Wakara’s America: The Life and Legacy of a Native Founder of the American West
Wednesday, February 4 at 5pmÌý
ENVD 134
In an upcoming event, Prof. Max Perry Mueller (University of Nebraska Lincoln) and Forrest Cuch (Northern Ute) will discuss Prof. Mueller's recent book . Ìý
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From the book: ÌýThe Native American leader Wakara (ca. 1815-1855) was among the most influential and feared men in the 19th century American West. ÌýIn Wakara’s America, historian Max Perry Mueller illuminates Wakara’s complex and sometimes paradoxical story, revealing a man who both helped build the settler American West and defended Native sovereignty. ÌýWakara was baptized a Mormon and allied with Mormon settlers against other tribal nations to seize large parts of modern-day Utah; yet a pan-tribal uprising against the Mormons that now bears Wakara’s name stalled and even temporarily reversed colonial expansion. ÌýDrawing together deep archival research with Native oral histories, archaeology, geology, and ecology, Wakara’s AmericaÌýoffers an innovative new vision of the history of the American West with Native people at its center. ÌýIt serves as a powerful testament to Wakara’s legacy, which endures in his story, in his tribal descendants, and in their stewardship of their ancestral lands today. Ìý
This event is being cosponsored by the Department of Religious Studies, the Center for the American West, the Department of History, the Department of Ethnic Studies, and the Office of Native American Affairs. Ìý
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