the PRIMARY SOURCE the Newsletter for the Department of History at the University of Idaho
A B i a n n u a l P u b l i c a t i o n
Also in this Issue: A Legacy of Service: Dr. Kent Hackmann Page 3 Leaders & Scholars: Karen Offen Page 4 Advice from Jeffery Meyers, PhD Graduate Page 5 Campus History: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 Page 6 Undergraduate Research: Dakota Willett Page 7 Graduate Student Interview: Nathan Allison Undergraduate Page 8 Spotlights: EmilieRae Smith & Gunn Wilson Page 9 Book Review: The Nature of Borders: Salmon, Boundaries, and Bandits on the Salish Sea Page 10
Winter 2015-2016
History Department Welcomes Dr. Scofield
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aised on a 100-acre ranch in Emmett, Idaho, Rebecca Scofield earned her Bachelor’s degree in history from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. As she was getting ready to graduate, her undergraduate advisor told her that she should consider applying to Harvard University because of her achievement graduating Summa Cum Laude. At first thinking it was a joke, she laughed it off. However, the idea took root and she followed through with the initial application. Three years later, she was finishing an MA, Regional Studies: East Asia from Harvard. As she was researching her master’s thesis in Japan, Becca had an epiphany. Walking past an American Western store, she felt the desire to explore the myths of the West as they applied to different cultures through western wear. Her MA advisor encouraged her to defect to the American Studies program. Less than five years later, Dr. Scofield successfully defended her dissertation entitled “Riding Bareback: Imagining American Gender, Sexuality, and Race through Rodeo,” and is the newest member of the University of Idaho History Department faculty. When asked why she decided to apply for a faculty position at UI, Becca said, “This job was perfect for me. My husband and I wanted to move back to Idaho and get closer to our families. I get a chance to teach students that have similar backgrounds as my own.” In the spring of 2015, she applied for the vacant faculty position in the UI History Department. After receiving a job offer, Becca had one final hurdle: her PhD defense. Once successful, her husband—a Boise State alum and avowed BSU fan—proudly displayed his University of Idaho t-shirt. Even her mother, another BSU alum, loudly announced to an airline passenger terminal that her daughter was a member of the UI family. Between her job as an instructor at BSU and a multitude of other obligations, Becca Scofield is one busy person. Nevertheless, I got a chance to speak with her for over an hour between travels. I asked her what the most important piece of advice she could give to college students. Her three-part answer surprised me, “[You have to] believe in yourself enough to make radical changes. Finish what you started and move on to the next step. Finally, it is okay to make left turns.”
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A Letter from our Chair
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ear alumni, and friends:
We’re deeply grateful for how you continue students, to support our Department. The faculty and parents, staff are deeply proud and deeply vested in all our students — past, present, and future.
Thank you so much for reading the latest issue of the Primary Source, our wonderful student-edited newsletter for Idaho’s Department of History. We are always delighted to provide you with news of our department and inform you about all the exciting developments with our undergraduate and graduate programs. First and foremost, you’ll be meeting the most recent addition to the Department of History: Rebecca Scofield. Professor Scofield is joining our Department this spring semester after having just completed her PhD from Harvard University. She will teaching on the American West and women and gender studies. Check out her pathbreaking research on rodeos in American history! Elsewhere you will find an interview with one of our most prominent alums, Karen Offen, whose work has redefined how we think about women’s and gender history. Then there’s the story behind professor emeritus Kent Hackman, our former colleague and departmental chair, who has established an undergraduate award in his name, as well as news of Jeff Meyers, who is our most recently minted PhD from our Department. Elsewhere you’ll find out all sorts of great things about our undergraduate and graduate students — including a spotlight on undergraduate research — and Nathan Allison tells us about the story of the great flu pandemic in Moscow, Idaho. 2
Most sincerely yours, Sean M. Quinlan, Professor and Chair Department of History
http://www.uidaho.edu/class/history
