January events
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Join Naomi Sokoloff, co-editor of Boundaries of Jewish Identity, at a lecture sponsored by the Jewish Studies department on January 18.
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Award winners
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Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country, by Marsha L. Weisiger, won the Norris and Carol Hudley Award and the Caroline Bancroft Honor Prize.
Tracey Heatherington received the Victor Turner Prize for ethnographic writing at this year' American Anthropological Association meeting for her new book, Wild Sardinia.
Resat Kasaba won the Fuad Koprulu Best Book Award from the Turkish Studies Association for his book, A Moveable Empire.
Arash Khazeni won the Houshang Pourshariati Iranian Studies Book Award, also from the Turkish Studies Association, for his book, Tribes and Empire on the Margins of Nineteenth-Century Iran.
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Greetings!
Happy holidays! As we come upon the end of the year, we want to thank you for your support throughout 2010 and we can't wait to share our new and exciting books with you in the coming year! In the meantime, we'll have a new digital catalog on our website any day now and we hope you'll come out and join us (if you're in Denver, Portland, Bellingham, or Seattle) to celebrate the publication of Charles Wilkinson's new book, The People Are Dancing Again. It's a wonderful celebration of the Siletz tribe of Western Oregon. And you may have noticed our new banner -- a sneak peak of our forthcoming new book, Tipi. All the best, Rachael remann@u.washington.edu 
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Marsha Weisiger
| | Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country
Winner of the Norris and Carol Hundley Prize and the Caroline Bancroft Honor Prize
Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country offers a fresh interpretation of the history of Navajo (Din�) pastoralism. The dramatic reduction of livestock on the Navajo Reservation in the 1930s -- when hundreds of thousands of sheep, goats, and horses were killed -- was an ambitious attempt by the federal government to eliminate overgrazing on an arid landscape and to better the lives of the people who lived there. Instead, the policy was a disaster, resulting in the loss of livelihood for Navajos -- especially women, the primary owners and tenders of the animals -- without significant improvement of the grazing lands.
Environmental historian Marsha Weisiger examines the factors that led to the poor condition of the range and explains how the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Navajos, and climate change contributed to it. Using archival sources and oral accounts, she describes the importance of land and stock animals in Navajo culture. Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country is a compelling and important story that looks at the people and conditions that contributed to a botched policy whose legacy is still felt by the Navajos and their lands today.
Marsha L. Weisiger is associate professor of history at New Mexico State University.
Join Marsha on
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Judy Bentley
| |  Hiking Washington's History
Hiking Washington's History reveals the stories embedded in Washington's landscape. This trail guide narrates forty historic trails, ranging from short day hikes to three- or four-day backpacking trips over mountain passes. Every region in the state is included, from the northwesternmost tip of the continental United States at Cape Flattery to the remote Blue Mountains in the southeast. Each chapter begins with a brief overview of the region's history followed by individual trail narratives and historical highlights. Quotes from diaries, journals, letters, and reports, as well as contemporary and historic photographs, describe sites and trails from Washington's past. Each trail description includes a map and provides directions, so hikers can follow the historic route. Judy Bentley tells readers how to get there, what to expect, and what to look for.
Judy Bentley, who teaches at South Seattle Community College, is an avid hiker and the author of fourteen books for young adults.
Join Judy on
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Margaret Willson
| |  Dance Lest We All Fall Down: Breaking Cycles of Poverty in Brazil and Beyond
An unexpected detour can change the course of our lives forever, and, for white American anthropologist Margaret Willson, a stopover in Brazil led to immersion in a kaleidoscopic world of street urchins, capoeiristas, drug dealers, and wise teachers. She and African Brazilian activist Rita Conceicao joined forces to break the cycles of poverty and violence around them by pledging local residents they would create a top-quality educational program for girls. From 1991 to the graduation of Bahia Street's first college-bound graduate in 2005, Willson and Conceicao's adventure took them to the shantytowns of Brazil's Northeast, high-society London, and urban Seattle.
In a narrative brimming with honesty and grace, Dance Lest We All Fall Down unfolds the story of this remarkable alliance, showing how friendship, when combined with courage, insight, and passion, can transform dreams of a better world into reality.
Join Margaret on
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Patricia Susan Hart
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| A Home for Every Child: The Washington Children's  Home Society in the Progressive Era
Adoption has been a politically charged subject since the Progressive Era, when it first became an established part of child welfare reform. In A Home for Every Child, Patricia Susan Hart looks at how, when, and why modern adoption practices became a part of child welfare policy.
The Washington Children's Home Society (now the Children's Home Society of Washington) was founded in 1896 to place children into adoptive and foster homes as a means of dealing with child abuse, neglect, and homelessness. Hart reveals why birth parents relinquished their children to the Society, how adoptive parents embraced these vulnerable family members, and how the children adjusted to their new homes among strangers.
Patricia Susan Hart is associate professor of journalism and American studies at the University of Idaho.
Join Patricia on
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| Charles Wilkinson |
| The People Are Dancing Again: The History of the Siletz Tribe of Western Oregon
The history of the Siletz is in many ways the history of many Indian tribes: a story of heartache, perseverance, survival, and revival. The history of the Siletz people began in a resource-rich homeland thousands of years ago. Today, the tribe is a vibrant, modern community with a deeply held commitment to tradition.
The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians--twenty-seven tribes speaking at least ten languages--were brought together on the Oregon Coast through treaties with the federal government in 1853-55. For decades after, the Siletz people lost many traditional practices, saw their languages almost wiped out, and experienced poverty, ill health, and humiliation. Again and again, the federal government took great chunks of the magnificent, timber-rich tribal homeland, reducing their reservation from the original allotment of 1.1 million acres--which reached a full 100 miles north to south on the Oregon Coast--to what is today several hundred acres of land near Siletz and 9,000 acres of forest. By 1956, the tribe had been "terminated" under the Western Oregon Indian Termination Act, selling off the remaining land, cutting off federal health and education benefits, and denying tribal status. Poverty worsened, and the sense of cultural loss deepened.
The Siletz people refused to give in. In 1977, after years of work and appeals to Congress, they became the second tribe in the nation to have its federal status, treaty rights, and sovereignty restored. With federal recognition of the tribe came a profound cultural revival among the Siletz people.
This remarkable account, written by one of the nation's most respected experts in tribal law and history, is rich in Indian voices and grounded in extensive research that includes oral tradition and personal interviews. It is a book that not only provides a deep and beautifully written account of the history of the Siletz, but reaches beyond region and tribe to tell a story that will inform the way all of us think about the past.
Charles Wilkinson is Distinguished University Professor and Moses Lasky Professor of Law, University of Colorado Law School. He is the author of many books, including Messages from Frank's Landing: A Story of Salmon, Treaties, and the Indian Way and Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations.
Join Charles on
Monday, December 6, at 7 p.m. at Powell's, PortlandTuesday, December 7, at 7 p.m. at Village Books, BellinghamWednesday, December 8, at 7 p.m. at Kane Hall 210, University of Washington, with Kane Hall/Classroom Support Services, Native American Law Center, Native American Studies, and University Book Store, University of Washington. Details on our website
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