"Feebleminded, cowardly, defenseless dwarfs"

"Mountain Spirit" endeavors to recreate the Sheep Eater way of life before they were scattered on reservations.

The Sheep Eaters were a group of people who lived in the higher altitudes of the Greater Yellowstone region in the pre-park era and are tragically "maligned and misrepresented" in Wyoming's literature and beyond, Loendorf said in a recent interview.

Along with co-author Nancy Medaris Stone, Loendorf reveals how the Sheep Eaters' reputation of being "feebleminded, cowardly, defenseless dwarfs" has been perpetuated by numerous sources, some of which are outright lies, say the authors.

In fact, they were advanced peoples who had a very functional mountain life, posits Loendorf, a professor at New Mexico State University whose research focuses on the Great Plains, U.S. Southwest ethnography and rock art.