliest chapter of vigilante justice in American history, from 1864-1870, in excess of 50 men were hanged in Montana. The majority were inocent of capital crimes and a disturbing numer were innocent. This is a riveting book that will, in addition to bringing the reader up to date on a significant chapter in western history, cause one to ponder the significance of the Vigilantes on our current political debate over the war on terrorism. This is first rate scholarship in a reader friendly format. Highly recommended.

The writing style / language is like that spoken in the HBO series Deadwood. A bit hard to get used to but then an interesting read and a very clear glimpse of what it was like in Montana during the 1800's.

This fascinating document is an account of the notorious "road agents" operating in Montana in the early 1860s during and after the Alder Gulch gold strike. These men took over the towns of Alder Creek, Virginia City and Bannock and ran them as criminal enterprises. Eventually groups of ordinary citizens formed secret vigilante organizations to combat the road agents. Taking the law into their own hands they pursued, shot or hanged as many of the road agents as possible. On Virginia City's Boot Hill there are presently gravemarkers with the names of a number of the men mentioned in the book who were captured and hanged by the vigilantes. Dimsdale, the author, was born in England and took over editorship of the Virginia City paper. Some of the events he witnessed, but more he relates from the testimony of those who participated in them. The accounts are a bit confusing -- they read as newspaper reports and lack a historian's distance and clarity. But they make up for all faults in the immediacy of their telling. This is a very valuable document of life in the old west, and gives an extraordinary sense of what life was like in a raw mining town, too new to have any legitimate law enforcement. Mark Twain cites Dimsdale and quotes him copiously in "Roughing It," his account of his adventures in Carson City, Nevada, and other places in the West.

Dimsdale writes of Montana history in a clarity not often appreciated by some history authors. "The Vigilantes of Montana" brings, page after page, the gold-rush era of Montana Territory to the memory and eyes of the reader. This fascinating text tells the story as my ancestors told of living in Montana during this period. It is an excellent choice for any reader interested in a true account of the romantic and hostile West.

This was first given to me 1976. What I would do with this one, I don't care about vigilantes, I have no interest in Montana, and time is too precious to take it away from the 19th century, my favorite. It suddenly dawned upon me, this is the 19th century, and if someone is going to understand the mindset of the century, you will have to examine the mindset of the whole population. Reluctantly I picked the book up and began reading. Some hours later I set the book down sorry that the author had run out of words.

Thomas J. Dimsdale was an Englishman who settled in 1863 and Virginia City, Montana and in 1864 took over as editor of the Montana Post. The newspapers served as the first publisher in serial all of The Vigilantes of Montana and perhaps some of the writing in this book, some of the romantic element, some of the color of the book is explainable artifact it was first written for the newspaper. In this century that has arisen some question about the true facts surrounding the "villain" of the story. Henry Plummer arrived in the gold camp in Nevada City in 1852 and very soon participated in the wholesome disreputable houses when he saw fit to murder two men. By 1862 former was notorious as a boss of the gang of criminals. In 1863 moved to Montana and news was elected sheriff. This is the story of the vigilantes who tracked down, tried, and executed plumber and his gang of desperados. Some modern researchers who tried to prove Plummer innocent of the crimes for which he was executed.

The author describes this event in colorful detail and very readable narrative as you see in this excerpt:
"seeing that the circumstances were such as embedded of neither vacillation nor delay, the citizenry here, summoning his friends, when up to the party and gave the military command, "company! Forward march!" This was at once obeyed a rope taken from a noted functionary's bed and had been mislaid [more was immediately sent for and soon they were hundreds of feet of good hemp] ....
"The order to `Bring up Plummer' was then passed and repeated; but no one stirred. The leader went over to this `perfect gentleman', as his friends called him, and was met by a request to `Give a man time to pray.' Well knowing that Plummer relied on a rescue on other than Divine aid, he said briefly and decidedly, ' Certainly, but let him say his prayers up here.'"