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Starting with a Master’s thesis titled “From the Tips of Your Fingers: Femininity, Fashion, and Social Class in the Japanese Nail Industry,” Dr. Scofield has certainly made that left turn. Her primary focus of research and teaching is Gender and Sexuality in the West, as well as digital and public history. She is working on digital archives about popular renderings of the west and digital histories. She wants to teach about the west, with broader courses on gender and pop culture because, “popular culture is how we define our lives.” While she works on turning her dissertation into a book, Dr. Scofield is going to start teaching in the spring a 400 level course on Gender in the West and a 100 level survey course in American History. She said she has been extremely busy choosing books for her courses, as well as preparing lectures. I think I can safely say that we are all excited to see how Dr. Rebecca Scofield turns this job into her own. —Scott Cardwell
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A Legacy of Service: Dr. Kent Hackmann
n this issue of The Primary Source we are pleased to offer a tribute to emeritus professor Dr. Kent Hackmann, a faculty member in the University of Idaho History Department from 1967-1999. Many of our alumni will recall his courses on the history of England and a variety of other topics. More recent students will recognize his name from the Hackmann Outstanding Senior Award, given annually to an exceptional graduating senior in the History Department. Dr. Hackmann completed his B.A. in History at Yale University in 1959. Following service in the United States Army as an air defense artillery officer, he went on to complete his M.A. (1962) and Ph.D. (1969) at the University of Michigan. His doctoral dissertation, “English Military Expeditions to the Coast of France, 1757-1761,” explored Anglo-French military history during the Seven Years’ War. His academic research later led him into 18th century English political history. In particular, he explored how the West India Interest, a small group of Members of Parliament in the House of Commons, fought between 1788 and 1833 to delay the passage of legislation to reform the slave trade and end slavery in the British Empire. Dr. Hackmann joined the faculty at UI in 1967 as a professor of English History. Throughout his career, he particularly enjoyed teaching English history survey courses as well as classes on Tudor and Stuart England. He recalls that “For me, each class was an exciting adventure in telling a story that had meaning, made sense, and raised questions about the historical process.” He also taught a wide range of other classes, including World Civilization and a pioneering survey course in East Asian history, the first to be taught at UI. In addition to his teaching duties, Dr. Hackmann also served as chair of the department from 1984-1994. The position was not without challenges, but Dr. Hackmann recollects that he filled the role during a period when many faculty members were retiring and that “The department made some very sound hiring decisions, notably Professor [Katherine] Aiken,” who had earned her B.A. at UI and has since served as a faculty member, as Dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences, and as interim provost. He was also particularly pleased with one of his personal hiring decisions—Nancy DaFoe, who served as the indefatigable administrative assistant of the History Department for many years. Dr. Aiken both studied with Dr. Hackmann as an undergraduate and worked with him professionally. She recalls, “I believe I took every one of
his courses. He experimented with innovative methods for the time.” She cites his teaching as one of the main reasons that she pursued a career in history. As a faculty member, she also recalls that Dr. Hackmann was very supportive of faculty and made many contributions to the departHe “considered participation ment, such in the life of the university... as purchasing the first a major professional departmental responsibility.” computers and making sure faculty received training to use them—another innovation, even though it “seems strange to think about a time when computers were new.” Dr. Hackmann states that he “considered participation in the life of the university, especially on committees and faculty council, a major professional responsibility.” Consequently, he served on numerous university committees, including the Committee on Committees and the Rhodes, Fulbright, and Marshall Scholarships Committee. Dr. Hackmann also served as Faculty Secretary from 1996 until his retirement in 1999. Following retirement, Dr. Hackmann relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, to join his wife Dr. Cynthia Schwenk, then an associate professor of Ancient History at Georgia State University. He had many pleasant years of residence there, during which he enjoyed playing tennis and attending lectures and seminars at Emory University.He and Dr. Schwenk moved to New Hampshire in 2012, where they now live near Dr. Hackmann’s son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter Emily, who is in 4th grade. Dr. Hackmann has left an impressive legacy of service to the History Department and to the University of Idaho. We salute him for his achievements and wish him many more years of enjoyable retirement! —Amy Pendegraft
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Leaders & Scholars: Karen Offen
