The Native Home of Hope: People and the Northern Rockies ed. by Thomas N. Bethell (review)

82 Western American Literature in John Muir, of course, to whom the glacier-carved shapes of the mountains were proof of eternal rightness; in John Hay, whose studies of terns (Spirit of Survival) are alive with images of their flashing flight. Lopez adds to this tradition with vivid observations of birds, polar bears, musk oxen, marine mammals, ice, weather, light, and landscape. What makes his observations tell is a strong sense of the experienced environment, the feel of things, the physical necessities that set perspective. He is alive to the Arctic. He is also aware of its vulnerability to the dreams of a worldwide culture that is emphatically not alive to the Arctic. To most, probably, the Arctic (if thought about at all) is a place where certain natural resources (whales, once; now oil) may be procured, but at a cost and with a bit of heroic drama. Edward Abbey has called Alaska the “last pork chop,” with reference to the mechanical devouring, spreading over the planet, that characterizes our time. Lopez too knows the score; has seen the rigs, pipelines, and airstrips, and talked with the people on the ground who ask only, “What else is it good for?” But he tries to avoid righteousness. The final feeling he has, overshadowing all else, is appreciation for what he has seen. The Arctic is still mostly wild—that is, whole—and what one can touch there, and to some degree experience, is the health that makes everything else possible. Arctic Dreams is evocative, careful, and reflective, and makes, I think, an important essay at its high themes. THOMAS J. LYON Utah State University The Native Home of Hope: People and the Northern Rockies. Edited by Thomas N. Bethell, Deborah E. Tuck and Michael S. Clark. (Salt Lake City and Chicago: Howe Brothers, 1986. 196 pages, $12.50.) In his preface to this fine collection of personalities and photographs from the core Rocky Mountain states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, Michael Clark declares that the book is “one effort to measure the rapidly changing political landscape of the Northern Rockies.” He goes on to say that “our challenge is to see whether we have the vision to guard for future generations the possibility that this region can remain what it has been for a fortunate few, the native home of hope.” The book is faithful to the ambition of its editors, who work under the auspices of the Northern Lights Research Institute. It does gives a good measure of the many facets of the political landscape of the Intermountain West, and its yardstick is a series of 23 interviews with 25 very interesting and independent personalities from the three states men­ tioned above. Judging by the general drift of what these opinionated people have to say, their concerns are similar (how can our land and our independent way of life be preserved against outside interests and internal ambition, Reviews 83 stupidity, greed) and their outlook is almost without exception one of opti­ mism, faith in the individual and hope that change can be made sensibly and not too swiftly so that our wide spaces can remain open to those who come with hopes and dreams of making a new life. The space of this review does not permit extensive sampling of the inter­ views, but let me report that of the 25 people whose stories and faces grace this cleanly printed book, 17 are men, 8 are women, and roughly an equal number come from each of the three states. Among the names are personalities that will be familiar to natives of the area as persons who have been active in local politics, conservation issues, journalism, women’s rights, farming issues, industry—many being persons whose roots go back several generations in the West—Belle Winestine, Reed Hansen, Perry Swisher, Gretchen and Harry Billings, Colleen Cabot and Jack Pugh, to name a few. The book is graced with striking black and white photographs of the landscape by Mike McClure, as well as fine portraits of each interviewee. Reading these open minds reaffirms the values and attitudes I have come to regard as the West’s richest resource. HARALD WYNDHAM Blue Scarab...