Andrew Needham
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691139067
- eISBN:
- 9781400852406
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691139067.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter explores how a new infrastructure of coal mines and power plants on the Navajo Reservation, and of power lines that stretched across the Southwest, changed the landscape of the Navajo ...
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This chapter explores how a new infrastructure of coal mines and power plants on the Navajo Reservation, and of power lines that stretched across the Southwest, changed the landscape of the Navajo Reservation. The political terms in which this infrastructure took place—terms set largely by the belief held by businessmen from Phoenix and elsewhere that the state should facilitate capital location—shaped this infrastructure's meaning and future. These politics meant that private companies, rather than the federal authorities, mined coal and set it alight. They meant that federal policy focused increasingly on unlocking resources on Navajo land rather than ensuring that employment accompanied development. Moreover, they meant that the power lines leading from Four Corners Power Plant became the main supply for the electricity demanded in Phoenix, rather than primarily being a source of Navajo economic modernization.Less
This chapter explores how a new infrastructure of coal mines and power plants on the Navajo Reservation, and of power lines that stretched across the Southwest, changed the landscape of the Navajo Reservation. The political terms in which this infrastructure took place—terms set largely by the belief held by businessmen from Phoenix and elsewhere that the state should facilitate capital location—shaped this infrastructure's meaning and future. These politics meant that private companies, rather than the federal authorities, mined coal and set it alight. They meant that federal policy focused increasingly on unlocking resources on Navajo land rather than ensuring that employment accompanied development. Moreover, they meant that the power lines leading from Four Corners Power Plant became the main supply for the electricity demanded in Phoenix, rather than primarily being a source of Navajo economic modernization.
Andrew Needham
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691139067
- eISBN:
- 9781400852406
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691139067.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter looks at the construction of Boulder Dam. Franklin Roosevelt explained the dam as a manifestation of the transformations the New Deal had set in motion. “The largest generators and ...
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This chapter looks at the construction of Boulder Dam. Franklin Roosevelt explained the dam as a manifestation of the transformations the New Deal had set in motion. “The largest generators and turbines yet installed in this country, machinery that can continuously supply nearly two million horsepower of electric energy,” Roosevelt explained, would soon “power factory motors, street and household lights and irrigation pumps.” In so doing, the dam's energy would transform the region and the nation at large; it would create industrial modernity. Ultimately, the construction of Boulder Dam, and the politics surrounding it, signaled a change. It suggested that efforts to turn the energy of the river to human purposes had begun to tie the fates of Phoenix and the Navajo Reservation together. Indeed, Boulder Dam had begun the creation of a new region.Less
This chapter looks at the construction of Boulder Dam. Franklin Roosevelt explained the dam as a manifestation of the transformations the New Deal had set in motion. “The largest generators and turbines yet installed in this country, machinery that can continuously supply nearly two million horsepower of electric energy,” Roosevelt explained, would soon “power factory motors, street and household lights and irrigation pumps.” In so doing, the dam's energy would transform the region and the nation at large; it would create industrial modernity. Ultimately, the construction of Boulder Dam, and the politics surrounding it, signaled a change. It suggested that efforts to turn the energy of the river to human purposes had begun to tie the fates of Phoenix and the Navajo Reservation together. Indeed, Boulder Dam had begun the creation of a new region.
Eric Henderson
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195136159
- eISBN:
- 9780199863921
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195136159.003.0002
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
This chapter describes the areas on the eastern and western ends of the Navajo Reservation where the study was carried out. Although most Navajos still live in dispersed rural reservation ...
