Review: Sondra G. Jones. Being and Becoming Ute: The Story of an American Indian People. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2019.

Authors

Elise Boxer

Abstract

Sondra G. Jones’s Being and Becoming Ute: The Story of an American Indian People is the first comprehensive history of the Núu-ci, or “The People” (8). It is a cultural biography and history of the Núu-ci people that begins with their creation story and moves through hundreds of years of Núu-ci history. Jones highlights the resiliency and adaptation of a people from contact and into the twenty-first century. Ute survivance in the twenty-first century is the result of their ability to respond and adapt to external forces that advocated for their removal and erasure. Being and Becoming Ute spans over four hundred years of complex Ute history, and Jones’s methodical approach highlights the diversity and resiliency of a people. Ute people have defined the future of their people on their own terms as an exercise of tribal sovereignty. As a comprehensive book about Ute peoples, Jones takes on this formidable task in this career-defining book. Her book will be foundational to any future scholars writing about Núu-ci people, Mormons in Utah, and the larger American West.

BYU ScholarsArchive Citation

Boxer, Elise (2022) "Review: Sondra G. Jones. Being and Becoming Ute: The Story of an American Indian People. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2019.," Mormon Studies Review: Vol. 9: No. 1, Article 15.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr2/vol9/iss1/15