Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Black Deathways: An African Methodist History, 1829-1916, Christina M. Varney

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study will focus on the transformations of death practices and the shifting roles of death workers from 1829-1916. The Postbellum portion of this study will focus on African Methodist communities in the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee as practices and people moved West to the states of Montana, Colorado, and California. These practices experienced changes as a result of rising literacy rates, the establishment of Black churches, and from the movement of Black people within the South. More changes occurred with the creation of mutual aid societies and Black-owned funeral homes. Black funeral directors …

The Bluff And Blanding Fights: Race, Religion, And Settler Colonialism In Progressive-Era America, Reilly Ben Hatch

History ETDs

This project uses the Bluff War of 1915 and the Posey War of 1923—both of which took place in southeastern Utah—to look at the complex relationship between race, religion, and culture in American Indian policy at the beginning of the twentieth century. It shows how White Mesa Utes, local Mormon settlers, the federal government, and Progressive activists used the conflicts to argue the place of Indians in a “frontier-less” America. It also examines the complex relationship between Mormons and Indians and draws conclusions on how that relationship was influenced by an American government which sought to assimilate “others” into the …

Within The Shadow Of The Cowboy: Myths And Realities Of The Old American West, Katherine Lamb

Undergraduate Theses

It has been argued that the American cowboy is the most widely misunderstood and misinterpreted figure in American history. This mythic figure does not look like the real ranch hands who littered the American West throughout the nineteenth century, nor does he act like them. Instead, he is set apart, as a figurehead of masculinity and American ideals, determined to roam the frontier as a guardian of justice and stability. This version of the cowboy, however, is not bound within the pages of novels or within limitations of film. Instead, the cowboy’s ideals, persona, look, and code remain a vivid …

How The West Was Fun: Constructing The Western Tourism Experience In The Yellowstone Wylie Camps, 1880-1916, Jennifer E. Simpson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Beyond Suffrage: Intermarriage, Land, And Meanings Of Citizenship And Marital Naturalization/Expatriation In The United States, Shiori Yamamoto

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation investigates how the laws of marital naturalization/expatriation, namely the Citizenship Act of 1855, the Expatriation Act of 1907, and the Cable Act of 1922 and its amendments throughout the 1930s, impacted the lives of women who married foreigners, especially in the American West, and demonstrates how women directly and indirectly challenged the practice of marital naturalization/expatriation. Those laws demanded women who married foreigners take the nationality of their husbands depending on the race of women and their husbands, making married women’s citizenship dependent on that of their husbands. Particularly under the Expatriation Act of 1907, all American women …

A Historical Case Study Of Title Ix In Nevada: An Excellent Investment In Our Youth, Jason Clark

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to examine and document the history of Title IX in the American West, specifically at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), and at Clark County School District (CCSD) in Las Vegas, Nevada. This thesis contends that since the late nineteenth-century, women have utilized sports as a method to shed discriminatory stereotypes, fight for inclusion, and promote gender equality. In addition, the progressive actions of educational administrators and community leaders regarding Title IX make both UNR and CCSD exceptional institutions for gender equality. This thesis contains six chapters including the introduction and conclusion. Chapter 1 …

Control Of Violence, Control Of Fear: The Progression Of Gun Control In San Francisco, 1847-1923, Josselyn P. Huerta

All Master's Theses

This paper focuses on gun control in San Francisco between 1847 and 1923, from the control of the rowdy men of the gold rush, to the management of the Chinese, to the control of the sale and distribution of firearms. For the purpose of this study, the main sources used to understand public perceptions are newspapers, specifically the Daily Alta California, San Francisco Call, and San Francisco Chronicle. While it is impossible to completely recreate the attitudes towards guns, newspapers provide a window into public opinion, while also providing multiple opinions on the same or similar subjects. In addition, …

Alpine Experiments: The National Parks And The Development Of Skiing In The American West, Jeffrey T. Meyer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In 1886, the U.S. Army mounted cavalry soldiers on skis to patrol the winter landscape of Yellowstone National Park. Prior to Yellowstone's skiing soldiers, the U.S. government had no formal relationship with skiing. In Yellowstone, the Army initiated the U.S. government's intimate and enduring relationship with skiing in the American West. When the National Park Service (NPS) took over the management of Yellowstone, the government's involvement with western skiing transferred over to the NPS. Upon its creation in 1916, the NPS inherited a national park system primarily carved from the high western mountains and embraced the promotion of recreational skiing …

The Pacific Crest Trail: A History Of America’S Relationship With Western Wilderness, Jenn Livermore

Scripps Senior Theses

The Pacific Crest Trail has become increasingly popular since Clinton Clarke first envisioned such a trail in the 1930’s. By comparing the original motives and experience of the trail to the realities of the trail today, the trail’s fluid narrative becomes apparent. While this narrative is ever changing, over the course of the trail’s history one theme has remained constant – a notably problematic relationship with wilderness rooted in an exaltation of the sublime and post-frontier ideals. This thesis focuses on how the Pacific Crest Trail’s development over the past eighty years has created an experience that, on the surface, …

Annie Proulx's Wyoming: Subversive Storytelling From The Bunchgrass Edge Of The World, Elizabeth P. Tyson

Scripps Senior Theses

Annie Proulx’s three Wyoming short story collections, Close Range, Bad Dirt, and Fine Just the Way It Is, tell regional stories that push against the myths surrounding the American West. Elements of Naturalism in her work reverse the paradigm of man’s dominance over the frontier. The cyclical nature of time in her stories shows the unfulfilling nature of nostalgia. She uses folk storytelling techniques to take an insider’s perspective and to utilize the subversive nature of dark humor.