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fter several conversations, it is easy to understand why we are very proud to claim Dr. Karen Offen as a Vandal and alumna of the University of Idaho’s History Department. Karen has worked hard to establish herself as a prominent scholar in the fields of Modern European History and Women’s History. Karen graduated with her B.A. in History from the University of Idaho in 1961. She later went on to receive both her M.A. and Ph.D. in Modern European History from Stanford University, in 1964 and 1971 respectively. Currently, Karen is affiliated as a senior scholar at the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University, where she has worked since 1977. Karen’s time at University of Idaho was spent much like many undergraduates today. Karen is from Pocatello, Idaho. The choice to attend the University of Idaho was easy. She clearly remembers thinking “I always wanted to attend the Uof Iwhere my parents went. The furthest place from home I could go and still be in-state!” Fed up with courses in calculus, engineering, physics, and chemistry, Karen arrived at the decision to major in history. She was captivated by the past after taking a Western Civilizations course. After that, Karen proclaims, she “bolted! Best decision I ever made!” One of the professors who truly inspired Karen during her time at U of I was Professor Robert Harris. Harris taught European intellectual and cultural history during her junior and senior years. Karen stated, “He had depth. I was attracted to the heavyweight readings he assigned and the opportunity to do lengthy reports on subjects that interested me.” He was, Karen continued about Harris, “a real intellectual.” It was not until after graduating from the University of Idaho that Karen decided to pursue a career in history. “Certainly it happened following my post-grad year as a Fulbright scholar in
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France and entry to Stanford for graduate work in history. I discovered at Stanford that I was just as good at doing/interpreting history as anybody else, (including classmates who were graduates of very prestigious Eastern colleges) and decided not to stop with a master’s degree. I was accepted into the Ph.D. program and it all went from there. I was all the time pursuing ‘history’ but not necessarily thinking about the career aspects. I just loved the pursuit of knowledge, even male-centered knowledge, at that time; it took a while to realize that there was a ‘sexual politics of knowledge’ and that half the human race had been left out.” Karen’s research has focused on modern European history with a particular interest in French history; women’s history; history of feminism; and family and gender issues as they relate to western intellectual and political history. She is widely published and active in her fields. Her book European Feminisms, 1700-1950: A Political History (Stanford University Press, 2000) has been translated into multiple languages. Karen currently has several articles in press and has another larger book project in the works. She was heavily involved in exhibition development at the International Museum of Women in San Francisco, where she served on the Board of Directors for eleven years. Karen is also a founder and past secretary of the International Federation for Research in Women’s History. When contacted for this interview, Karen was in China at the 22nd annual meeting of the International Congress on the Historical Sciences, an organization in which she has served on the board for the last five years. Karen’s research interests in modern European history are part of a larger discussion surrounding the history of women as well as women’s contributions to the field. The question stems from how our understanding of history changes when we include women’s experiences as well as men’s. There are serious implications when you approach the past from this perspective. Karen finds, “It revolutionizes how you think about the past. You can’t go back and look at it as you did before. Putting women back into history is one of the most important projects in the field, as is ‘gendering’ history which is the result of putting the women back in – the men have to share the spotlight. I could send you article after article about why this is important. Women historians are not, however, exclusively ‘women’s history’ people; conversely, there are some great contributions to women’s history by male scholars. When I got my Ph.D., women were about 13% of the Ph.D.’s in the field;
now it’s more like 38-40%, and the fields and emphasis have all shifted dramatically.” Karen has had a dynamic and prolific career in the field of history. At U of I, she learned many things that continue to help in her career. One of
the most important and lasting lessons, Dr. Offen proudly acknowledges, was “that I could excel at anything and everything I tried.” —Nathan Allison
Advice from Jeff Meyers, PhD Graduate
