American Studies Commons^™

"Only You Can Prevent A Forest": Agent Orange, Ecocide, And Environmental Justice, Charles Waugh

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Desert Solecisms: The Revitalization Of Self And Community Through Edward Abbey, The Cold War, And The Sacred Fire Circle, Lyra Hilliard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This creative thesis is a braided narrative in which I explore the promised lands of Utah through my travels in the summer of 2008, the Cold War defense industry, and the early career of writer Edward Abbey. America's domestic and foreign policy shifts in the first decade of the Cold War contributed to the rise of modern environmentalism and to the creation of countless new religious movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s. To illustrate the cataclysmic upheavals of this era, each chapter of this thesis has been organized according to anthropologist Anthony F. C. Wallace's schema of revitalization …

Thaw: A Memoir, Diane Bush

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This collection of creative nonfiction essays is a hybrid text of visual and verbal narratives located broadly within the genres of memoir, research-based nonfiction, and history. Women's memoirs, including a number of non-traditional texts, historical narratives, and an archival collection of photographs, provided springboards for the exploration of and reflection on the emotional terrain of loss, the ache of remembrance, and the ultimate desire for peace.

Ultimately, this work is a search for solace amidst emotional upheaval, beginning in childhood, after the deaths of my father, mother, first husband, and beloved aunt. Unable to sit still with my grief, I …

Bushnell General Military Hospital And The Community Of Brigham City, Utah During World War Ii, Andrea Kaye Carter

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Bushnell General Military Hospital was an Army World War II hospital in Brigham City, Utah from August 1942 to June 1946. It specialized in treating amputations, maxillofacial surgery, neuropsychiatric conditions, and tropical diseases. It was also one of the first hospitals to experimentally use penicillin. Bushnell was a regional facility for wounded solders from the Mountain States that provided quality medical care to patients. The community of Brigham City and the citizens of other Northern Utah communities were an integral part of the success of Bushnell. Citizens donated time, supplies, and money to support the facility and to assist in …

Mother-Child Interactions Among Latino Families And European-American Families In Relation To Children's Language Outcomes, Katie Christiansen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The number of Latino families in the United States is increasing dramatically. For some of the children in these families, the acquisition of reading skills is hampered by inadequate early language development. Early language development is a key predictor of reading success. Identifying ways in which parents in these families can help children acquire early language skills will better prepare them for acquiring reading skills.

This study used a new parenting measure, PICCOLO, to identify parenting behaviors that are related to children's language development. The primary focus of this project was on Spanish-speaking Latino families, but a group of English-speaking …

American Again In My Lai, Charles Waugh

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Qualitative Case Study Of Developing Teacher Identity Among American Indian Secondary Teachers From The Ute Teacher Training Program, Virginia Norris Exton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this foundational study was to explore the factors that contributed to developing teacher identity among new American Indian teachers. Multifaceted research into the history of American Indian education, the design of American Indian teacher training programs, and the beliefs and experiences of four American Indian secondary teachers gave this study a richly detailed context.

Three overarching patterns emerged during the process of analyzing the data: (a) solidarity and independence, (b) habit and change, and (c) tradition and invention. From these patterns, six factors were identified as contributing to developing teacher identity. School-based experiences that affected developing teacher …

Carlisle And Intermountain Indian Schools: A Comparison Of Native American Boarding School Models, Danene Dustin

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

American Indian educational policy has had a troubled existence from its inception, as exemplified by the Pratt model of the Carlisle Indian School that was established in 1879. Pratt's model entailed the elimination of culture from the Native American students, often administering inhumane punishments for inappropriate behavior and never allowing parental visits. However, not all of the models that emerged from Pratt's have been negative. One positive example of American Indian education is the Intermountain Indian School founded at Brigham City, Utah, in 1950. Intermountain Indian School (IIS) functioned for 34 years, educating thousands of students with the goal of …

From Exile To Eden Confronting Myth And Water Crises In A Desert Landscape, Erica Cottam

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Citizens of Washington County are about to face serious water shortages that time-honored myths imposed on the landscape during the pioneer era will make difficult to confront. Biblical views of the desert as undesirable wilderness drove early Mormon settlers to create an Edenic oasis. Twenty-first century residents believe the desert has been conquered and no longer poses a threat, a myth that allows for aesthetic appreciation of the landscape but also supports extravagant use of water for recreation and development. To admit that the desert is still a formidable opponent is to deny the achievement of previous generations and question …

The People Of Bear Hunter Speak: Oral Histories Of The Cache Valley Shoshones Regarding The Bear River Massacre, Aaron L. Crawford

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Cache Valley Shoshone are the survivors of the Bear River Massacre, where a battle between a group of US. volunteer troops from California and a Shoshone village degenerated into the worst Indian massacre in US. history, resulting in the deaths of over 200 Shoshones. The massacre occurred due to increasing tensions over land use between the Shoshones and the Mormon settlers. Following the massacre, the Shoshones attempted settling in several different locations in Box Elder County, eventually finding a home in Washakie, Utah. However, the LDS Church sold the land where the city of Washakie sat, forcing the Shoshones …

