Reservation Leadership and the Progressive-Traditional Dichotomy: William Wash and the Northern Utes, 1865-1928

Authors

Davis Rich Lewis, Utah State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Ethnohistory

Volume

38

Issue

2

Publication Date

1991

First Page

124

Last Page

148

Abstract

In the early twentieth century, Indian Bureau officials noted an increasing incidence of tribal factionalism parallel to changes in Indian reservation leadership. They described this factionalism in terms of a progressive-traditional dichotomy. Modern scholars have unintentionally fallen into this semantic trap. This article explores the complexity of individual motivations and factional politics among the Northern Utes through the life of William Wash and suggests that such cultural middlemen offer a more complete picture of reservation politics.

Comments

Originally published by Duke University Press. Publisher's PDF and article fulltext can be accessed through JSTOR. This article appeared in Ethnohistory.
Note: This publication was reprinted as book chapters in - Major Problems in American Indian History; The American Indian: Past and Present; and American Nations: Encounters in Indian Country, 1850 to the Present.

Recommended Citation

“Reservation Leadership and the Progressive-Traditional Dichotomy: William Wash and the Northern Utes, 1865-1928,” Ethnohistory, 38 no.2 (Spring 1991): 124-148.