"This book describes the Pacific Northwest's search for a regional identity from the first Indian-European contacts through the late twentieth century, identifying those individuals and groups "who at least struggled to give meaning to the Northwest experience." It places particular emphasis on nineteenth-century writers and other celebrated individuals in the arts"--Provided by publisher.

"Of Forest and Fields tells the story of the ethnic Mexicans that toiled in the fields, canneries, packing sheds, and forests who helped turn the Pacific Northwest into one of the most productive agricultural regions in the country. The book explores the struggle of Braceros, Tejanos, and Mexican immigrants, to contest their exploitation in various ways. The history of their resistance culminated in the creation of one of the most important farm worker's...

"The story of the land in the Northwest flows from the cataclysmic ice-age floods. So it only follows that the stories of the people in this terrain are inextricably linked to the aftereffects of that great deluge. These are the genesis stories of a region. Included are the controversy over the provenance and ownership of a meteor that fell to earth in rural Oregon; the mystery of the aurora borealis as observed by 18th-century explorer David Thompson;...

"In these pages are the explorations of the Scots who scaled the mountains and mapped the rivers of the Oregon country before the time of Lewis and Clark; the imperial fiefdom created for profit and Britannia by the fur-trading ventures of the Hudson's Bay Company; John Jacob Astor's ill-fated experiment on the Columbia River; the adventures of the mountain men who risked their lives in hostile Indian country in pursuit of beaver pelts; and the arrival...

Follows Golden Sun, an Appaloosa horse, through several seasons as Little Turtle, a Nez Perce boy, raises and trains him then takes him along on a vision quest in hopes of saving his friend Pale Moon from serious illness.