And, "Soon after, the party formed and returned to the town leaving the corpses stiffening in the icy blast. The bodies were eventually cut down by the friends of the road agents and varied. The `Reign of Terror' in Bismarck was over." The book continues for another hundred and eighteen pages of the same where only the names and places are changed to condemn to posterity the guilty. At the end, the author provides a section of short biographies of the leading players.

This is an easy reading book, well worth what you might pay for it, and whether all of the factual information is an is factual is somewhat immaterial here because it does give a picture of these decades in the West India and Hollywood would be afraid to imagine.

After gold was discovered in the Bitter Root Mountains of present-day Montana in 1860, lawlessness followed the rush of miners into the region. Bannock and Virginia City became important centers within the mining districts, and by 1862 were typical western "shoot-em-up" towns teaming with unsavory characters, racked by violence, and basically "removed from the restraints of civilized society" and its laws. It's in that context that the Montana Vigilantes were created, a group that, according to the author, brought order out of chaos by offering "a shield of protection" to the citizens while wielding "a sword of retribution" against lawless marauders. An interesting development occurred in Bannock, however, in that the elected sheriff (Henry Plummer) apparently at the same time was the leader of the most notorious road gang (thieves and murderers) in the territory. Thomas Dimsdale, an Englishman who had gone to Viginia City in 1863 for his health and who shortly after operated the first newspaper published in Montana, wrote a series of articles for his paper about Plummer, his operations and agents, and the work of the vigilantes to bring to justice (often by hanging) these criminals, and these articles were later collected to make this book.

In 1987, a new biography of Plummer by R.E. Mather and F.E. Boswell threw Dimsdale's book into the realm of controversy by declaring a belief that Plummer was innocent of the crimes Dimsdale accused him of and that Dimsdale praised the work of the vigilantes too highly and uncritically. There is no doubt that Plummer had a criminal past before coming to Bannock (he was hanged there by the vigilantes in 1864), having served time in San Quentin for murder. Who is closer to presenting the truer picture is hard to say, but Dimsdale's work is a thrilling and dramatic account, a fascinating narrative that is as lively as a Max Brand western story.

I enjoyed this book immensely, but probably for the wrong reasons. The book is a bit chewy in places, but stick with it, as it's surprisingly enjoyable on it's own merits. On a more selfish, sadistic note, I had been mecilessly bludgeoned on a regulary basis by a work colleague, a second generation descendant of the Emerald Isle, with tales of Celtic martyrdom and Anglo tyranny, and none of which I felt I had the right to dispute. Then I read the book. After ten minutes of lively debate, challenging all he knew as 'fact', he has not spoken to me since. No-one had ever shut him up before. Heaven. But back to the point, I found this to be a rather good read.

Baby Cromwell, Nottingham, England

R. F. "Roy" Foster author of 'W. B. Yeats: The Apprentice Mage,' 'Charles Stewart Parnell: The Man and His Family' and 'Modern Ireland,' has written this experience and interpetation into Irish history and literature. He does a fine job of it. His bravery in massacring every sacred Irish cow as one would have fun reading it. It leaves you with a warm, passionate, giggly feeling. It's entertainingly brilliant look at the past and present Ireland. I particularly love the chapters and passages on Theme-parks & Histories (with some warning from Foster on expliotation); the chapters on Yeats; When the Newspapers Have Forgotten Me: Yeats, Obituarists and Irishness; Selling Irish Childhoods: Frank McCourt & Gerry Adams; and, Remembering 1798. They're totally smothered in clichés and lots of traditional tidbits of fond or fatal memories, known to some as the Irish experience.

