Wildlife on the Wind: A Field Biologist's Journey and an Indian Reservation's Renewal

This book details the common fate shared by large mammal herds and Native peoples as Euro-American expansion swept the American West. As both were exploited and removed from much of the land, Indian tribes were sequestered on reservations where impoverished herds of deer, elk, pronghorn, and bighorn sheep and no bison remained. The story focuses on two of these Indian nations, the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho and how their cultures and lifestyles forever were changed by the loss of their nomadic hunting economy. In 1978, the tribal councils petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to help them recover their wildlife heritage. Wildlife on the Wind recounts how the first wildlife biologist to work on the Wind River Indian Reservation helped the Shoshone and Arapaho people change the course of conservation. In addition to a story of hope, perseverance, and restoration of charismatic wildlife, it's also a biologist's personal journey to understanding the true purpose of his work. This landmark conservation achievement is the first on an American Indian reservation to be published for a general audience.