Big Sky Rivers

The Yellowstone and the Missouri may be two different rivers (one is now dammed into reservoirs, the other is unregulated), but they are tied to a common ecological and geographical history. According to Schneiders, whose Unruly River dealt with the Lower Missouri Valley, these rivers represent the center of a""tremendous living system."" By examining the areas of the Missouri and Yellowstone River Valleys, along with their fauna--homo sapiens and bison, for example--Schneiders takes readers on an absorbing""bioregional"" history of the land. The valleys form""a living organism,"" Schneiders says, with the Missouri River serving as""the heart of a vast... body"" and the Yellowstone functioning as""an aorta."" The author draws on 19th-century fur traders' journals and numerous studies on Lewis and Clark and other explorers to present a well-rounded depiction of an American landscape, with a final chapter on the rivers' future. Although dense at times, Schneiders's prose nonetheless paints a compelling portrait of how the forces of humans, animals and nature can shape a land indelibly.