Native Studies Keywords is a genealogical project that looks at the history of words that claim to have no history. The end goal is not to determine which words are appropriate but to critically examine words that are crucial to Native studies, in hopes of promoting debate and critical interrogation.

This is the first book to examine the roles of plazas in ancient Mesoamerica. It argues persuasively that physical interactions among people in communal events were not the outcomes of political machinations held behind the scenes, but were the actual political processes through which people created, negotiated, and subverted social realities.

Mapping Indigenous Presence promises to become a benchmark for future conversations concerning comparative Indigenous scholarly methodologies. Shanley and Evjen’s work attests to the importance of the roles Indigenous peoples have played as overseers of their own lands and resources and as political entities capable of governing themselves.

Living with the Dead in the Andes provides new data and insights informed by general anthropological theory; the extensive bibliography alone is an important contribution. Scholars working with Andean mortuary practices (and prehistory generally) will be citing these chapters for years.

Building on the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development’s experience with more than 120 nation-building projects over two decades, Universities and Indian Country posits that the tenets of nation building can provide a strategy for expanding and diversifying universities’ perspectives of knowledge in a multicultural world, while also producing results that are requested by and useful to Native communities. It is a valuable resource for any student, professional, and community member working to assert powers of self-determination, strengthen culture, and develop economies.

The Sagebrush Trail is a history of Western movies but also a history of twentieth-century America. Richard Aquila’s fast-paced narrative includes classic Westerns such as Stagecoach, A Fistful of Dollars, and Unforgiven. This engaging volume shows how the mythic West continues to ride tall in the saddle along a “sagebrush trail,” which reveals valuable clues about American life and thought.

Mexican Americans and Health, 2nd Edition provides new and updated information on health and health care topics regarding people of Mexican origin. New additions include analysis of emerging diseases and populations, current health-care events, and predictions for the next ten years. De la Torre and Estrada’s collaboration brings scholarship that is both cross-disciplinary and highly readable.

In Mexican Americans and Education, Estela Godinez Ballón provides students and educators alike with an indispensable overview of the relationship between Mexican Americans and the U.S. public schooling system. She examines controversial issues, such as standardized testing, segregation, and curriculum tracking, as well as a historical analysis of the barriers that Mexican American students have and continue to regularly face.

Tributaries lyrically surveys Shawnee history alongside personal identity and memory. With the eye of a storyteller, poet Laura Da’ creates an arc that flows from the personal to the historical and back again. With narrative content from the period of Indian Removal in the 1830s to the present, the collection is composed of four sections that come together to create an important new telling of Shawnee past and present.