Emersonian Perfectionism: A Man Is A God In Ruins, Brad James Rowe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ralph Waldo Emerson is a great American literary figure that began his career as a minister at Boston’s Second Church. He discontinued his ministry to become an essayist and lecturer and continued as such for the remainder of his life. This thesis was written with the intent of demonstrating that, in spite of leaving the ministry, Emerson continued to be religious and a religionist throughout his life and that he promulgated a unique religion based upon the principle of self-reliance. At the heart of Emerson’s religion of self-reliance is the doctrine of perfectionism, the infinite capacity of individuals. This thesis …

Haunting Experiences: Ghosts In Contemporary Folklore, Diane E. Goldstein, Sylvia Ann Grider, Jeannie B. Thomas

All USU Press Publications

Ghosts and the supernatural appear throughout modern culture, in any number of entertainment, commercial, and other contexts. Popular media's commodified representations of ghosts can be quite different from what people believe about them, based on tradition or direct experience. Belief and tradition and the popular or commercial nevertheless continually feed off each other. They frequently share space in how people think about the supernatural. In Haunting Experiences, three well-known folklorists broaden the discussion of ghost lore by examining it from multiple angles in various modern contexts. Diane E. Goldstein, Sylvia Ann Grider, and Jeannie Banks Thomas take ghosts seriously. They …

Folklore/Cinema: Popular Film As Vernacular Culture, Sharon R. Sherman, Mikel J. Koven

All USU Press Publications

Interest in the conjunctions of film and folklore is stronger and more diverse than ever. Documentaries on folk life and expression remain a vital genre, but scholars such as Sharon Sherman and Mikel Koven also are exploring how folklore elements appear in, and merge with, popular cinema. They look at how movies, a popular culture medium, can as well be both a medium and type of folklore, playing cultural roles and conveying meanings customarily found in other folkloric forms. They thus use the methodology of folklore studies to analyze films made for commercial distribution. The contributors to this book look …

Cultural Analysis Of The Indian Women's Festival Of Karvachauth, Puja Sahney

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The festival of Karvachauth is celebrated by upper class married women of North India and occurs in the month of October or early November. On this day married women fast to ensure the long lives of their husbands. They wake up before dawn and eat a meal. After sunrise they do not drink water or eat any food until they see the moon at night. The moon is watched through a sieve and prayed to before breaking the fast. An important part of Karvachauth is a ritual that is performed by women in the afternoon. This ritual is hosted by …

Body My House: May Swenson's Work And Life, Paul Crumbley, Patricia M. Gantt

All USU Press Publications

The first collection of critical essays on May Swenson and her literary universe, Body My House initiates an academic conversation about an unquestionably major poet of the middle and late twentienth century. Includes many previously unpublished Swenson poems. Essays here address the breadth of Swenson's literary corpus and offer varied scholarly approaches to it. They reference Swenson manuscripts---poems, letters, diaries, and other prose---some of which have not been widely available before. Chapters focus on Swenson's work as a nature writer; the literary and social contexts of her writing; her national and international acclaim; her work as a translator; associations with …

"The Darkness Is The Whole Thing": Environment, Belief, And Community In The Wampus Legend Of The Retsof Salt Mine, Ashley Gorrell Purser

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

"The Darkness is the Whole Thing" is an examination of a legendary animal known as the wampus that makes its home in the Retsof salt mine. Various forms of wampus creatures found in other settings are introduced, followed by discussion of the ways in which environment influences the adaptation of occupational legend. The article considers how belief in the wampus facilitates the expression of fear, an increased sense of awareness, and the development of community in a unique and dangerous work environment. The telling of the wampus legend is considered a narrative tool for solidifying and preserving occupational identity.

No Place To Call Home: The 1807-1857 Life Writings Of Caroline Barnes Crosby, Chronicler Of Outlying Mormon Communities, Edward Leo Lyman, Susan Ward Payne, S. George Ellsworth

All USU Press Publications

Caroline Crosby's life took a wandering course between her 1834 marriage to Jonathan Crosby and conversion to the infant Mormon Church and her departure for her final home, Utah, on New Year's Day, 1858. In the intervening years, she lived in many places but never long enough to set firm roots. Her adherence to a frontier religion on the move kept her moving, even after the church began to settle down in Utah. Despite the impermanence of her situation, perhaps even because of it, Caroline Crosby left a remarkably rich record of her life and travels, thereby telling us not …

What Goes Around Comes Around: The Circulation Of Proverbs In Contemporary Life, Kimberly J. Lau, Peter Tokofsky, Stephen D. Winick

All USU Press Publications

In this collection of essays, prominent folklorists look at varied modern uses and contexts of proverbs and proverbial speech, some traditional and conventional, others new and unexpected. After the editors' introduction discussing the history and status of attempts to define proverbs, describing their contemporary circulation, and acknowledging the especially important work of paremiologist Wolfgang Meider, the contributions examine the continuing pervasiveness and idiomatic relevance of proverbs in modern culture.

