Award Date
1-1-1996
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History
First Committee Member
Hal K. Rothman
Number of Pages
127
Abstract
This thesis tells a story of resource competition in central Nevada primarily between two groups--Shoshone Indians who inhabited the region for centuries and European Americans who arrived in the nineteenth century. Although people who competed for control of the region's pinion pine trees generally fell into either of these categories, the labels of Indian and European grossly oversimplify the diversity within each group. Both Shoshone and Europeans comprised a variety of sub-groupings that utilized resources in a distinct manner and for purposes that often differed from those of the larger population. A number of different Shoshone bands and families competed against each other for food resources but particularly for pine nuts. Among Europeans, a variety of different racial, ethnic, class, and occupational groups competed for the same timber resources. These included middle- and working-class Italian immigrants, upper class businessmen and industrialists, as well as miners. Conflict intensified among these diverse segments of the population and between Indians and Europeans as natural resources diminished.
Keywords
Central; Class; Commons; Contesting; Environment; Ethnicity; Nevada; Occupation; Race
Controlled Subject
Social structure
File Format
File Size
2785.28 KB
Degree Grantor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Language
English
Permissions
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Repository Citation
Frehner, Brian Wesley, "Contesting the commons: Race, ethnicity, class, occupation, and environment in Central Nevada, 1850-1880" (1996). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 3157.
http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/b2tp-0kze
Rights
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