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uring George Fox University’s mid-term holiday, Jeffrey Meyers found himself again in his old stomping grounds, the History Department at the University of Idaho. Meyers, a recent PhD from UI, is now an adjunct faculty member in American history at George Fox University in Oregon. He also continues to serve as an online instructor for UI. Meyers had come to Moscow in response to students’ request for a face-to-face meeting with their online instructor. Committed to students’ academic success, Meyers sat down to with us to share some insights and advice about school. As a recent graduate from the University of Idaho, Meyers is excited for students going to school here. “I loved it here, I learned a lot in grad school,” Meyers says. Originally from Colorado, he fell in love with the area while visiting his sister and her family and decided to apply to attend UI. He finished his Masters degree in two years and then continued on to pursue his PhD in history, graduating earlier this year. According to Meyers, students will benefit from the History Department faculty’s success. “Things are happening,” Meyers remarks as he lists off the history faculty’s recent accomplishments. Meyers notes, “It’s important for you guys to have teachers who are like that; you have a good group of professors.” But the quality of education is not solely dependent upon instructors—students have responsibilities as well. As a history professor at George Fox, Meyers spends his time teaching undergraduate students. For him, students attending class comes first. “That’s life. If you have a job you have to show up,” he says. Paying for college is like paying a gym membership, it doesn't make sense to pay and not go. Secondly, students should talk to your professors. “If at all possible let them know you are there, that you are trying, and that you're paying attention; that makes all the difference in the world,” Meyers admits. Lastly, he recommends spending time outside of the books. “Don’t just come to school, have fun… enjoy it, you're only twenty once.” Though Meyers encourages undergrads to have fun, he warns graduate students of the struggle up ahead. Graduate work, according to Meyers, proves
your ability to work hard. “When you get [a Masters degree], it’s yours. Whether you use it or not, you still showed that you can learn, that you can think critically, that you can write, and that you are responsible… That’s what getting a Masters is.” Because of the work entailed, “Paying for college is like paying going to gradu- a gym membership, it doesn't ate school is not make sense to pay and not go.” a decision to be made lightly. However “if you're serious about it, do it, because it is something you will have for the rest of your life,” Meyers added. He also warns against some of the pitfalls of graduate work. Perhaps unsurprisingly getting your PhD is harder than getting your Masters. Once your course work is done, you’ve passed your foreign language exams, and you’ve completed your comprehensive exams, the hard part begins. Meyers observes, “That’s kind of where people tend to stop. You put the four years of hard work in but then you think you're almost done and then hardest part starts. And that’s when people start to be like ‘ah maybe I can find a job’,” giving up on their dissertation. To avoid getting stuck Meyers took advice from professors Spence and Quinlan, “Keep going. Don't go back. Keep writing.” Meyers admits it’s a` daunting task, “This is where people give up… It’s hard writing a book for the first time.” Any student would be lucky to have a professor as dedicated as Jeffrey Meyers. Hopefully students at any level can take his advice to heart and achieve success. —Benjamin Ocampo
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Campus History: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918
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he University of Idaho joined the World War I effort in 1918 when the United States War Department tasked the University with providing month-long vocational training courses for soldiers preparing for deployment in Europe. Fraternity houses such as Phi Delta Theta, Sigma NU, and Alpha Kappa Epsilon, as well as the gymnasium, were turned into makeshift barracks to quarter troops.1 A mess hall was constructed behind the Administration building to feed over 600 soldiers at once. On October 1, 1918 the Students’ Army Training Corps (SATC) program was established and quickly enrolled 1034 troops to train Army officers.2 While soldiers prepared for duties overseas at the University of Idaho, another enemy was about to lay siege to campus. Conservative estimates suggest the Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918 Ester Thomas’ Scrapbook, 1915claimed approximately 20 million lives worldwide.3 Soldiers were highly 1919. University of Idaho Special susceptible to the virus due to the Collections. crowded quarters in troop housing. Nearly 50,000 new cases a week were recorded amongst US troops during the height of the Spanish Influenza. 