for individual rightsprevailed over community values, the buffalo population was systemati cally overhunted and depleted. Chapter Three examines the early furtrade between theHudson's Bay Company and the Western Woodland Cree, which depleted the population of fur-bearinganimals. The authors wonder: Since private property rightsprevent depletion of a resource otherwise left in the commons and since theWestern Cree recog nized private property rightsbefore contact, why was the resource depleted? Chapter Four argues that a proposal to privatize theBritish Columbia salmon fisheryat auction is consis tent with traditional tribalvalues. The historical research informing these essays is limited to a survey of the existing literature.That surveyyielded some interest ing conclusions. Governor William Bradford converted the Plymouth Colony from a communist collective to private ownership "using the surrounding indigenous people as amodel for individual lands rights and eco nomic sustainability" (p. 7). Franz Boas got it wrong when he saw thepotlatch as ameans of establishing social rank ina culture surrounded by abundant natural resources. Instead, the potlatch amounted toprotection payments to other tribeswho were challenging ownership of the resources. The potlatch resulted from a cost-benefit analysis. That is,potlatching was cheaper than war and as a result "lowered the transaction costs of enforcing exclusive tribal property rights" (p. 114).The warring claims for the rightof private property on the buf falo plains proves thatVine Deloria Jr.got itwrong when he said that Indians prefer a tribaland communal way of lifethat isdevoid of economic competition and that societywas much safer and more humane when Indians controlled thewhole continent. The policies advanced by The Other Path have long been a part ofUnited States Indian policy. From the time of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to the second President Bush, therehave been thosewho propose to turn Indian Country into private property with a privatemarket in which tribal members engage in the universal need to accumulate wealth. This policy was particularly promi nent during the period of allotment, from 1887 until 1934.There were 138million acres of tribal lands when theGeneral Allotment Act was passed in 1887, forcibly converting tribal ownership into private ownership. By 1934>90 million acres of that tribal land had been transformed intoprivate land ? private non-Indian land. The Other Path isboth un aware of thishistory and destined to repeat it. Dennis C. Colson University ofIdaho JEWISH WOMEN PIONEERING THE FRONTIER TRAIL: A HISTORY IN THEAMERICAN WEST by Jeanne E. Abrams New York University Press, 2006. Photographs, notes, bibliography, index. 279 pages. $39.00 cloth. JeanneAbrams's Jewish Women Pioneering the Frontier Trail is a landmark of scholarship in western women's history. Abrams assembles provocative juxtapositions, reminding readers of an intensely immigrantWest, where Jews nonetheless assimilated almost completely, as well as of Jews'statusas a highlyvisible yetnu merically tiny minority. This isa readable, viv idly written book, organized by theme ? such as institutionbuilding, business, and education ? and focused mainly on the period 1880-1920. Yet, it isas frustratingas it is evocative. Despite the title, there is little here on "pioneering the frontiertrail"and no detailed analysis of the movement and transformation of family customs, gender roles, and general culture in the trek west. Instead,Abrams focus es on substantial towns and citypopulations, especially San Francisco,Denver, and Portland, Oregon. In these relatively familiar settings for studies of Jewish immigration,people and events are mainly reported on rather than rein 144 OHQ vol. 108, no. 1 terpreted. Abrams does notmove much beyond conclusions found in the current scholarship on Jewish women's organized urban activities in charity, education, settlement work, and business elsewhere in theUnited States at the time.That literaturedescribes immigration as placing new responsibilities on Jewish women, which they in turn seized as opportunities to uphold religious observance, familycohesion, and community unity aswell as to acculturate and succeed in theAmerican context. Each of Abrams's chapters cries out for more incisive grappling with this basic the sis.The work of leading figureHattie Hecht Sloss of San Francisco? a major patron of the arts and outstanding National Council of Jewish Women leader ? is,forexample, sum marized but not explained, most glaringly in regard toher dramatic turnabout on Zionism. Abrams's description ofDenver's Ray David, superintendentofthat city'sJewish Aid Society...