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This chapter describes the areas on the eastern and western ends of the Navajo Reservation where the study was carried out. Although most Navajos still live in dispersed rural reservation communities, the total number of people living in agency and border towns is now almost equal to the number of rural residents. Each type of community has a distinctive demographic and socioeconomic profile, and, in consequence, the life experiences of individuals differ depending on the type of community within which they are reared. Navajo households articulate with the wider political economy in slightly different fashions depending on such attributes as place of residence and nature of involvement in the work force. The chapter illustrates this process by focusing on the emergence of a “youth culture” or “subculture” among Navajo males, since the major concerns in this study is the importance of conduct disorder as a risk factor for subsequent alcohol dependence.Less
This chapter describes the areas on the eastern and western ends of the Navajo Reservation where the study was carried out. Although most Navajos still live in dispersed rural reservation communities, the total number of people living in agency and border towns is now almost equal to the number of rural residents. Each type of community has a distinctive demographic and socioeconomic profile, and, in consequence, the life experiences of individuals differ depending on the type of community within which they are reared. Navajo households articulate with the wider political economy in slightly different fashions depending on such attributes as place of residence and nature of involvement in the work force. The chapter illustrates this process by focusing on the emergence of a “youth culture” or “subculture” among Navajo males, since the major concerns in this study is the importance of conduct disorder as a risk factor for subsequent alcohol dependence.
Andrew Needham
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691139067
- eISBN:
- 9781400852406
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691139067.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
In 1940, Phoenix was a small, agricultural city of 65,000, and the Navajo Reservation was an open landscape of scattered sheepherders. Forty years later, Phoenix had blossomed into a metropolis of ...
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In 1940, Phoenix was a small, agricultural city of 65,000, and the Navajo Reservation was an open landscape of scattered sheepherders. Forty years later, Phoenix had blossomed into a metropolis of 1.5 million people and the territory of the Navajo Nation was home to two of the largest strip mines in the world. Five coal-burning power plants surrounded the reservation, generating electricity for export to Phoenix, Los Angeles, and other cities. Exploring the postwar developments of these two very different landscapes, this book tells the story of the far-reaching environmental and social inequalities of metropolitan growth, and the roots of the contemporary coal-fueled climate change crisis. The book explains how inexpensive electricity became a requirement for modern life in Phoenix—driving assembly lines and cooling the oppressive heat. Navajo officials initially hoped energy development would improve their lands too, but as ash piles marked their landscape, air pollution filled the skies, and almost half of Navajo households remained without electricity, many Navajos came to view power lines as a sign of their subordination in the Southwest. Drawing together urban, environmental, and Native American history, the book demonstrates how power lines created unequal connections between distant landscapes and how environmental changes associated with suburbanization reached far beyond the metropolitan frontier. The book also offers a new account of postwar inequality, arguing that residents of the metropolitan periphery suffered similar patterns of marginalization as those faced in America's inner cities. Telling how coal from Indian lands became the fuel of modernity in the Southwest, the book explores the dramatic effects that this energy system has had on the people and environment of the region.Less
In 1940, Phoenix was a small, agricultural city of 65,000, and the Navajo Reservation was an open landscape of scattered sheepherders. Forty years later, Phoenix had blossomed into a metropolis of 1.5 million people and the territory of the Navajo Nation was home to two of the largest strip mines in the world. Five coal-burning power plants surrounded the reservation, generating electricity for export to Phoenix, Los Angeles, and other cities. Exploring the postwar developments of these two very different landscapes, this book tells the story of the far-reaching environmental and social inequalities of metropolitan growth, and the roots of the contemporary coal-fueled climate change crisis. The book explains how inexpensive electricity became a requirement for modern life in Phoenix—driving assembly lines and cooling the oppressive heat. Navajo officials initially hoped energy development would improve their lands too, but as ash piles marked their landscape, air pollution filled the skies, and almost half of Navajo households remained without electricity, many Navajos came to view power lines as a sign of their subordination in the Southwest. Drawing together urban, environmental, and Native American history, the book demonstrates how power lines created unequal connections between distant landscapes and how environmental changes associated with suburbanization reached far beyond the metropolitan frontier. The book also offers a new account of postwar inequality, arguing that residents of the metropolitan periphery suffered similar patterns of marginalization as those faced in America's inner cities. Telling how coal from Indian lands became the fuel of modernity in the Southwest, the book explores the dramatic effects that this energy system has had on the people and environment of the region.
