The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 76, July 1972 - April, 1973 Page: 107

Book Reviews

of the chapters could have been gathered in a few days by any good
M.A. candidate. The organization is uninspired. The writing style
might, for lack of a better term, be called "late New Deal polemic."
This is to be expected. Sar A. Levitan is a professor of economics
at George Washington University who has made a large part of his
reputation serving various agencies, committees, and bureaus around
Washington, D.C. Barbara Hetrick is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology
at the University of Maryland who apparently hopes to follow in the
footsteps of her coauthor.
The far more serious weakness of this publication is the fact that
neither of the authors seems to know very much about Indians. It
is doubtful if anyone can write a book about Indians or even bu-
reaucracies designed to serve Indians without knowing at least a few
Indians. A quick glance at this volume arouses suspicions. For in-
stance, the pictures are not right. They look like the postcards tourists
send back east from New Mexico. There are pictures of Indians going
to school, getting innoculations, weaving rugs, and attending a tribal
meeting. There is even a picture showing us that "Glen Jenks is
handy with a saw."
The book's photos clearly supplement the authors' argument that
with a little help from white bureaucrats these Indians-already par-
tially down the road to a three-bedroom tract house in middle-class
America-can go all the way. They show that the Indians are not still
wearing feathers and living in tepees. Most of us knew this already.
But if Levitan and Hetrick had bothered to ask anyone but Bureau
of Indian Affairs Indians, they might have found that middle-class
suburbia is hardly the Indians' "Happy Hunting Ground." I think
the authors would have done well to spend more time with the Indians
and less time abstracting government documents.
East Montana State University ROBERT T. SMITH
Texas Pioneers from Poland: A Study in Ethnic History. By Jacek
Przygoda. (Waco: Texian Press, 1971. Pp. xi+171. Bibliography,
appendix, index. $7.50.)
Texas had the first permanent Polish colony in the United States,
yet little has been published about this ethnic group. That a Polish-
born, Los Angeles-based, Jesuit economist came to Texas to research
the topic emphasizes the importance of the subject. The Poles in

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