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Books, Reports, and Studies
Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources,
Energy, and the Environment
1999
Fire on the Plateau: Conflict and Endurance in the
American Southwest
Charles F. Wilkinson
CHARLES F. WILKINSON, FIRE ON THE PLATEAU: CONFLICT AND
ENDURANCE IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST (Island Press
1999) [abstract and table of contents only].
Reproduced with permission of the Getches-Wilkinson
Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the
Environment (formerly the Natural Resources Law
Center) at the University of Colorado Law School.
Fire on the Plateau: Conflict and Endurance in the American Southwest
Wilkinson, Charles. Fire on the Plateau: Conflict and Endurance in the American Southwest. Washington
D.C.: Island Press, 1999.
Legal scholar and writer Charles Wilkinson began working as an attorney for the Native
American Rights Fund in the early 1970s. His work brought him into contact with the Navajo and Hopi
peoples of the Colorado Plateau, and began a long journey towards a deeper understanding of Native
American cultures.
In Fire on the Plateau, Wilkinson explores the history of Native peoples in the region, including
conflicts with more recent populations, government, and industry over resources and land use, as well
as increased environmental awareness in the region’s recent history. This history is combined with the
personal insights of the author, based on his work as an attorney working with Native Americans.
F I R E ON T HE
PLATEAU
For Ann
CHARLES W I L K I N S O N
UnwxsKyofCotofad,
FIRE
PLATEAU
JUN 1 5 1999
ON T H E
Conflict and Endurance in
the American Southwest
Illustrations by Diane Sylvain
island press
/ Shearwater Books
Washington, D.C. • Covelo, California
Law Library
A Shearwater Book
published by Island Press
Copyright © 1999 Charles F. Wilkinson
All rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright
Conventions. No part o f this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any means without permission in writing from the publisher: Island Press,
Suite 300,1718 Connecticut Avenue
n w , Washington, d . c .
20009
Shearwater Books is a trademark of The Center for Resource Economics.
The author is grateful for permission to use “ Grand Canyon National
Park” by Michael Kabotie (Lomawywesa) from Migration Tears:
Poems About Transitions, pp. 4 0 -4 1 (Los Angeles: American Indian
Studies Center, University of California-Los Angeles, 1987).
Portions o f this book were printed in different form in
Heart of the Land (Pantheon, 1994); Arrested Rivers (University Press
of Colorado, 1994); and the 1996 Brigham Young University Law Review.
Library o f Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wilkinson, Charles F., 19 41Fire on the Plateau : conflict and endurance
in the American Southwest / Charles Wilkinson,
p.
cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
is b n
1.
2.
1-55963-647-3 (cloth)
Indians of North America—Colorado Plateau—Flistory.
Indians o f North America—Colorado Plateau—Government relations.
3.
4.
Indians, Treatment of—Colorado Plateau.
Colorado Plateau—History.
5. Colorado P la te a u -
Description and travel.
E78.C617W55
I. Title.
1999
979-i '300497—dc2i
99-18908
CIP
Printed on recycled, acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States o f America
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
C
o
n
t
e
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Introduction: The Colorado Plateau
part o n e
25
Conflicts and Conquests
6.
Kykotsmovi 105
Jack 124
8. Uintah 148
9 . Phoenix 172
10. Rosa 186
11. Cretaceous 207
12.
Junction Dam 230
7.
PART t h r e e : Endurance
13.
xi
: Bedrock
1. Route 66 3
2. Mexican Hat
3 . Deseret 35
4 . Coyote 56
5. Vishnu 79
part two :
s
Cedar Mesa Canyon 252
Black Mesa 276
15. Kachina 295
16. Druid Arch 314
17.
Mount Blanca 339
14.
Notes 351
Acknowledgments 393
About the Author 396
Index 397