Still the Wild River Runs
Byron E. Pearson

In the environmental history of the West, the defeat of the proposal to build two dams in the Grand Canyon during the 1960s is considered a defining moment. According to the standard account of the event, the dam-the-river forces suffered a major setback when the Sierra Club led a national campaign to defeat the plan. Public indignation was roused, and the project went down in defeat. Viewed as the savior of the Grand Canyon, the Sierra Club became a leader in the U.S. environmental movement.

This book offers a revisionist view of the event. The author questions whether the Sierra Club's call to public arms was in fact the deciding factor that influenced Congress to turn down the dams. He makes the case that political expediency or wheeling and dealing made the difference, with Secretary of Interior Stewart Udall deleting the dams from the Central Arizona Project and espousing a more stripped down version to ensure the project's congressional passage.

In making his case, the author is not out to discredit the Sierra Club's environmental leadership and achievements, which have been considerable, but rather his goal is historical accuracy. He says, "As a person with a legal background who was not involved in the controversy, I have examined the documentary evidence as objectively as possible and have come to the conclusion the evidence supports." 250 pp, $45.

Native Waters
Daniel McCool

The conflict between Indians and non-Indians over water rights has left a bitter legacy, marked by suspicion and injustice. Initial efforts to settle matters were confined to the courtroom, with parties engaged in costly and drawn-out legal proceedings in efforts to resolve water rights. Progress was slow and laborious, and in the 1980s the federal government shifted strategies from deciding cases in the courtroom to negotiating water right settlements. Negotiated settlements became the strategy of choice for determining water rights.

According to the author, settlements are changing water rights in fundamental ways, both for tribes and non-Indian communities sharing scarce water resource with Indians. He says the shift to settlements was sufficiently significant to consider their adoption and use as a second treaty era. He questions, however, whether settlements will truly guarantee the water future of reservations or like first-era treaties Indians will lose out in the end.

The book is a very readable account, providing discussions of specific water settlements without going into the technical details of water policy. The perspective is on actual people involved in on-going efforts to resolve water disputes that have continued for decades. The strategy that is adopted to resolve Indian water claims is viewed as an indication of who we are as a nation and how we confront difficult issues involving race, culture and the environment. 260 pp, 45.

The above two books are available from The University of Arizona Press; phone: 520-621-1441; fax: 520-621-8899; web site: www.uapress.arizona.edu