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Living Like a Wolf PDF

275 Pages·2012·2.24 MB·English
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Living Like a Wolf: Predation and Production in the Montana-Alberta Borderlands A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Michael D. Wise IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY David A. Chang, Susan D. Jones February 2012 © Michael D. Wise 2012 i Acknowledgements This dissertation benefitted from the advice and criticism of scholars and colleagues who I deeply respect. Several grants and fellowships expedited my research and writing. Family and friends also supported my work with patience and tolerance. Without all this help, this dissertation would have been much worse and less fun to write. The Department of History and Philosophy at Montana State University first nurtured my interests in predator-prey relationships. Billy Smith helped me find my voice as a writer and led me toward the intersection of labor history and environmental history. Sara Pritchard set my research in the right direction when I took her course on historical methods. Rob Campbell and Brett Walker challenged me to think beyond conventional understandings of predation and production, and my arguments owe much to their insights. Tim LeCain and Michael Reidy further deepened my education in environmental history and the history of science, while Susan Cohen, Arn Keeling, Dale Martin, Michelle Maskiell, Georgina Montgomery, Mary Murphy, and Yanna Yannakakis also read, critiqued, and encouraged my work. David Chang and Susan Jones guided my Ph.D. studies at the University of Minnesota with generous hands. David’s remarkable skills as a critic and listener challenged me to deepen and clarify my arguments, and they offered a model for my own interactions with future students. Susan’s interdisciplinary expertise added new dimensions to this project, and her scholarly awareness kept me motivated and eager to contribute to big debates within animal studies and fields beyond. I owe an additional debt of gratitude to Jeffrey Pilcher, who served as an interim advisor, and whose ii enthusiastic help and perspectives on food history profoundly shaped my thoughts on predation as this dissertation hit the homestretch. In and out of the classroom, each of my committee members shaped this dissertation in unique and vital ways. Conversations with George Henderson led me to think about predation and production as political-economic concepts, and his insight on the value-theory of labor convinced me to study predation’s intellectual history as a mode of representing value. Saje Mathieu challenged me to situate predator-prey relationships within the changing racial paradigms of North American science and political culture during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Stuart McLean helped me master a vast swath of theoretical literature on human-animal relationships, and I also thank Stuart for sponsoring my research through a GRPP fellowship in 2009. Jeani O’Brien’s close readings and expertise on American Indian history guided and sharpened all of the following chapters, as did numerous conversations with her and others at the après-workshop happy hours that she generously hosted at Town Hall Brewery. I am not alone in owing Jeani many gallons of IPA. Other faculty and students at Minnesota left their traces on this project. Coursework with Tracey Deutsch, Regina Kunzel, and Kevin Murphy helped me think about the histories of capitalism and selfhood in ways that enriched this project’s consideration of predation and the intellectual history of human-animal difference. I presented several draft chapters and seminar papers at the American Indian Studies Workshop and the Graduate Workshop on Modern History, where I received helpful feedback. Special thanks to Christina Gish Hill, Fernando Calderon, Kelly Condit- iii Shrestha, Demetri Debe, Seth Epstein, Alan Fujishin, Heather Hawkins, Christine Manganaro, Dave Morton, Erik Redix, Chantel Rodriguez, Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark, Jimmy Sweet, Kate Williams, and Liz Zanoni. A series of grants and fellowships enabled me to conceive and complete this dissertation. In 2007, a research fellowship at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center introduced me to many sources that inform the following pages. In 2008, a Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship awarded by the Social Science Research Council provided a head start on writing my dissertation prospectus, along with the opportunity to receive insightful feedback from a graduate workshop in animal studies. In 2009, the Denver Public Library’s Joy R. Hilliard Fellowship in Environmental History and a Graduate Research Fellowship in American Indian Studies at the Newberry Library allowed me to complete my dissertation research. I finished writing thanks to the support of a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship funded by the University of Minnesota. For all their enthusiasm in helping me locate and make sense of a