4 In the fall of 1918, the Spanish flu hit Moscow, Idaho, at the same time SATC troops were beginning their training at the University of Idaho. The first cases of the flu were thought to have originated in training troops from Wyoming. The University and Army headquarters quickly acted to try and prevent a major outbreak amongst troops, students, and Moscow’s population. According to the Argonaut, by October 30th, 1918, three deaths amongst the SATC were attributed to the Spanish Influenza.5 A strict Example of flu masks worn by SATC training troops quarantine on campus was initiated to prevent further outbreak. and civilians. http://decodedpast.com/spanish-flu-warWashington authorities ordered all SATC troops on campus to wear time-secrecy-creation-global-pandemic/3301 influenza masks at all times. Local Red Cross chapters, sorority houses, and other Latah County organizations were pressed into service; each sorority on campus was expected to complete 150 masks.6 The Argonaut declared, “It is understood on the campus that all members of the SATC are to be provided with three masks a piece. These masks will be worn all the time.”7 Further orders were sent requiring all windows and doors to remain open to ensure proper ventilation as it was believed to diminish the chances of catching the Flu. Rule #12 printed by Army headquarters in the Argonaut stated, “When the air is pure, breathe all of it you can”.8 Temporary hospitals were set up at locations across town including the The Argonaut October 30, 1918 University of Idaho Elks Temple, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, and the A.K.E. fraternity house to Digital Collections treat patients suffering from the Flu.9 According to the oral history account of Howard Sarvis, an SATC soldier quartered in Beta Theta Pi house at the time, “There was a shortage of doctors; many healthy students helped to nurse the sick.”10 It was fully understood that everyone did what they could to help prevent the spread of the Flu and help maintain the war effort on the home front. By the end of the outbreak in November, approximately 191 SATC troops at the University of Idaho had contracted the Flu.11 Of those cases, ten were fatal. The diligent work of military, healthcare, and University officials and students significantly diminished the severity of the Flu’s impact on campus. The University of Idaho lost roughly 1% of enrollment due to the virus while other similarly
1. Rafe Gibbs, Beacon for Mountain and Plain: Story of the University of Idaho (Caldwell: University of Idaho, 1962),137. 2. Ibid.,135. 3. Molly Billings, “The Influenza Pandemic of 1918,” June, 1997, accessed September 1, 2015,https://virus.stanford.edu/uda/. 4. Gibbs, Beacon for Mountain and Plain, 136. 5. “Three Deaths Result from the Spanish Flu,” University Argonaut, October 30, 1918, accessed September 2, 2015,1. http:// digital.lib.uidaho.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/argonaut/ id/1209/rec/2. 6. Ibid., 1.
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7. Ibid., 1. 8. Gibbs, Beacon for Mountain and Plain, 136. 9. “Army Camp On The Campus,” The Idaho Alumnus 6, no. 1 (Jan. 1919): 4. 10. Howard Sarvis, interviewed by University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, January 1, 1984. 11. Gibbs, Beacon for Mountain and Plain, 136. 12. “Army Camp On The Campus,” The Idaho Alumnus 6, no. 1 (Jan. 1919): 4. 13. Ibid., 4.
sized universities in the Northwest lost approximately 6-7% of enrollment.12 One Eastern university lost nearly 10% of enrollment to Influenza.13 As swiftly as it had come the Flu left campus. The Armistice was signed on November 11th 1918, officially ending World War I. Celebrations erupted in Moscow and across the nation. Everyone rejoiced the end of war and the SATC troops were disbanded. The impact ofthe Spanish Influenza was largely overshadowed by end of the war celebrations. In time the flu became headlines on old newspaper clippings but for SATC troops training at the University of Idaho in the fall of 1918, the flu was a very real enemy. —Nathan Allison
Undergraduate Research: Dakota Willett
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n Spring 2014, UI Professor Dale Graden asked then undergraduate Dakota Willett to be his research assistant on a project studying Earnest Hemingway and his involvement in the Spanish Civil War. Dakota, with interests in social activism, was eager to help. “It was an opportunity to do real research. Not that I hadn’t done anything real up to that point, but it had all been assignments and schoolwork. This felt like I was finally able to apply the skills I was learning as an undergraduate in the program.” As a research assistant, Dakota received the opportunity to experience the professional side of the historian’s craft. An essential element in this research project was the CLASS Undergraduate Collaborative Research Key Grant, awarded to Dakota in Spring 2014. The Key Grant is one of many resources of internal funding from the UI. This particular grant is awarded to undergraduates working on collaborative projects of either a scholarly or a creative nature. Dakota explained the process: “I not only had to write a decent proposal, which was more than a little daunting, I also had to outline travel, food, and lodging expenditures.” The funds from the Key Grant were used to send Dakota to the JK Presidential Library in