History, Department of
Date of this Version
Spring 4-21-2015
Citation
Buchkoski, John. Spider in the River: A Comparative Environmental History of the Impact of the Cache la Poudre Watershed On Cheyennes and Euro-Americans, 1830-1880. M.A. Thesis, University of Nebraska, 2015.
Abstract
This thesis is a case study of the Cache la Poudre watershed in Colorado in the mid-nineteenth century and how it contributed to cultural transformations of both Cheyennes and Euro-Americans. This research follows the relationship that developed between Cheyennes and rivers since they inhabited Mille de Lacs in Minnesota in the seventeenth century. It examines the creation of settler-colonialism through the formation of boundaries and colonies in Colorado through the use of rivers. This further illustrates the connectedness of both Euro-Americans and Cheyennes to the rivers and argues that there were battles over these rivers and not only over the land. Finally, this thesis examines how the colonists that settled Colorado also disputed between themselves over the right to these rivers, by committing themselves to the idea of the mythic West. Some were disillusioned and left, but founder of Union Colony, Nathan Meeker, propagated and promoted the mythic West, and by committing themselves to the rivers, survived in that region.
Adviser: Katrina L. Jagodinsky
Comments
A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts, Major: History, Under the Supervision of Professor Katrina L. Jagodinsky. Lincoln, Nebraska: April, 2015
Copyright (c) 2015 John J. Buchkoski