What You See in Clear Water: Life On the Wind River Reservation [Hardcover]

Geoffrey O'Gara (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2000

The Wind River runs from the alpine lakes of the Continental Divide through the nestled valleys of the northern Rocky Mountains and out onto high, windblown plains. More than a century ago, in what would become Wyoming, the federal government set aside 44 million acres on which to confine the unrelated Shoshone and Arapaho tribes. By now the Wind River Reservation has been reduced to 2.3 million acres, but the battle over control of this land--and especially the river that runs through it--is far from over.
In this magnificent watershed, Geoffrey O'Gara--"a touching, wise, and penetrating writer," according to Edward Hoagland--sets a remarkable story that illuminates the larger, unfinished struggle for the heart of the West. He ranges from the Indian wars to the present day, and from the nineteenth-century Shoshone chief Washakie to his great-grandson, now head of the tribal council; and he also traces the complex legal struggle over water rights--for generations monopolized by white farmers for irrigation--that after two decades is still unresolved. At the heart of O'Gara's account are the citizens of Wind River itself, the people on the various sides of the many complex conflicts: the tragedy and resilience of the nine thousand Shoshone and Arapaho contending with the depredations of reservation life and the indifference of those who first took their land and have gradually assumed control of their water.
In all, this is a powerful, moving story of great relevance and guarded promise, of nations with different languages, cultures, and birthrights, still searching for a way to live together.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Seventeen years ago, journalist Geoffrey O'Gara left Washington, D.C., for northwest-central Wyoming to take a job covering environmental and resource issues concerning the Rocky Mountain region. He settled on the outskirts of the Wind River Indian Reservation, and over the years became deeply attached to the land, its people, and the story of "two cultures that have been arguing for 150 years over the same beloved country, and trying to find a way to share it."

What You See in Clear Water traces the history of the reservation from its beginnings, when the Shoshone Indians signed a treaty entitling them to a region encompassing some 44 million acres, to the present, when a century and a half of cuts and revisions have reduced the reservation to 5 percent of its original size. The Shoshones have been compelled to share what remains with their traditional enemies, the Arapahos, and today, both peoples grapple with the familiar hardships of reservation life: poverty, high suicide rates, persistent health issues, and the hostility and indifference of their non-Indian neighbors. For the past two decades, much of that hostility has centered on a highly charged clash between the Indians and whites over water rights to the river that runs through the reservation.

Although O'Gara's narrative is anchored by the ongoing debate over who will decide the fate of the Wind River--and the lives of the people who depend on it--the story deftly and compassionately illuminates the larger conflict that has persisted ever since the European settlers came to the Americas. "It is the unfinished struggle between Native Americans and the whites who surround and threaten to subsume them--once a military conflict, now a cultural war, complicated after all these years by the fact that neighbors, even antagonistic neighbors, know one another in intimate and sometimes affectionate ways." And it is O'Gara's deep concern and abiding affection for the Wind River's inhabitants that give his book its power and its grace. --Svenja Soldovieri

From Booklist

Journalist O'Gara turns to his home ground, the Wind River Range of Wyoming, for this compelling collage of history, reportage, economics, and science. By chronicling the struggle for the resources on and around the Wind River Indian Reservation, centering on the controversy over the water and irrigation rights from the Wind River itself, O'Gara expertly presents the recent history of the American West in microcosm. We learn about past and present heroes of the Shoshone and Arapaho tribes who inhabit the reservation, about the pioneer farmers and their descendents who came to Wyoming to try and scrape a living from the arid land, and about the experts in geology, hydrology, and natural resources law on each side of the issue. Although sections on water and water rights might seem beyond the average reader, O'Gara writes so clearly that they are not. His portraits of the men and women caught up in this saga over the last hundred years make the book strangely moving, while his descriptions of the Wyoming rivers and mountains are the next best thing to being there. Greg Garrett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (October 17, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679404155
• ISBN-13: 978-0679404156
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,741,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully human, November 29, 2000

By 

Jill A. Rock (Astoria, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What You See in Clear Water: Life On the Wind River Reservation (Hardcover)

This book is rich with geographical details of Wyoming and history of the Shoshone and Arapahoe people. O'Gara skillfully and lovingly describes the Wind River Valley like a sculptor shapes his beloved work. He is an excellent storyteller. What I loved most was O'Gara's deep attention to human relations, personal histories, and character. He always tells the tale with the human in the center. He never proselytizes or places blame. He doesn't demonize or romanticize. Also, the Native Americans are depicted as people, not political images or symbols. It's easy and fun to read, yet never strays from reality. I loved reading it. I wish more stories about Native Americans were told so warmly and truthfully.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent case study of modern day water politics, June 16, 2001

By 

Philip Carl "EcoAngler" (Half Moon Bay, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What You See in Clear Water: Life On the Wind River Reservation (Hardcover)

The author manages to guide the reader though a conflicting set of water resource issues on the most legally confusing of all landscapes... the Wind River Reservation. Lined up across the court-room aisle sit the anglo farmers who tap the river for irrigation and the native residents wanting to restore the "in-stream flows" to support the trout fishery. Its a conflict the author uses to drive the story forward, but is only a single thread of a much richer story. The author interleaves the battle over water rights with the history of both the Shoshone and Arapaho and the opening of land within the reservation for white settlers. The author's love of the Wind River Reservation is evident in his first hand accounts describing the area's geography and natural history. This book succeeds by tying together the story's long and interconnected threads into a comprehensive picture of water politics.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A page-turner for anyone who loves The West, January 30, 2001

By 

Virginia Sauro (West Friendship, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What You See in Clear Water: Life On the Wind River Reservation (Hardcover)

O'Gara has masterfully woven together past, present and future in this rich account of the Wind River Basin, its people and their struggle for self preservation. O'Gara's intimate knowlege of the social, political, economic, legal, and geologic issues that converge in this complex and fascinating story is as impressive as it is vast. He describes the land with skillful and clear-eyed detail, and he tells the story with a respect and compassion that must only have come from someone who has lived in and loved the West for many years.