Boston, home of the largest Hemmingway collection in the United States. “I love travelling – I mean, who doesn’t? And I’d never been to Boston before… The coolest part though, was getting to travel to do research.” He went on to describe the materials he worked with: “At the archives they have manuscripts, letters, and a whole bunch of artifacts. A lot of the research I did was scanning materials. I scanned things like parking tickets, travel visas, receipts, most of which were in Spanish. I learned a lot about Hemmingway during the war and the important role he played.” There is a lot of controversy surrounding Ernest Hemmingway in academic circles. This controversy comes from disagreement over the author’s character. One view depicts him as a braggart, an expatriate, a womanizer, and a barfly. Others
see Hemmingway as a symbol of authenticity, and of what it meant to be a man in the early 20th century. The research done by Dakota and Professor Graden focuses on Hemmingway as an activist, specifically his involvement in the Spanish Civil Ernest Hemmingway War. As Dakota described his research, “I’ve researched a lot on Hemmingway’s role as an activist during the War. Like, he raised money to send ambulances to Spain, he reported extensively from the front lines, and he played a crucial role as an observer – he was able to tell the world what was happening in the Spanish countryside and in its cities.” Hemmingway documented the war as an eyewitness and actively tried to get support for troops both from individuals and from the government. To raise support, Hemmingway wrote to FDR and screened his documentary The Spanish Earth at the White House. Hemmingway also drove around the country in an ambulance trying to raise awareness and funds. Dakota feels that he benefited greatly from the research experience. He concludes, “When I got back, I put together a list of what needs to be said in the article from my end – this involved organizing all of my notes and cataloguing all of my research so that I could contribute to a project that reflected the best of my efforts. This project really helped me develop my time management skills. It was one of the most important research tools I learned from the project. I also gained the utmost appreciation for archivists and all the work they do. It helped me to see a different side of history.” —Ben Bridges
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Graduate Student Interview: Nathan Allison Where are you from? I am a bit of a nomad. I am originally from western New York State, the Chautauqua Lake area. It is a small cluster of towns and villages on the border of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. It is truly a beautiful place, especially in the fall. It gave me an affinity for gloomy days and northeast inspired folklore and ghost stories. I’ve also spent time in the West. I moved to Denver, Colorado and enjoyed the sun and western cultures. The Four Corners area of the Southwest has become one of my favorite places in the country. This where I met my wife while we were both working on the Ute Mountain Reservation. Most recently I moved from Nashville, TN to continue my education in the Historical Archaeology PhD program here at the University of Idaho. Where did you complete your most recent degree?
the consumption of those goods. I also have interests in battlefield and funerary archaeology. What are your plans after school? I hope to teach at the university level. I also have interests in continuing work as a professional archaeologist. Previously, I worked as an archaeological field technician in Nashville. On any given day I could be conducting excavations at prehistoric and historic sites or analyzing, researching, and writing reports back at the lab. There was always something interesting to get involved in. As a person that always likes to be doing something new, I can appreciate working in the field. Ideally I would teach as an adjunct once a year while working at a CRM firm. Do you have any favorite hobbies, sports, etc? Would people get mad if I said my favorite NFL team is the Buffalo Bills? I don't follow much football anymore but I do enjoy watching a good soccer match and having a pint. Soccer is like global diplomacy. I have enjoyed bonding with strangers all around the world while watching a game. As for hobbies, I really enjoy traveling and motorbiking...especially doing both. I once rode my motorcycle through Europe for a summer. Meals are a social event in my life and I enjoy eating and conversing with people. I enjoy playing board and strategy games. I also enjoy running as well as photography. —Benjamin Ocampo
I completed an MA in history at Eastern Illinois University. I focused on early modern European and Atlantic World History. Do you speak any foreign in languages? I do not speak any fluently. I can speak a smattering of stock phrases I have acquired through traveling and working abroad. I have done course work in French reading comprehension. Sadly that does not equate to being able to do much communicating in a foreign language. What are your research interests? My interests include uses of space, identity, cross-cultural interactions, counter cultures, cultural expressions, ephemera, revolutions, trade, crime, and networks in the transfer of "knowledge" or ideas, people, and goods and objects. Specifically I have looked at the cultural prestige attached to luxury goods as well as the space and ways in which people accessed and interacted in