Foster cleverly works moments of Ireland's past into narratives of Irish culture on myth, folklore, ghost stories and romance. The result is from a varied interpetation of opinionated and right down funny interlinking essays. In Theme-parks and Histories-Foster writes of the Irish are to remember or commemorate anything. It is worth remembering the upward curve of Irish cultural achievement-referring to W. B. Yeats, Hugh Leonard, Ezra Pound, Cashel Heritage Society and the 2,000-acre Famine Theme Park in Knockfierna Hill west of Limerick. Irish history, the most distinctive achievement for it. His suggestion to form a monument to Amnesia and forget where they put it. As a historian he would be shocked, but as an Irishman he would be attracted to the idea. Foster shows no mercy on his view of manipulating Irish history on political places and Irish poverty and oppression as a commerically packaged heritage park. His exploration of Yeats' authority of the Irish story's fitting moments as the voice of his Ireland countrymen.

Foster leaves teeth-marked criticism of Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes) and Gerry Adams and their devil may care attittude of taking hostages for fortune. Transcending into the bestsellerdom of Irish childhoods. Simply a technique of marketing where Irish version brag and whimper about the woes of their early years' experience. I find this to be an entertaining reading. In some places a bit wordy, but good telling of Irish culture. You may hate or love it. But, if your interest is in Irish history and literature it's quite essential.

Irish people of all persuasions and in all walks of life have developed a talent for building up a national history to their liking and drawing conclusions from it. Roy Foster's essays are about some of the ways in which Ireland's history has been interpreted, embroidered, exploited and packaged. I think everyone will agree there are cogent reasons for preserving the distinction between history and "national fiction". Ultimately, poor history makes poor propaganda, and propaganda in any case is a shabby use to put something as precious as a nation's history. This book is essential reading for people with an interest in Ireland. (I also recommend strongly the same author's earlier "Modern Ireland 1600-1972".)

This book ought to be on the shelf of anyone with an interest in Irish history. Foster has done an excellent job at making his points about the various 'uses' that history in Ireland has been employed for. From downright propaganda to 'memoirs' masquerading as vague truths he unleashes the power of clear thinking and valid sources. For so long Irish history has been treated as 'story' and this book attempts and succeeds in telling the difference. It is so refreshing to see something sensible in print! It is a great source book or reference and could also be read by delving into the different subjects in the index. I would recommend this for all who are involved in getting to know the real history of Ireland and the Irish and how some Irish 'history' came to be written in the first place.

Porter's tongue-in-cheek treatment of the marketing of Ireland is refreshing after an avalanche of Irish hype came from unscrupulous little publishers.The Disneynification of Ireland ,apparently propelled by American ad agencies for the Irish Tourist Board,is treated by Porter correctly as hype to snare innocent Irish-Americans.Porter gets almost every hilarious Irish twist of recent decades in this collection of exposes, including the hilarious, almost unbelievable marketing of the potato famine in Disney-like theme parks.Unfortunately, he closed his collection of revionist chapters without pointing to the biggest Irish hype of all -the invention and collapse of " The Celtic Tiger", based on runaway inflation and a Dublin stock market bubble that aped the rise and fall of America's Nasdaq.Foster's book is a must if you wish a clearer view of the Irish .

As the son of the Range, Bob Jansson, this book had special meaning to me. Although there have been other books written about this fire, this is the only one that I know of that gives the reader a view from the men and families involved. I commend the author for his work and highly recommend this book.

As a volunteer fire fighter/EMT here in southwest Montana, and a wildland firefighter during the summer months, when things heat up in our fire district, I purchased the book for some wintertime reading to start thinking about the upcoming wildland fire season. As I said in my title "A book with an ending you already know.." it is both an interesting and hard book to read, from the standpoint of knowing/wondering what was going through the minds of those smokejumpers as they were trying to outrun an upsloping fire racing towards them. You already know how the book ends, and there is a sadness in reading the book- as a firefighter, we go out enthusiastically to fight these fires, like soldiers going off to fight a war, but in our case, nobody is supposed to get hurt or killed. Every paging tone and deployment is the start of another great adventure, and we never think of what could happen when things go terribly bad. I now understand why that when I go out on out of district deployments(under someone elses control), my local fire chief has us check in as often as we can, to let him know we are safe and sound, and that we not putting ourselves in any unneccesary danger.
When I finished the book, I promised myself to start packing a bottle of "hurricane matches" in the pants pocket of my wildland pants, just like Wag Dodge did, which saved his life that fateful day in August 1949.

