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The Mormans and the Indians by Beverly Smaby (7 pages)
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Page: of 7
the mormons and the indians
conflicting ecological systems
in the great basin
beverly p. smaby
crnment.! Such sources tell about ways in which Mormons and Indians
reacted to the conflict, but its causes lie deeper. If it were simply a
question of limited resources, then the arrival of Mormons should have
made subsistence easier for Great Basin Indians, since cultivated land
produces more food per acre than uncultivated Jand. Why, then, did
Indian conditions deteriorate rather than improve after Mormon settle.
ment?? To answer this question I will first describe natural resources in
the Great Basin and then compare the ways Indians and Mormons used
Great Basin resources as a part of their ecological systems, Finally, 1 will
use this information to describe how the systems interacted.
An ecological approach to the study of cultures embodies more than
subsistence techniques. It also includes such factors as geography, social
organization, demographic patterns and cultural values, as well as relationships among these factors in a system of resource utilization.4 Such
«approach demonstrates that long term solutions to conflicts over re‘vurces must involve more than just alternative ways of providing food
and shelter; they must accommodate other aspects of culture as well.
In this essay I will use the term “culture” as short for “public culture"—that is, those cultural elements which are publicly displayed and
ure shared by virtually every member of a community.* One can legitimately ascribe a public culture to pioneer Mormons, since they possessed
it tightly organized, hierarchical authority structure, Great Basin Indians
Present more of a problem, Conventionally they have been divided into