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Administration Building. Photo by Ben Bridges
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Undergraduate Spotlight
milieRae Smith never applied to the University of Idaho. Instead, she filled out an application for Idaho State University (Pocatello, Idaho). However, her high school in Arlington, Washington, accidentally sent her transcripts to the University of Idaho, where she was accepted. The rest, as they say, is history. Motivated by a love of travel and the pursuit of a career she will love, EmilieRae is now in her third year at UI, pursuing a major in History and a minor in Religious Studies. She expects to graduate in December 2016. When asked to narrow down her interests in history, EmilieRae ended up grouping her interests into colonial history, antiquity, and local history. Public history is where she hopes to find her future. In high school, she volunteered at the Stilliguamish Musuem in Arlington, where she was responsible for sorting through artifacts as well as restoring them. This work became her motivation to go to college, and perhaps to one day become a museum curator herself. After completing her undergraduate degree here at the UI, she plans on pursuing a master’s degree in Museum Studies, although where remains to be seen. EmilieRae recently started an internship with the Latah County Historical Society here in Moscow. Her job is to blog the activities of the society. She says,“It’s really different to approach history digitally. I had never really thought of history as being something bloggable, but now I understand the importance of pioneering new platforms.” This semester EmilieRae is enrolled in the department Senior Seminar and is excited to write her capstone paper. Also this semester, she will become a member of Phi Alpha Theta, the History Honors Society here at the UI. “There’s such a positive peer pressure to joining. It feels like everyone is looking out for my best interests – from friends, to faculty” she explained. When she has free time, EmilieRae participates in the intramural women’s volleyball league hosted by the University of Idaho. A lifelong volleyball player, she says her team is “pretty good” and places in tournaments. Her other hobbies include camping, fishing, and exploring the Pacific Northwest. Often though, you can find her working at the Moscow Bagel and Deli shop on Main Street, where
she has worked for two years now. A vegetarian, her favorite sandwich, “The Farmer’s Market,” is loaded with greens, sprouts, and a veggie spread. EmilieRae is a passionate student with a bright future and the History Department is excited to see what she will do next! —Ben Bridges
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van “Gunn” Wilson is a Moscow native in his senior year here at the University of Idaho. He is an active member of the history program and current treasurer of the UI chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the nationwide history honors society. Gunn has been a history student since 2012, after working a few years after high school. Gunn discovered his love for history while taking a class from his father who was, at the time, a history teacher at Montrose Christian Academy. “I took a class from him and the way it was taught was really enjoyable.” Since then, Gunn has grown to love studying Ancient Greece and Rome. Gunn thoroughly enjoys studying these societies, but his favorite part of history is the storytelling aspect. “I like the value of being able to tell stories. That’s all history is, stories. I wanted to go to school for that and maybe learn to tell great stories.” Gunn pursues other academic interests in his free time: “I dabble in a lot of things, a potential minor might have been English or philosophy.” Upon graduation, Gunn hopes to join the workforce and teach history at private schools and academies throughout the Pacific Northwest. When he isn’t studying or restoring grand pianos for employment, Gunn enjoys reading and the occasional cigar or pipe. He also has an ear for music and plays the piano. He is quite fond of classical rock, jazz, and symphonic pieces. “I listen to a lot of music. That’s sort of another vocation of mine.” Gunn has a connection to the University of Idaho and a special appreciation for the culture it brings to Moscow. He feels that he is keeping in with tradition, as much of his family has graduated from this University. “I love the school and the architecture. It’s a really picturesque place and sometimes we don’t realize how nice it is to look at.” —Ty Unruh
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Book Review: Wadewitz, Lissa K. The Nature of Borders: Salmon, Boundaries, and Bandits on the Salish Sea. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2012.
