Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country (Book) [show prizes]
Title: Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country
Author: Marsha Weisiger
Abstract: 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. Well-intentioned New Dealers made serious errors in anticipating the human and environmental consequences of removing or killing tens of thousands of animals. The result was a rejection of conservation programs and a chronically degraded landscape.
Year: 2009
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780295988818

Gendered Injustice: Navajo Livestock Reduction in the New Deal Era (Article) [show prizes]
Title: Gendered Injustice: Navajo Livestock Reduction in the New Deal Era
Author: Marsha Weisiger
Abstract: Navajo livestock reduction illuminates the gendered politics of conservation and the crucial contribution of women in resisting environmental injustice. In developing programs to halt soil erosion on the Navajo Reservation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Soil Conservation Service made matters worse, largely because they ignored the importance of women as livestock owners. Women’s resistance helped bring an end to stock reduction and meaningful grazing management.
Year: 2007
Primary URL: http://www.usu.edu/whq/index.htm
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Western Historical Quarterly
Publisher: Western History Association

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