Indian Country, God’s Country: Native Americans and the National Parks
“As America strives to reconcile past and future, this book retells stories that are central to that healing.”
--Winona LaDuke
“This is an important book for anyone interested in learning more about the often rocky relationship between the National Park Service and indigenous people.”
--Wilma Mankiller
Choice : "Combining highly charged prose and convincing evidence...this superb book constitutes a moving account of [tribal] defeats and victories."
Christian Science Monitor : "It's not just Indians who need to heed the lessons of this book and the ultimate illusion of ownership."
The Bloomsbury Review : "Burnham's book...proves that quality writing still lives; that you know it when you see it; that "civilization" is not restricted to narrow assumptions about the 'canon'; and that one of the reasons we read is for the experience of...the affirmation of the human spirit..."
Santa Fe New Mexican : "This is a detailed, depressing, and important book for residents of 'The Nation' to read."
American Indian Culture and Research Journal : "...a great asset to the literature on the relations between Indian people and the NPS."
Conservation Biology : "...a profusely documented piece of environmental history in which the author systematically unveils the roots of what would be called a human rights issue."
Washington Times : "This book is a well-written treatment of a subject barely touched on by historians of the American West. It is an in-depth look at the symbiotic relationship of the national parks and Indian reservations, and is for the scholar and general reader alike."
Salt Lake Tribune : "This is not a feel-good book, but those who have never realized how our national parks benefited from the mistreatment of American Indians should force themselves to read it."
Western Historical Quarterly : "Burnham adds to our growing understanding of how the once-inhabited landscapes of the national park system lost their longtime residents, and more importantly illuminates the ongoing social costs of this process."
Ethics, Place, and Environment : “…a well-written chronology of events that typify the exceptionally poor relationship between native populations of North America and the United States government.”