The Bombs Bursting In Air: A History Of The Effects Of Atmospheric Nuclear Weapons Testing On Washington County, Utah, 1951-1963, Paul W. Bridges Ii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the effects of atmospheric nuclear weapons tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site from 1951-1962 on Washington County, Utah, specifically focusing on the effects of these detonations on the local population, the local flora and fauna, and the ensuing impact of political and economic forces. While some Americans readily concede that these tests were necessary for the survival of the United States in the face of Soviet nuclear aggression, other Americans (notably, those who were most closely affected) do not share such a patriotic view of the government’s conduct in performing such extensive and damaging experiments. Therefore, …

Claiming Citizenship: Las Vegas' Conventional Women's Organizations Establishing Citizenship Through Civic Engagement, Cynthia Cicero

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Many historians of American women portray women's organized civic engagement and work to attain social, economic, and legal equality as feminism. American feminism has been expanded and applied in scholarship. The American feminists of the 1960s wanted to alter the male power structure and redefine conventional notions of womanhood. However, many middle-class women who participated in community and civic organizations valued their roles as wives, mothers, and homemakers, expressing their citizenship and community work as an extension of these roles. Their motivation in pursuing equality was to gain full citizenship status.

In this thesis, I argue that viewing women's civic …

Captivity, Adoption, Marriage And Identity: Native American Children In Mormon Homes, 1847-1900., Michael Kay Bennion

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Indigenes of North America's Great Basin developed a way of life based on the available resources the Basin provided. Their culture and customs provided a stable means of understanding and interacting with nature and men. Their myths elaborated on expectations, hopes, and fears, in real and metaphorical ways, as evidenced by stories of the trickster Coyote. As Great Basin bands contacted Europeans, they adjusted their resource gathering based on new technologies, such as horses and guns, as well as their myths to cope with change. This process entailed some adjustment in their perceptions of the world around them and …

George Drouillard And John Colter: Heroes Of The American West, Mitchell Edward Pike

CMC Senior Theses

A study of George Drouillard's and John Colter's involvement in the expansion and exploration of the American West. This thesis looks at their contributions as a part of the Corps of Discovery and during the American fur trade. The thesis will also look into why men such as Drouillard and Colter and their contributions have been overlooked in recent history.

The Darker Side Of Americas Wonderland A Study Of The First Four Decades Of Yellowstone National Park, Elizabeth M. Sargent

Honors Theses

Those who first stumbled across the steaming, bubbling land of Northwestern Wyoming in 1860s and early 1870s described it as “Hell on Earth.” Over the course of a few decades, the land underwent a vast transformation, which replaced “Hell” with “Wonderland” in visitors’ minds. The year 1872 represents a turning point in environmental legislation and marks the conception of Yellowstone, America’s first national park. While creating a national park preserved, for the first time, the country’s natural wonders, the 1872 act included no direction for management, no allocation of funds for upkeep, and no system set in place to manage …

Sex In The Kitchen: The Re-Interpretation Of Gendered Space Within The Post-World War Ii Suburban Home In The West, Philip M. Lockette

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the decades following 1945, Americans moved increasingly out of cities into suburbs. The migration illustrated the emergence of a new, broader middle class as a result of growing postwar affluence. In the previous half-century, families living in a suburb could claim middle-class status. The emerging class built its identity on the forms and values adopted from this earlier, more affluent Victorian middle class. These adopted values were played out in a home designed around Progressive era ideals of the family. Through this Progressive filter, the new concept of the home was scaled down, without servants, and ceased existing wholly …

Traditions In Transition: Basques In America, Alissa Peterson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The Basque Museum & Cultural Center’s newest corridor exhibit, Traditions in Transition: Basques in America, is an interpretive exhibit based primarily on material culture artifacts, photographs and literature. The exhibit provides a physical and thematic transition between the museum’s entryway exhibits and the main gallery exhibit. Traditions in Transition uses six corridor cases to exhibit six topics under an overarching theme of Basque migration and expression of their ethnicity through various cultural artifacts, practices, and traditions. This pattern is common largely among European immigrant groups’ later generations. The exhibit addresses how the Basque immigrants adapted these cultural practices to their …

John C. Freemont's Expeditions Into Utah: An Historical Analysis Of The Explorer's Contributions And Significance To The Region, Alexander L. Baugh

Theses and Dissertations

John Charles Fremont conducted five expeditions to the West during a period of twelve years (1842-1854). On four occasions, during three of these expeditions (1843-1844, 1845, and 1854), the explorer entered the Utah region. His explorations in northern Utah in 1843 focused primarily on the scientific analysis and survey of the Great Salt Lake. In 1844, Fremont again entered the Utah area and made scientific observations and calculations about the region, including accurately defining the geographic region known as the Great Basin, the name given it by Fremont. In 1845, Fremont proceeded through Utah while enroute to California and spent …