The Chief: Ernest Thompson Seton and the Changing West by H. Allen Anderson (review)

180 Western American Literature The reader of the book is “delighted” by the stark beauty of the many pictures—more pictures than there are pages. Light (direct, reflected, and refracted), illuminating the landscape, produces patterns and colors, predom­ inantly reds, oranges, yellows, and browns, that please the eye and mind. The photographs representing the work of twenty-eight nature photographers, attempt to capture a fundamental part of the Colorado Plateau, creating a spirit that those familiar with the area recognize. The thoughts of thirty-three contributing writers paint word-pictures which in many cases are as startling and delightful as the photographs; and although some of the description is overly elaborate and ornate, the reality of the Colorado Plateau seems to demand poetic and eloquent expression. Stephen Trimble’s influence on the book, both as editor and contributor, is evident. He has provided an intellectual and aesthetic experience for the reader. The layout of the book is artfully done; the pictures enhanced by ample border. As the reader experiences the book, his consciousness is raised. He better understands the relationship of a land filled with monolithic rocks, mesas, high plateaus, and sacred mountains to those people, frequently Indian, who inhabit it. According to Frank Waters, “Geology here forever dominates life and gives it its ultimate meaning.” Those who have lived within the rather indefinite boundaries of this region find something that is nowhere else. The reader begins to believe that he is gaining access to it. The book, which has dealt so much in light, also places a new light upon the experience of the Colorado Plateau. If we and our progeny are to continue to benefit in the terms the experience provides—meaning, identity, harmony, and belonging—we must do something to preserve it from an encroaching population and materialistic development. Blessed byLight: Visions of the Colorado Plateau isan unique and worth­ while experience. LEON L. PETERSON Eastern Arizona College The Chief: Ernest Thompson Seton and the Changing West. By H. Allen Anderson. (College Station, Texas A&M University Press, 1986. 363 pages, $35.00.) Anderson approaches Seton’s life, times, and works differently than others who have pictured Seton as a Progressive Era easterner socializing with well-known naturalists, artists, and government figures in the U. S., Canada, and Europe, whose westward travels often seem to have been regarded largely as a naturalist’s field trips. Anderson, on the other hand, sees the North American West exerting a pull on Seton beginning in his youth and growing in influence until, in later years, Seton broke his eastern ties and became a westerner in way of life and in pursuit ofaims. Reviews 181 Using an exhaustive bibliography, the author presents the main events in Seton’s life and his contributions to various fields, but Anderson’s primary concern is with Seton “as a people’s man, a family man, and as a social com­ mentator” and as a western man who “during most of his adult life was first and foremost an Indian at heart.” Nevertheless, Seton, like his famous Lobo, is not easy prey and appears to have maintained an elusive inner world. Anderson agrees that Seton was “paradoxical, mysterious, and complex,” and admits in his epilogue that Seton remains an “enigmatic figure.” The breadth and depth of Anderson’s research enable him not only to support his premises but also to shed light on earlier problem areas reported by Seton himself and by others. Good examples are the treatment of Seton’s disagreement with John Burroughs and of Seton’spart in founding England’s Boy Scouts and the Boy Scouts of America, a matter that rankled Seton for nearly forty years. The biography is interesting, well-written, and excellently annotated. Moreover, the fifty-one page bibliography is valuable by itself. One group of pictures portrays Seton at various ages; a second shows some of Seton’s art. The work favors Seton, and, like many before him, Anderson seems at times to have fallen under Black Wolf’sspell. He isfrequently “sure,” “certain,” and “doubtless,” whereas “seem” and “appear” might have been more objective. DON E. GRIBBLE Hibbing, Minnesota Paper Medicine Man: John Gregory Bourke and His American West. By Joseph...