All in all, a great book for those trying to understand the human side of the Mann Gulch Fire of 1949.

Dayle Flynn
Firefighter/EMT
Columbus, MT Fire-Rescue Department

The Mann Gulch,MT. fire of 1949 was a seminal point in modern wildfires firefighting for the U.S. Forest Service. The deaths of 13 firefighters caused the Forest Service to implement training programs and develop safety equipment and protocols still being refined today.
Not since Norman MacLean's award winning book Young Men and Fire, published in 1992,has there been a real effort to revisit the fire and never has there been such an authoritative treatment of the personal dimensions of the tragedy as provided by the victim's families, close friends, and coworkers.
This is a heart stopping, minute-by-minute personal account of the men who fought, and died, in a wildfire that has forever remained in the nation's consciousness. The reader that has read both Young Men and Fire and this book will have as complete account of the tragedy as we are ever likely to get.

Mark Matthews has written about the Mann Gulch fire before, and avid readers of firefighting literature may readily recognize both his style and the events. But what makes A GREAT DAY TO FIGHT FIRE memorable is its different focus on the people who fought the fire, rather than just strategies and events. Chapters in A GREAT DAY TO FIGHT FIRE focuses on the victim's families and the personal impact of the fire upon firefighters, family members, survivors, and community members: as such it's an essential piece of information key to any collection strong in firefighting literature - and any general-interest library interested in true-life heroism.

This is a model of how to write about tribal politics today. It is sympathetic yet balanced, and devoid of ideological posturing. The authors are a political scientist, a historian, and a lawyer, and they bring their combined backgrounds to the study of government on Montana's seven Indian reservations.

They find success stories such as Fort Peck and Flathead, and failures of governance coexisting with potential wealth, such as the Crow. Rocky Boy's and Fort Belknap represent the all-too-common depressing story of a community trapped in a cycle of poverty. The Northern Cheyenne case is particularly interesting because they argue that politics reflects a choice between two values (economic development versus traditional values), and the tribe has legitimately decided against development.

The focus throughout the book is squarely on politics on the reservation. Outsiders-- whether natural resources corporations, the State of Montana, or the Bureau of Indian Affairs-appear in the book when they interfere in reservation affairs, but the authors emphasize the choices that Native Americans make (or fail to make) for themselves. Though they do not say so directly, the authors' guiding light is really the Federalist Papers: constitutionalism, a separation of powers, legitimacy and effective leadership are all important in governance. One might criticize this stance as a form of intellectual imperialism, though when one sees the failures of the Crow reservation in particular, it's clear that a greater concern for these institutional rules would be useful regardless of culture.

The reservations have 2000-7000 resident members each, making them the size of small towns in population terms. One might ask whether the conventional categories of municipal government (mayor and council, town administrator, etc.) would be useful models for revised tribal constitutions, making due allowance for tribal sovereignty and cultural distinctiveness.

