Oregon Historical Quarterly Fall 2003

York of the Corps of Discovery: Interpretations of York’s Character and His Role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition, by Darrell M. Millner
The celebration of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial has stimulated much academic and public discussion about the Corps of Discovery and its exploration of the West. During the past two hundred years, much has been written about expedition members’ scientific observations, the political implications of their explorations, and the cultural consequences of contact between the Corps members and the indigenous populations they encountered. Considerably less attention has been paid to the sole black member of the Corp—York, the slave of William Clark. Professor Darrell Millner adds to the sparse literature on York by documenting his contributions to the expedition, examining the “racial realities and dynamics of American life” at the time, and scrutinizing “how York is portrayed in the scholarly and popular writing that has been published in the two hundred years since 1805–1806.” Millner incorporates recent documentation that challenges long-standing ideas regarding the status of York as a slave and his relationship with Clark in the post-expedition period.

Organizing Portland: Organized Crime, Municipal Corruption, and the Teamsters Union, by Robert C. Donnelly
In the early years of the twentieth century, Portland was considered “wide-open” for gambling, prostitution, and other vice activities. Occasional attempts were made to curtail organized crime, but by the late 1950s, corruption, graft, and other vice activities remained an entrenched part of Portland’s culture. In the spring of 1956, an Oregonian exposé of corruption in the Western Conference of Teamsters and the Teamsters’ attempts to take over local vice rackets attracted the interest of national political figures investigating supposed racketeering by union officials in cities across the country, including Portland. Using primary documents from the FBI, U.S. Senate hearings, Oregonian articles, and personal interviews, historian Robert Donnelly documents the investigations into municipal corruption and organized labor and the ramifications of the inquiries for Portland and organized labor on both the local and national stages.

Reins, Riggings, and Reatas: The Outfit of the Great Basin Buckaroo, by Janeen Wilder
From the style of his hat to the spurs on his boots, a cowboy’s clothing and gear in the region of the Great Basin encompassing southwestern Idaho, southeastern Oregon, and northern Nevada is distinctive. Janeen Wilder traces the evolution of buckaroo clothing and gear from its roots in Spanish and, later, Mexican vaquero culture through the present day. Finely detailed silver work, intricately braided ropes, and distinctive methods of training horses represent a few of the elements that distinguish buckaroos from other cowboys. As Wilder points out, buckaroo gear and practices have changed little, remaining relatively similar to what they were one hundred years ago.

The Oregon Art of Alexander Phimister Proctor, by Peter H. Hassrick
Between 1911 and 1932, sculptor Alexander Phimister Proctor developed a personal and professional relationship with Oregon and its citizens. Proctor translated his interest in the culture of the West into a series of life-sized bronze sculptures that garnered both critical and public acclaim. Considered by some critics to be “one of the foremost exponents of western spirit and art,” Proctor pursued a style that was a synthesis of “romanticized naturalism” and the tenets of “nobility, simplicity, and dignity.” Author and American art scholar Peter Hassrick explores the history of Proctor’s sculptures inspired by Oregon’s places and people, which the artist declared to be among “his best works.” Proctor’s artistic legacy remains accessible throughout the state in works such as The Indian Warrior (Portland Art Museum), Til Taylor (Pendleton), Oregon Pioneer Mother (Eugene), Circuit Rider (Salem), and his tribute to President Theodore Roosevelt, Rough Rider (Portland).

Oregon Voices
Tall Tales, True Tales: Ernest Haycox and Researching the West, by Ernest Haycox Jr.
In this essay, Earnest Haycox’s biographer and son describes the influences that informed the content and style of his father’s writing. Haycox endeavored “to picture the West as it was, with as great an accuracy as possible, and to put into my characters those hopes and despairs which all people feel, and those moments of greatness and evil which all people possess.” Always a disciplined writer who kept regular office hours, Haycox authored twenty-four novels—several of which were made into motion pictures or televised in the 1950s and 1960s—and nearly three hundred short stories from the 1920s to the 1940s.

Spotlight on Museums
High Desert Museum, Bend

David Wroebel, Promised Lands: Promotions, Memory, and the Creation of the American West, reviewed by Gene M. Gressley

Stephen Dow Beckham, Doug Erickson, Jeremy Skinner, and Paul Merchant, The Literature of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: A Bibliography and Essays, reviewed by David L. Nicandri

Donald B. Ivy and R. Scott Byram, editors, Changing Landscapes: “Sustaining Traditions,” Proceedings of the Fifth and Sixth Annual Coquille Cultural Preservation Conferences, reviewed by David V. Ellis

Barbara S. Mahoney, Dispatches and Dictators: Ralph Barnes for the Herald Tribune, reviewed by David Sarasohn

Michael P. Dombeck, Christopher A. Wood, and Jack E. Williams, From Conquest to Conservation: Our Public Lands Legacy, reviewed by William G. Robbins

Gary Atkins, Gay Seattle: Stories of Exile and Belonging, reviewed by Peter Boag

Patricia Brandt and Lillian A. Pereyea, Adapting in Eden: Oregon’s Catholic Minority, 1838-1986, reviewed by Robert Bunting

Martha A. Sandweiss, Print the Legend: Photography and the American West, reviewed by Richard W. Etulain

Kerry E. Irish, Clarence C. Dill: The Life of a Western Politician, reviewed by Gene Tollefson

Judith Hudson Beattie and Helen M. Buss, editors, Undelivered Letters to Hudson’s Bay Company Men on the Northwest Coast of America, 1830-57, reviewed by Barbary Belyea

Robert E. Ficken, Washington Territory, reviewed by Daniel Herman