The influx of Spanish, Russian, and then American colonists into Alta California between 1769 and 1834 challenged both Native and non-Native people to reimagine communities not only in different places and spaces but also in novel forms and practices. The contributors to this volume draw on archaeological and historical archival sources to analyze the generative processes and nature of communities of belonging in the face of rapid demographic change and perceived or enforced difference.

Kathleen L. Hull is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of California, Merced. She is the author of Pestilence and Persistence: Yosemite Indian Demography and Culture in Colonial California.

John G. Douglass is director of research and standards at Statistical Research, Inc. He is also a visiting scholar in the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. His most recent book is New Mexico and the Pimería Alta: The Colonial Period in the American Southwest.