Richard Wetherill - Anasazi: Pioneer Explorer of Southwestern Ruins (Paperback)

~ Frank McNitt (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Valuable as well as interesting. An important contribution to the history of American archaeology." (American Anthropologist )

Product Description

Anasazi, the Navajos’ name for the “Ancient Ones” who preceded them into the Southwest, is the nickname of Richard Wetherill, who devoted his life to a search for remains of these vanished peoples. He discovered the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde and Kiet Siel and the Basket Maker sites at Grand Gulch, Utah, and at Chaco Canyon he initiated the excavation of Pueblo Bonito, the largest prehistoric ruin in the United States. His discoveries are among the most important ever made by an American archaeologist.

Product Details

• Paperback: 382 pages
• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press; Revised edition (April 1, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826303293
• ISBN-13: 978-0826303295
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #349,255 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pioneer Explorer of Anasazi Ruins, April 4, 2000

By	Mr. Vince Guarino (USA) - See all my reviews

Frank McNitt's biography of Richard Wetherhill, the pioneer explorer of the Anasazi culture of the Four Corners Region of the southwest has been in print since 1957. Not a bad record for a trade book, that is to say not a textbook. McNitt's eastern based publishing family owned the Brentwood Newspaper in suburban Los Angeles. Frank, sent out as publisher, vacationed with his family in New Mexico and was ever after attracted to the Southwest. On subsequent trips he heard of Richard Wetherill, the Quaker rancher from Mancos,CO whose family property was below Mesa Verde. As a Quaker, son of a former Indian Agent, Wetherill's honest relationship with the local Utes permited him to range the nearby Mesa Verde canyons unmolested. Here he and his brothers made the first significant explorations of the mostly unknown Anazasi ruins there. Sponsored by the Babo Soap heirs he would eventually discover or explore every significant Anasazi site in four states. He homesteaded at Chaco Canyon,the grandest Anasazi of them all. To finance his commitment to exploration he became one the most successful promotors of Navajo crafts, igniting a national decorative fad before WWI. His goods hung in the Waldorf Astoria Bar, a young Joseph Campbell saw Wetherill's Anazazi collections at The American Museum of Natural History, the St. Louis World's Fair featured his basketmaker culture artifacts. Independent, individualistic and highly humanistic in his relationships, Wetherill,by his very nature threatened those less talented or secure. His archeology was demeaned by professionals. He was subverted by agents of the Dawes Severalty Act,a law binding native Americans to enforced assimilation and dependency. Wetherhill's business enterprises among the Navajo gave lie to the need for the Dawes Act. Assassinated from ambush in what McNitt concludes was a political manipulation, Wetherill was dead by 1910. McNitt's investigative talents lead him through years of research and oral history depositions with living contemporary's of Wetherill. McNitt moved to New Mexico to be closer to his research, supporting himself as a publisher at Farmington and breifly as an employee of The University of New Mexico Press. He wore out a Land Rover driving the unpaved reservation roads of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah to track down facts about Wetherill. McNitt's awe at what he found is disclosed in balanced journalistic terms which build, chapter-upon-chapter into the stuff of legend without a scintilla of sentimentality to mar the art.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hero or Villain? , April 24, 2005

By	Smallchief - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

To the archaeologists Richard Wetherill is a villain -- an uneducated cowboy who plundered the ruins of the pre-historic civilization of the Southwestern Indians. Author McNitt takes the opposite tact, portraying Wetherill as an upright honest man whose accomplishments, the first scientific examinations of the great ruins at Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon, far outweigh his faults. Adding to the enigma of Wetherill is the matter of his death -- murdered in cold blood by a Navajo Indian debtor according to this author, the loser in a gunfight caused by his own cattle rustling according to others. Wetherill inspired strong passions in both life and death.

This is a fine biography. The first few chapters may be hard slogging as the book goes through Wetherill's early life, but the chapters of Wetherill's life and work at Chaco Canyon leading up to his death in 1910 are fascinating. The author follows up the shooting of Wetherill with a full description of the trial of his killer and the aftermath of his death. This is a Western tale worthy of an epic movie and one has to wonder why it has not attracted Hollywood's attention.

McNitt makes a persuasive case that Wetherill's reputation was the victim of ambitious Eastern academics, jealous of his discoveries, and government Indian agents, jealous of his influence among the Navajo. I was impressed at how little dated were his descriptions of the ancient civilizations of the Anasazi, although the book was written in 1957.

Was Wetherill a hero or a villain? The controversy about his character makes for a fascinating read.

Smallchief

4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, May 7, 2000

By A Customer

Very interesting and complete. Makes you want to visit and keep exploring. Well written. Holds you interest.