B O O K REVI EW
SHO-RAP HIGHWAY: THE NATIVE AMERICAN FIREFIGHTERS OF WIND RIVER (2017) Robin P. Whiteplume. By Richard McCrea
Native American wildland firefighters have a rich history of battling forest fires in the United States. Their experiences have never been well documented and personal narratives rarely recorded. Whiteplume has written an interesting memoir of working as a proud firefighter with the Shoshone/Arapaho Native American fire crews, known as Sho-Raps. Whiteplume has thoroughly scouted the archives and government records and his own memories and come back with a full report. Whiteplume is a member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe and grew up in the shadows of the rugged 13,000-foot peaks of the Wind River Range of Wyoming, about 125 miles south of Yellowstone National Park. This book is much more than a personal story; it is an important historical account of indigenous firefighters in the western United States and discusses the early formation in the 1940’s of Indian fire crews from the Red Hats of the Mescalero Apache Tribe in New Mexico to the Montana Indian Firefighters. ShoRap Highway provides us with a detailed account of the founding of the Sho-Rap fire crews and an unvarnished chronicle of what it is like to be a firefighter. The author gives a realistic account of firefighting and
the incredibly hard, tiresome, dirty, and dangerous work. Firefighting is not glamorous, and many things can go wrong such as conflicts between crew members, and potential injuries from a variety of hazards like bees, raging flames, falling snags, and gripping rides in the open back of 2 ½ ton trucks on narrow roads. The book describes the cultural and social aspects of being a native firefighter and how their outlook is often different from other crews. As Whiteplume observes, there is a long history of Native American struggles to survive which has made them stronger and less prone to carelessness when it came time to battle historic enemies or nature. Perhaps that is why Indian crews return from fire assignments without large-scale casualties or fatalities. There is a great deal of pride that native crews have in their work and what it means to come home safe to their families and have a nice paycheck for all the hard work they have done. The book shows sparks of humor and many interesting stories. Whiteplume relates an account of Sho-Rap crew bosses discussing a deployment on the fireline, and overhearing one of them say to the others, “You go down there, if you got the nerve,” a line famously (to the Sho-Raps) spoken to General Custer by Jack Crabb in the 1970 movie, Little Big Man. History records how General Custer did indeed
www.amazon.com/Robin-Whiteplume/e/B073V9ZV16/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0 https://booklife.com/project/9780692889121-24286
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JANUARY - MARCH 2021
