These seven original essays offer the first ethnohistorical interpretation of Spanish-Indian interaction from Florida to California. The indigenous peoples in the borderlands were hunter-gatherers or agriculturalists whose lives differed substantially from the lives of Indians in large-scale hierarchical societies of central Mexico. As a result, Spain’s entry and expansion varied throughout the borderlands.

How did indigenous peoples fare under Spanish rule from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries? The contributors to this book discuss the social, demographic, and economic impacts of Spanish colonization on Indians. Relations among settlers, soldiers, priests, and indigenous peoples throughout the borderlands are examined, bringing immediacy and human interest to the interpretation.

Contributors are Susan M. Deeds, Jesus F. de la Teja, Ross Frank, Robert H. Jackson, Peter Stern, and Patricia Wickman. Their essays offer a new and engaging synthesis that will reinvigorate teaching and research in borderlands history.