variety of historical sources, I wish to thank a long list of archival professionals: Robert Olley at the Bronx Zoo Library; Kurt Graham, Diana Jensen, Bob Pickering, and Mary Robinson at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center; Wendel Cox, Claudia Jensen, and Ellen Zazzarino at the Denver Public Library; Patricia Molesky at the Glenbow Museum; Kim Scott at the Montana State University Special Collections; Andrew Knight, Jr. at the National Archives and Records Administration; John Aubrey and Diane Dillon at the Newberry Library; and Jana Wilson at the Stockmen’s Memorial Foundation. A special thanks goes to Rich Aarstad, Jeff Malcomson, and Brian Shovers at the Montana iv Historical Society for annually hauling two-dozen eighty-pound volumes of bounty records up four flights of stairs. Numerous other friends, colleagues, and mentors assisted my research. Jaime Allison and Jerry Jessee, two of my best friends, were some of my most helpful critics, and kept me engaged with big questions in American Indian history, environmental history, and the history of ecology. Likewise, frequent conversations with Boyd Cothran, Rob Gilmer, Joe Haker, and Andy Paul sharpened my thoughts on the American West and the politics of historical memory. Etienne Benson, Noah Cincinnati, Chris Crawford, Colter Ellis, Paul McCutcheon, Nic Mink, Megan Raby, Ryan Shapiro, and Rebecca Woods also offered many brilliant suggestions. I am grateful to Janet Browne, Harriet Ritvo, and the student members of the SSRC’s 2008 Animal Studies workshop for commenting on drafts of my dissertation proposal, and for their ongoing help with this project and other research. Discussions with Kevin Bruyneel, Jon Coleman, Bill Farr, Nancy Langston, Tim Lehman, Don Mitchell, Gregg Mitman, and Don Worster also offered practical suggestions at critical moments in the dissertating process. Friends and former teachers from Whitman College also deserve my thanks. Despite their warnings, Mike Bottoms and Trey Proctor inspired my pursuit of a Ph.D. in history. I hope my little-brother-like adulation and optimism hasn’t been too annoying. Julie Charlip, Nina Lerman, David Schmitz, Lynn Sharp, Jim Shepherd and other Whitman College faculty gave me a fine education in history. After seeing things from the other side, I apologize for my bad study habits. v Many old friends offered fresh ideas, places to stay, and other support while I worked on this dissertation, including Katie Billings, Ben Braus, Tim Johnson, Florinda Larkin, Matty Totonchy, and Adam Woodard. In Missoula, Andy Fischer and his parents, Hank and Carol, always put me up and shared their vast expertise on the Northern Rockies. In Bozeman, I owe an unpayable debt of gratitude to my friend and colleague Connie Staudohar. My family has contributed to this dissertation with much loyalty and understanding. My wife and best friend, Stefanie Bergh, encouraged my research and put up with some occasional dorkiness. More significantly, her expertise as a wildlife biologist found its way into this dissertation and made it better. My parents, Don and Debbie Wise, along with my brother Brian, have long nurtured my curiosity and I am thankful for their many years of support and encouragement. My in-laws, Rob and Nona Bergh have also been enthusiastic and supportive of my studies. While writing this dissertation, I was fortunate to spend substantial time on the family farms (located two miles apart) with my grandparents—Leonard and Anne Marie Wise, and Walt and Betty Lienemann. Their perspectives helped me think about this project outside of its academic idioms. As an eighty-eight year-old farmer, my grandfather Walt retained his clarity and humor until the end. He understood my work and offered his own insights. This dissertation arrives a year too late, but I hope it’s something he would have enjoyed reading. vi Dedication Dedicated to the memory of Walter Clifford Lienemann, Jr., 1921-2010. vii Table of Contents List of Illustrations viii Introduction: Living Like a Wolf 1 Chapter One: Wolves and Whiskey 23 Chapter Two: Beasts of Bounty 63 Chapter Three: Making Meat 99 Chapter Four: The Place that Feeds You 139 Chapter Five: Unnatural Hunger 184 Conclusion 238 Bibliography 247 viii List of Illustrations Illustration 1 “Wolves at the Wagon-Train” 62 Illustration 2 “Reaching for entrails at the agency slaughterhouse” 133 Illustration 3 “Agency Slaughterhouse, 1905” 134 Illustration 4 Map of the Blackfeet Reservation 154 Illustration 5 Changes to Blackfeet Reservation Boundaries 160 Illustration 6 “Piegan Farming and Livestock Association, 176 White Grass Chapter, ca. 1924” Illustration 7 Cartoon from the Indian Leader, 1922 178 Illustration 8 “Five Minute’s Work,” L.A. Huffman, 1883 209 Illustration 9 “Electric Peak,” L.A. Huffman 211 Illustration 10 “Work of the Unnaturalized Basque Sheepherder” 217 Illustration 11 “Bison Roasts and Steaks” 237 Illustration 12 Woman with wolf pup, Evelyn Cameron 243 Illustration 13 Woman with wolf pup chained in crate, Evelyn Cameron 244

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