Social Science

Dr. Bobbie Chew Bigby (Cherokee) and Randy Palmer (Kiowa/Choctaw) have collected colorful photographs showcasing one of the earliest, longest-running, and most cherished American Indian cultural attractions in the country, Indian City USA.

Located in Anadarko, Oklahoma, Indian City USA was open from the mid-1950s through the end of the 2000s. Drawing on vibrant postcard images, family photographs, and maps, together with the oral histories of those who worked and lived there, this book provides a unique view into Indian City USA and what made it so special for so many people.

Little Mexico was Dallas's earliest Mexican barrio. "Mexicanos" had lived in Dallas since the mid-19th century. The social displacement created by the Mexican Revolution of 1910, however, caused the emergence of a distinct and vibrant neighborhood on the edge of the city's downtown. This neighborhood consisted of modest homes, small businesses, churches, and schools, and further immigration from Mexico in the 1920s caused its population to boom. By the 1930s, Little Mexico's population had grown to over 15,000 people. The expanding city's construction projects, urban renewal plans, and land speculation by developers gradually began to dismantle Little Mexico. By the end of the 20th century, Little Mexico had all but disappeared, giving way to upscale high-rise residences and hotels, office towers of steel and glass, and the city's newest entertainment district. This book looks at Little Mexico's growth, zenith, demise, and its remarkable renaissance as a neighborhood.

The Llano Estacado, or "Staked Plain," of Texas and eastern New Mexico spreads two hundred miles across what early visitors called "an ocean of land." No other place on Earth is quite like it. Humans first inhabited the area more than twelve thousand years ago. Subsequently, settlers came to convert the grassland to ranches and then to sprawling farms. Every new generation performed its duty at this cultural crossroads, from the trade routes established by the comancheros to the fateful meeting between Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley at Lubbock's Cotton Club. Noted West Texas historians Paul H. Carlson and David J. Murrah compiled and edited fifty-six brief stories presenting the Llano Estacado's heritage at its liveliest and most unfamiliar.

Long before the era of the foodie, the little coal-mining town of Krebs set the standard for celebrating food in Oklahoma. Its reputation as the Sooner State's Little Italy began in the mid-1870s when Italian immigrants chased the coal boom to Pittsburg County, deep in the heart of the Choctaw Nation. After 150 years, Italians and Choctaw neighbors are now bound by pasta, homemade cheeses and sausages and native beer once brewed illegally in basement bathtubs and delivered by children from door to door. Stop by for a steak at GiaComo's, a Choc at Pete's Place, lamb fries at the Isle of Capri, gnocchi at Roseanna's or a gourd of caciocavallo at Lovera's--venues that have proven impervious to time and hardship. Join Food Dude Dave Cathey on a tour through this colorful and delicious history.