This fresh interpretation of the history of Navajo (Diné) pastoralism recounts how a dramatic reduction of livestock on the Navajo Reservation in the 1930s, an ambitious attempt by the federal government to eliminate overgrazing on an arid landscape, resulted in a disastrous loss of livelihood for Navajos without significant improvement of the grazing lands.
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I'm not a huge fan of this kind of work so I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. Weisiger documents the failures of both the federal government and the Diné (Navajo) in response to the failing range on the Navajo Reservation. The mass slaughter of goats, sheep, and horses by the federal government not only failed to repair the range as conservationists hoped, but it also created a powerful legacy that overshadows the better parts of Collier's Indian New Deal program in the Navajo Country.
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1 released bookWeyerhaeuser Environmental Books is a 10-book series first released in 1991 with contributions by Jakobina K Arch, Christopher W. Wells, and 7 others.