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istorians are devoting a growing amount of research to borders and the conflicts which arise in these manifestly contentious spaces, as well as to searching for corresponding questions between borderland groups. Some works such as Bridging National Borders in North America: Transnational and Comparative Histories (Duke University Press, 2010) explore https://goo.gl/0jBVGd the relationships of boundaries and the links between countries separated by a line on a map. These books stress the difficulties of understanding and investigating transnational history. In her book The Nature of Borders, Lissa K. Wadewitz studies the problems revolving around salmon fishing between capitalists in the United States and Canada and the indigenous population of the Salish Sea. The watery border between the nations frustrated national regulation and traditional Lissa Wadewitz. procedures. Her research http://alturl.com/ae4ky is about the nature of boundaries; it is a transnational history examining how borders are fluid—whether they are social, political, or economic—and how national borders have no regard for ecological or biological issues (168). While the people native to the region between Canada and the United States spent millennia fishing the waters, the political border established in 1872 negatively affected the salmon population in the Salish Sea. In the nineteenth century, industrialization and the commercialization of salmon fishing deprived natives of a valuable resource, as well as pushing Pacific salmon to the brink of extinction. Both nations discovered that drawing and maintaining an international border, without regard for natives, created environmental difficulties.It was not until the early twentieth century that officials in both countries decided to regulate salmon fishing. However, as Wadewitz
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demonstrates in her book, even shared goals lead to conflict between nations (9). In the first chapter of The Nature of Borders, Wadewitz traces salmon and their value to native people. She says, “Salmon was the skeleton around which Northwest Natives structured their lives” (12). Salmon fishing was so important that it regulated intertribal relationships; each family group knew where, when, and how much they could fish. Over thousands of years, indigenous tribes learned to control the salmon harvest despite a large population and effective fishing methods (6). Tribes successfully managed the balance between food and conservation, which is an important theme in the book. In chapters two and three, the author engages with sources showing how contact with white settlers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries necessitated a change in native thinking. She shows how the settlers destroyed traditional native borders and ultimately reduced native fisheries. Regulations imposed by Canadian and US authorities removed natives from traditional lands. Wadewitz next discusses the unrest between the border between Canada and the US at the end of the nineteenth century. Since salmon migration does not follow political borders, arbitrary lines on a map are porous and hard to police. Canneries across the borders competed with each other, ignoring regulations and sometimes going so far as to hire pirates to prey on competitors. Fishermen ignored contracts, borders, and nationalities, selling their catch to the highest bidder, north or south. Moreover, fish bandits spent their efforts pirating fish from other’s traps, making deals with night watchmen and sometimes taking as much as a thousand pounds of fish a night to sell illegally to the highest bidder. Fishermen, canneries, and “fish pirates” did not see the national border as an impenetrable line, but instead as an opportunity to find the best prices for their work. With the growing salmon industry and the debate over the use of fish traps, fish waste was one of the issues concerning conservationists (139). Non-regulation of salmon fishing was destroying the species. After WWI when the time came to explore the probable extinction of salmon fishing, a need for a Canadian-US treaty to police the border became imperative (161). This led to discussions and treaties on the subject of Salish
Sea salmon fishing, with many of the ultimate resolutions resembling traditional native practices of balancing conservation and capitalism. In spite of regulations and treaties, border banditry, fish piracy, and illegal border crossings exacerbated the decline of salmon populations at the turn of the twentieth century. Natives created their traditions and borders with respect for salmon migratory habits. Conservation efforts found that aboriginal practices were the most efficient. While current procedures closely resemble native practices, they have not yet solved all past difficulties. Although The Nature of Bordersis only 174 pages plus pictures, it is well written and easy to follow. The book effortlessly switches between the themes of borders, the American West, Native Americans, the environment, and labor practices. In addition, part of chapter four discusses the Asian immigrants who came to the area, introducing a
social history of the workers. Some illegal border crossings included immigrants looking for better wages or freedom from indentured contracts. One of the most important themes of this book is how people reacted to borders, be they native, immigrant, or white. Wadewitz’s work is extensively researched— north and south of the forty-ninth parallel—and grounded in manuscript collections, interviews, and secondary sources. Wadewitz not only adds to the expanding literature on border history, but also to the literature of Native Americans and environmental history. While it can be difficult to write transnational histories due to a tendency to concentrate on one single part, Wadewitz successfully negotiates this hazard. The Nature of Borders is well worth reading for anyone interested in any of the themes covered in the book. —Scott Cardwell
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