The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 105, July 2001 - April, 2002 Page: 537

Book Reviews

that has characterized too many studies in this genre, but I should caution the
potential reader that the introduction is muy pesado.
The texts Rabasa studied touch only marginally on Texas, and do focus primar-
ily on New Mexico and Florida. The first set of texts are those related to the
adventures of Alvar Nifiez Cabeza de Vaca and the other survivors of the ill-fated
Narviez expedition to Florida. Obviously, Cabeza de Vaca and the handful of sur-
vivors first landed on the coast of Texas, but Rabasa focuses primarily on a com-
parison/contrast of Bartolome de las Casas's call for peaceful conquest and the
apparent support for this approach in the writings of Cabeza de Vaca as contrast-
ed to his later actions as governor of the Rio de la Plata region in South America.
The other texts that Rabasa studied included Gaspar de Villagra's Histona de la
Nueve Mexzco as it specifically related to the retribution meted out to the inhabitants
of Acoma when they revolted against Juan de Ofiate's authority, viewed against the
backdrop of late sixteenth-century Spanish law and the structured way in which
cronicas were to be written. In this discussion Rabasa also included texts related to
Coronado's rampage in New Mexico in the early 1540s. Others included the
accounts of DeSoto's expedition through the southeast in the 1540s, including
Oviedo, the Fidalgo of Elvis, and Garcilaso de la Vega. Rabasa concluded by analyz-
ing protestant texts related to the Spanish massacre of French Huguenots in
Florida in 1565, the 1572 St. Bartholomew Days massacre, the abuse of the native
peoples of the Americas, and the construction of the propagandistic leyenda negra.
Rabasa's book is generally interesting, and is worth reading, although it is not
ideally targeted for the average reader. Literary criticism is a difficult read under
any circumstance. However, Rabasa does not bring any really new insights to his
analysis. Advocates of postcolonial subaltern studies claim to offer something
new, but, as is the case with Rabasa's book, it is simply a different perspective
that really is not new.
Milford, New York ROBERT H. JACKSON
The Indian Territory Journals of Colonel Richard Irvng Dodge. Edited by Wayne R.
Kime. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000. Pp. xvii+486.
Illustrations, maps, preface, notes, abbreviations, afterword, appendices,
bibliography, index. ISBN 0-8061-3257-4. $55.oo, cloth.)
Once again, Professor Kime treats us to a masterfully edited collection of the
campaign journals of Col. Richard Irving Dodge. This volume continues the
series edited by Kime and published by the University of Oklahoma Press and
contains the personal reflections of Colonel Dodge during his tours of duty in
Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) and Colorado. The journals span
roughly two years, from September 1878 until September 1880, and they recount
Dodge's experiences as a company and post commander and offer many intrigu-
ing insights into frontier life during the late nineteenth century. Topics of partic-
ular interest are Dodge's accounts of military life, his observations about Native
Americans, and his commentary on the often contentious relationship between
the U.S. Army and the Indian Bureau.

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