The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 61, July 1957 - April, 1958 Page: 199

Book Reviews

at his own pace, but have given us considerable elaboration via
the footnote route. Particularly the explanatory notes will be
helpful to persons who do not know Texas firsthand, as the
editors explain most references, even to identifying such house-
hold names as Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar and Buffalo Bayou.
JOE B. FRANTZ
The University of Texas
Hill of the Rooster. By Curry Holden. New York (Henry Holt
and Company), 1956. Pp. 319. $3.95-
Occasionally a practitioner of the historian's craft breaks the
crust of prejudice that exists in certain quarters and demonstrates
that a talented scholar who has not succumbed totally to the
traditional inhibitions of his profession can make worthwhile
contributions beyond the strict limits of the historical discipline.
A case in point is Curry Holden, who is probably better known
to Association members as Professor William Curry Holden of
Texas Technological College.
In Hill of the Rooster, Professor Holden has turned from the
scholarly forms that he has used in his past writing and moved
into the field of the historical novel. The results are generally
rewarding in both fact and potential. From his extensive research
on the Yaqui Indians, the writer has extracted his basic plot,
which is essentially the story of Yaqui resistance to Mexican dom-
ination in the state of Sonora in the early twentieth century.
Quite apart from the skilful and rapidly paced story development,
Hill of the Rooster contains a rich store of authentic ethnological
and historical data on the Yaqui that is developed in a manner
that should satisfy the most discriminating reader.
Apparently the ultimate accolade for a contemporary novel is
favorable consideration by Hollywood. This specimen of the
genre certainly deserves such consideration-but not the usual
treatment that is ordinarily given to such film productions. From
the opening incidents, which examine the implementation of the
official policy of extermination and dispersion with surprising
sympathy for both the Yaqui and Mexican principals, to the ex-
citing climax on the ranch of the Texan Slaughter and its tragic
conclusion on the Hill of the Rooster, the reader is constantly

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