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Book Review
| The River We Have Wrought: A History of the Upper Mississippi. By John O. Anfinson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003. 336 pp. Cloth $29.95.Big Sky Rivers: The Yellowstone & Upper Missouri. By Robert Kelley Schneiders. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003. xviii + 374 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $35.00.
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| John Anfinson and Robert Schneiders both approach the history of northern rivers with a concern for changing paradigms of human-nature interactions. Schneiders describes his approach as "examination of a biotic community ... [which] includes the Upper Missouri watershed and its flora and fauna, including Homo sapiens" (p. 1). Anfinson focuses primarily on the Upper Mississippi River and humans' relationships with it. The two authors differ, however, in their understandings of the causes of historical change and their writing styles. |
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Anfinson provides a focused history of the technology, resource-use patterns, and natural environment that created a series of three strikingly different Mississippi Rivers between St. Louis and Minneapolis-St. Paul in roughly a century. The river of the 1820s meandered and provided habitat for a wide range of flora, fish, fowl, and other animals. With 4, 4.5, and 6-foot channel projects undertaken between the 1860s and 1920s, the Army Corps of Engineers confined the river to a single main channel for navigation. This change created a fast flowing river and favored certain plants and animals. In the 1920s, Congress established the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge between Rock Island, Illinois, and Wabasha, Minnesota. The refuge protected wetlands adjacent to the river from drainage and agricultural development. The 9-foot channel project, launched in the 1930s, marked a significant change in engineering styles. The Corps built cross-river dams that created slack water ponds, again primarily for navigation, and a third ecosystem. |
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Schneiders, in Big Sky Rivers, constructs a much more dramatic tale of social and ecological change. He contrasts the world of the Teton Sioux with the world of Euroamericans. The Sioux were part of "bison ecology," a world of free flowing rivers, bison, and nomadism. The early nineteenth century Upper Missouri and Yellowstone rivers were vivacious with constantly changing channels, annual floods, and fertile bottomlands. Bison covered the land and "developed and maintained roads" (p. 62) throughout the region. Sioux livelihood and culture depended on bison, which provided food, shelter, and clothing and became part of art and spiritual lives. In contrast, Euroamericans created an "extractive geography" in the region. This change began with exploration by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Fur trade, bison slaughter, containment of Sioux on reservations, development of land for agriculture, and engineering of the Upper Missouri for navigation, irrigation, flood control, hydroelectricity, and recreation completed the transformation. |
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While both Anfinson and Schneiders successfully describe changes in nature-human systems, they identify markedly different causes of change. Anfinson focuses on the groups that lobbied for major federal projects on the river and the reasons they supported projects. Basic questions that guide his work include: "Who fought for the projects and why? What exactly were they fighting for? What arguments and issues did they use? What was the national sentiment when Congress authorized each project? How have the visions Americans have held for the upper Mississippi River and its purposes evolved?" (p. xv). Schneiders often identifies ecology as an active force that shapes and is shaped by history. For example, he attributes Indian warfare to ecology. As nomadic hunters, Sioux followed bison herds. If the herds crossed lands of other Indians, war followed. Sioux also fought with Euroamericans to resist confinement to reservations that would have prevented them from following herds. Similarly, Schneiders argues bison declined in part because of Euroamerican disruptions to ecology, including the fur trade and steamboats. |
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In addition to explaining change differently, Anfinson and Schneiders write in very different styles. Anfinson aims for a balanced history that will inform contemporary debates over development of the Upper Mississippi. "The questions raised and speculations offered here demonstrate the complexity and weight of decisions. ... No side has the inherently right answers. ... My goal has been to get people interested in the debate over the river's future" (p. 292). In the tradition of activist history, Schneiders praises Sioux lifeways and condemns Euroamerican: "If redemption exists ... it lies not in heaven but on earth. Spiritual, economic, and cultural revival is attainable through the deconstruction of contemporary extractive geography and the reconstruction of ancient bison and Indian geography" (p. 4). |
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Overall, both books have merit. The clear portrayals of the changing paradigms of human-nature systems add depth to our understanding of river development as a historical phenomenon by showing effects on nature as well as on people. |
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Karin Ellison on holds a PhD from the Program in Science, Technology and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her areas of interest include multiple-purpose river development, the environmental history of nuclear technologies, and federal regulation of scientific research. |
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