The Garr Family Saga The Connecting Power Of Oral Narrative, Margaret Garr Jaggi

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

When I was a child, my mother often told me a "true" story about a beautiful Shoshone maiden who married a handsome American cowboy. The setting was the 1850s in the fertile valley of Cache County, Utah. The man's name was John Turner Garr and the woman was called Susie. This young couple was my paternal great-great grandparents. Together they lived a life that defied their disparate cultures. I envisioned them, young, wild, and free; he, dressed in buckskin leggings, riding among the Shoshone men; she, in soft doeskin supporting a papoose on her back. The idyllic life of my …

Beacon In The Night: Contested Space And Regional Culture On The Central Oregon Coast, Melissa Román

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Regional identity and contested space were explored through the lens of four central Oregon Coast lighthouses. These beacons offered a look into the settlement of the Pacific Northwest and the complexity of contested space. Not only did the sentinels sit at the edge of a human battle with nature, but the keepers and their families lived in problematic conditions as well (both domestic and environmental). The living quarters and outbuildings provided by the U.S. Lighthouse Board illustrated the cultural tastes of the period and the distillation of those tastes throughout the country as the nation expanded into and throughout the …

Friends Or Foes? How 19th Century Lds Literature Supported Manifest Destiny, Richard Edward West

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

"They felt that the Indians had to become civilized according to non-Indian standards. They did not know or understand the Indians' way of life nor did they want to."

-Idaho Indians: Tribal Histories

This quote refers to the United States government, but it could have also referred to many nineteenth-century members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). This religion, centered in Salt Lake City, Utah, was one of the faiths that most influenced the Native Americans in the western United States. The LDS settlers and Native Americans had an unusual relationship - one that was very …

Legend-Tripping At St. Anne's Retreat And Hecate In Logan Canyon: Origin, Belief, And Contemporary Oral Tradition, Anna-María Snæbjörnsdóttir Arnljóts

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

What is now referred to as St. Anne's Retreat was initially a summer home eight miles up Logan Canyon, east of Logan, Utah. It was built in the 1930s by the Boyd Hatch family from New York, and Mrs. Hortense Odlum. The property was donated in the 1950s to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, and it was used occasionally as a retreat and a vacation place for Sisters of the Holy Cross. Because it was not in continuous use, there was ample opportunity for vandals to visit, even on nights when the sisters were present. This prompted …

Where Language Touches The Earth: Folklore And Ecology In Tohono O'Odham Plant Emergence Narratives, Jennifer L. Hughes

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The historical and ecological relationships between the Tohono O'odham and the Sonoran desert landscape are expressed in the stories they tell. The Tohono O'odham have lived in the deserts of southwestern Arizona and northern Mexico for centuries, interacting with their environment and gaining intimate knowledge of desert botanical communities. Many of these interactions are dramatized in their traditional oral narratives. I have characterized those traditional oral narratives that illustrate and articulate Tohoro O'odham interrelationships with Sonoran desert botanical communities as "plant emergence narratives." These stories embody and express the reciprocal relationship between the Tohono O'odham and the plants they cultivate …

"Ranchers Don't Sell, They Acquire": The Life And Legends Of Bartley Marie Scott, Julie Hartley-Moore

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis examines the family history and life story of Colorado ranch woman Bartley Marie Scott. In addition to biographical information, it includes an examination of the folklore surrounding Scott's life, her role in the regional culture, and the theoretical implications of using folklore in biography.

Sons Of A Trackless Forest: The Cumberland Long Hunters Of The Eighteenth Century, Mark A. Baker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

For much of America's history, a certain fascination has existed in American culture with the lifestyle of the woodsman who made the hardwood wilderness his home. Over time this fascination has given birth to a collection of romantic traits firmly identified with such a frontiersman.

The requirements for survival in a deep wilderness forced the pre-American Revolution era woodsman turned long hunter, to be "Indian," to demonstrate a high level of marksmanship, and ultimately to draw most of his needs from the bounty of the forest. Such requirements tended to promote the popular conceptions surrounding the eastern frontiersman. Looking beyond …

Toward A Cultural Interpretation Of The Chinese Restaurant In The Mountain West, Li Li

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The history of Chinese restaurants in the American West shows that Chinese food became a part of the social and cultural realities for Chinese people, especially in the earliest years, partly because regional food helped maintain regional language and dialect. Beyond that, it also demonstrates how restaurants--even more than other service industries such as laundries--provide a living context in which Chinese met non-Chinese, and where the non-Chinese could become acquainted with Chinese art, eating customs, regional cookery, embroidery, and even family life. In other words, the Chinese restaurant became in time a bridge between the two cultures, and has therefore …

Joaquin Murieta: Fact, Fiction And Folklore, Thomas J. Gordon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This work explores the legendary 19th-century California bandit Joaquin Murieta as he is manifest in the history, literature and folklore of the West. The first section of the work examines in some detail the historical milieu which gave rise to widespread banditry during the California gold rush, at which time Murieta is said to have been active. The second section traces the development of the literary hero Joaquin Murieta from his creation by John Rollin Ridge through a number of American, Mexican, Chilean, Spanish and French incarnations. Section three similarly traces Murieta as a folk hero through a cycle of …