Spanish missions in North America were once viewed as confining and stagnant communities, with native peoples on the margins of the colonial enterprise. Recent archaeological and ethnohistorical research challenges that notion. This title considers how native peoples actively incorporated the mission system into their own dynamic existence. The book, written by diverse scholars, covers missions in the Spanish borderlands from California to Texas to Georgia.

Lee M. Panich is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Santa Clara University. His publications include contributions to American Antiquity, Ethnohistory, American Indian Quarterly, Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, and Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly.

Tsim D. Schneider is a University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His work has appeared in American Indian Quarterly, Journal of Social Archaeology, Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly, and American Antiquity.