Montana Ghost Dance: Essays on Land and Life - Softcover

Wright, John B.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0292791208 ISBN 13: 9780292791206

Publisher: University of Texas Press, 1998

Synopsis

Montana has been the "last best place" for so many people. A century ago, Native Americans gathered here to perform the Ghost Dance-a last, doomed attempt to make white settlers vanish and bring back the old ways of life. Today, people are still pouring into Montana, looking for the pristine wilderness they saw in A River Runs through It. The reality of Montana-indeed, of all the West-has never matched the myths, but this book eloquently explores how the search for a perfect place is driving growth, development, and resource exploitation in Big Sky country. In ten personal essays, John Wright looks at such things as Montana myths; old-timers; immigrants; elk; ways of seeing the landscape; land conservation and land trusts; the fate of the Blackfoot, Bitterroot, and Paradise valleys; and some means of preserving the last, best places. These reflections offer a way of understanding Montana that goes far beyond the headlines about militia groups and celebrities' ranches. Montana never was or will be a pristine wilderness, but Wright believes that much can be saved if natives and newcomers alike see what stands to be lost. His book is a wake-up call, not a ghost dance.

About this title

Synopsis:

According to Montana resident and geographer Wright, Montana isn't the "last best place" on earth after all so all those developers and interlopers should run off to some place like Colorado or Wyoming. Although his essays debunk many Montana myths, they also celebrate the state as a place of extreme beauty and unrelenting ruggedness. No index. Ann

About the Author:

John B. Wright, of Missoula, is a conservationist with twenty-five years of experience in Montana.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0292791208
• ISBN 13: 9780292791206
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 214