Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
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Item American Zion: Mormon perspectives on landscape from Zion National Park to the Bundy family war(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2017) Quammen, Betsy Gaines; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Michael ReidyThis dissertation is about Mormon views on landscape and resource use from Euro-American settlement in what is today southern Utah and southeastern Nevada, to the current range battles over public lands. In journals, articles, interviews, videos, and blog posts, a record of grazing and extraction during early settlement through the opening of tourism and modern federal management exists; these materials portray religious and utilitarian views on landscape and justify land use accordingly. Opinions over the appropriate use of federal lands, cultural biases and differing notions of ownership present a wide disparity on regional and national perceptions of suitable uses of federal property. Most urban Americans want to access public lands for reasons other than resource extraction. Western ranchers and their supporters, on the other hand, want to use public land for economic purposes. A group of Mormon ranchers justify their position through ancestry, entitlement and religious beliefs. The result has been a protracted conflict, in Mormon homeland, between the federal government, regional residents and the broader American public. This dissertation tracks early land use by Southern Paiute and Mormons; the history of grazing on federal lands and the establishment of national parks and monuments in Mormon country; and current armed conflicts over land use.Item Changes in the West : Mormons and the ecological geography of nationalism(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 1999) McArthur, Willard John; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Alexander S. DawsonEnvironmental historians have made fruitful endeavors in exploring the ways in which human communities modify the landscapes in which they live. However, nationalism is one area that has exhibited a tremendous influence on the course of modem history, yet has been little studied in its relationship to the environment. This thesis looks at the ways in which nationalism-a sense of connection to the larger nation-- has influenced those modifications, and how those modifications have influenced and affected those making changes. This thesis looks to the early Mormon migrants to the West as a case study on how nationalism has influenced environmental change. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this argument relies on the work of intellectual historians of nationalism, environmental historians, geographers, and ecologists\biologists. Using these studies as a framework, this thesis posits a method for identifying nationalized landscapes: recognizing circumscribed landscapes, simplified environments, and lands that are connected spatial and temporally to the larger nation identifies a nationalized landscape. In particular, this thesis looks at fish, trees, and riparian zones as areas of change. Using the identifying markers of circumscription, simplification, and connection has uncovered that Mormons did indeed make changes in the landscape that were influenced by nationalism. These changes made to the land, influenced by nationalism, created a redesigned nature, that in turn influenced human relationships. A feeling of nation-ness is one of the major influences in the way westerners have tried to redesign their environments.