In the study of contemporary Aboriginal peoples, this book is a breath of fresh air. I am a second year Native Studies and Canadian Studies double-major at Trent University in Canada. Most books dealing with tribal government and modern native people talk about Native conflicts with the European colonizers and the US government. While this is certainly a worthy topic and one that needs to be brought to attention of far more people throughout the world, this book answers a question that has been left untouched: "Do these tribal governments promote soverignty and do they respresent their people in a positive way?" I find this book, which focused specifically on the Montana Reservations, invaluable for three reasons. The first is that it makes important distinctions between the different tribes and forms of government, thus dispelling the myth that all Native tribes and people think alike and/or face the same circumstances. Second, the book talks about the phenomenon of conflict within tribes, as well as conflict between tribal governments and their members. It does not ignore the effect that outside policies and peoples have had on tribal governments, but it is not the main focus of the text. This has largely been ignored in academic scholarship, and this reveals how complex contemporary Native society is and also a good starting point for other explorations, such as Native activism that deals specifically with their tribal governments. Finally, the book is humble in its demeanor, which is unfortunately, becoming more uncommon in academic scholarship today(i.e. Ward Churchill). The authors are non-Native, and admit that they are NOT trying to provide a definitive answer or conclusion for tribes, but are simply trying to provoke further examination and discussion on the topic. They never claim to hold an academic or intellectual monopoly or superiority over others. Overall, this book a refreshing view of Native peoples, their contemporary governments, and the issues that plague Indian Country. It is also interesting for myself in seeing what the future might hold for Canadian Native tribes, who are still struggling to obtain soverignty and self-government.

This compilation provides students and professionals with a fine overview of 20th century politics in Montana. Recommended for upper-level undergrads, graduate students, and those seeking a deeper understanding of a legacy of injustice. A must!

this book is a window into an American lifestyle that few today still experience or understand. adventuresome, humorous, and informative. excellent book!

Though I am not a hunter, I enjoyed this book a great deal. As in SKETCHES FROM THE RANCH, Aadland brings to life a place and its people, and you want to be there, with them. The author describes the rifles he owned with the same affection and sensitivity he brings to his descriptions of nature. You feel his boyhood excitement, identify with the adventures--and misadventures--of family life, and appreciate his extensive knowledge and love of his natural surroundings. Aadland's life as a hunter, from his boyhood initiation to new discoveries with his grown boys, exemplifies what he calls the "hunters paradox" -- the meeting of the willingness to kill with a deep reverence for life. Whether you are more entertained by the hunt or by the Montana love story, this book will satisfy.

Luana Ross demonstrates superb scholarship by weaving a rich variety of sources, including written documents and oral interviews. The result is a work which provides voice for the women prisoners, in particular Native American women prisoners. This ground breaking book provides an analytical portrayal of the experiences of these women. She sets it within the framework of realities of life in Montana, as well as, larger concepts of racism and colonization. Inventing the Savage is a must read book in the field.

This book is a model of what research on Native communities should look like. Ross allows Native women in prison to tell their stories, and then she brilliantly contextualizes these stories within the larger context of racism, sexism, and colonialism. Unlike so many other books on Native communities, she does not portray Native peoples as tragic characters, but demonstrates the ways they resist oppression. A must read

I first read this book back in the early 60's when I was stationed in Montana. I found it full of facts that you don't find in history books. The characters are real and believable; makes you wish you had a time machine to go back and witness the action. A must for history buffs.

If you want to know the story of Montana, this is where you start. It's written by the best journalist-writer who ever lived in the state (excluding Bud Guthrie, of course, who chose fiction instead). It must be understood that it is not a "definitive history" as Howard himself stated, but a personal narrative of what matters. In the past two decades, a cottage industry of Howard-bashing has emerged in Montana, by historians eager to establish their own reputations. Yes, some of what Howard wrote was incorrect. Other aspects of his writings now seem outmoded (the colonial economy thing). But to say modern history proves Joe Howard was wrong is like saying Lewis and Clark are disproven by Rand-McNally. Howard was the visionary who showed the way to what Montana should and could be. But 50 years later, this remains the best non-fiction book that will ever be written about Montana.

This text is a great academic source for the serious study (as opposed to 'those Indians did some nice art') of petroglyphs and pictographs in general, and more specifically for the key sites in Wyoming and near Billings. The writing is clear, concise and precise. The sources cited are all solid and the bibliography is valuable. The printing is excellent and the cover is very appealing to view. It is the best book on the subject. I am happy someone wrote it.