What You See in Clear Water: Indians, Whites, and a Battle Over Water in the American West

by Geoffrey O'Gara

Book Overview

For nearly a century, the Indians on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming have been battling their white farmer neighbors over the rights to the Wind River. What You See in Clear Water tells the story of this epic struggle, shedding light on the ongoing conflict over water rights in the American West, one of the most divisive and essential issues in America today. While lawyers argued this landmark case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Geoffrey...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679735828
• ISBN13: 9780679735823
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

O'Gara somehow holds the threads together in a story of water rights

This is book risks being pulled in various directions - - it's about an important water law case concerning the Wind River and its namesake Indian Reservation, it's about how irrigation works, and it's also about daily life on the reservation. It would be easy to have these two threads fly apart but O'Gara does a good job holding them together. Still, it can be jarring to move from summer Arapaho language camp or a sweat lodge to a courtroom in Cheyenne, and the book does this rather a lot. That is my only complaint about the book. It's very well-written, and O'Gara has a good sense when to focus narrowly and when to step back. The details of irrigation systems, ecosystems, Shoshone and Arapaho history, water law, and the dysfunctionalities of reservation life all appear, but none dominate the story. O'Gara also shows the remarkable racism of whites who live in and around the reservation, but he lets them betray themselves without adding commentary. Jeff Fassett of the state water department refuses to obey the law, continuing to give the tribe's water to the local whites who have always used it. The final denouement, even to a reader who already knew it, remains horrible and a betrayal of justice and ecology. This is one of those rare books worth reading even if you don't have any particular interest in the subject matter.

Absorbing story of the struggle over who owns a river

Author Geoffrey O'Gara uses two decades of legal wrangles over control of the watershed on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation to explore two centuries of the collision between whites and Native Americans in the West. He accomplishes this feat in 300 pages by presenting the story as a human drama, focusing on the lives of individuals, living and dead, each with their own aspirations, history, and personality. On the one hand are the white farmers who have settled legally within the boundaries of the reservation, "reclaiming" arid land with water provided by federally funded irrigation systems. On the other are the Indians of two tribes, Shoshone and Arapaho, historically antagonistic, reduced by over a century of conquest and together discovering a new-found strength to resist the will of state and federal governments. Among them are the college-educated, the young drop-outs, the old who still remember some of the lost Indian culture -- a wide range of people challenging easy ethnic stereotypes while at the same time representing the social ills that plague the reservations: poverty, unemployment, alcoholism. It is a Dickensian cast of characters.A third group of key figures in O'Gara's story are the non-Indian professionals whose lives become entwined with reservation residents as the struggle over water rights heats up: engineers, hydrologists, conservationists, bureaucrats, lawyers and judges. The endless legal battles bring to mind Dickens' "Bleak House." Court decisions progressively yield more ground to the Indians, and appeals take the case against them all the way to the Supreme Court, yet after $50 million in legal fees, the issues remain unresolved.While O'Gara makes an effort to maintain a journalist's objectivity throughout the book, his underlying sympathy is pretty clearly with the Indians, whom he gives the lion's share of the book to. Seeming to acquire privileged information in his interviews, he also points out that as a journalist he is often permitted to know what will best serve the Indians' purposes. He must still question its veracity and speculate about the rest, based on what seems to be extensive research in public records and historical accounts. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the American West, its history, cultures, geology, topography. The book is organized as a journey upstream, along the river's two main branches, into its headwaters in mountain glaciers. In fact, it's a good idea to have a map of Wyoming at hand for reference. As a companion to this book, I'd recommend Frank Clifford's "Backbone of the World," which explores some of this same subject matter and introduces readers to many other inhabitants up and down the Continental Divide.

An excellent case study of modern day water politics

The author manages to guide the reader though a conflicting set of water resource issues on the most legally confusing of all landscapes... the Wind River Reservation. Lined up across the court-room aisle sit the anglo farmers who tap the river for irrigation and the native residents wanting to restore the "in-stream flows" to support the trout fishery. Its a conflict the author uses to drive the story forward, but is only a single thread of a much richer story. The author interleaves the battle over water rights with the history of both the Shoshone and Arapaho and the opening of land within the reservation for white settlers. The author's love of the Wind River Reservation is evident in his first hand accounts describing the area's geography and natural history. This book succeeds by tying together the story's long and interconnected threads into a comprehensive picture of water politics.

A page-turner for anyone who loves The West

O'Gara has masterfully woven together past, present and future in this rich account of the Wind River Basin, its people and their struggle for self preservation. O'Gara's intimate knowlege of the social, political, economic, legal, and geologic issues that converge in this complex and fascinating story is as impressive as it is vast. He describes the land with skillful and clear-eyed detail, and he tells the story with a respect and compassion that must only have come from someone who has lived in and loved the West for many years.

Beautifully human

This book is rich with geographical details of Wyoming and history of the Shoshone and Arapahoe people. O'Gara skillfully and lovingly describes the Wind River Valley like a sculptor shapes his beloved work. He is an excellent storyteller. What I loved most was O'Gara's deep attention to human relations, personal histories, and character. He always tells the tale with the human in the center. He never proselytizes or places blame. He doesn't demonize or romanticize. Also, the Native Americans are depicted as people, not political images or symbols. It's easy and fun to read, yet never strays from reality. I loved reading it. I wish more stories about Native Americans were told so warmly and truthfully.