By Terry Tempest Williams | The New York TimesBE FOREWARNED: Utah is a state of mind, and the state of mind you adopt will determine the books you will want to read. As Brigham Young, the Mormon colonizer, said, “This is the place.” That leaves you to answer the question, “the place for what?”
Utah is a place of paradoxes: a state of hard-working people who are kind, industrious, and community-minded; it is also a place of historic cruelty toward Indigenous people and those on the margins who do not comply with the dominant culture’s mores. It is a state of creativity, resilience and resistance. Now in drought, we are holding brine shrimp in cupped hands making vows to return water to a shrinking Great Salt Lake.
Indigenous voices are strong and varied in Utah. Ute historian Forrest Cuch’s excellent A HISTORY OF UTAH’S AMERICAN INDIANS introduces the eight federally recognized Tribal Nations located in the state. EDGE OF MORNING: Native Voices Speak for the Bears Ears, edited by Jacqueline Keeler, is an evocation on why these sacred lands matter to Native communities, including voices like Regina Lopez Whiteskunk, Willie Grayeyes and Jonah Yellowman.