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.

Politician Raymond L. Telles was the first Mexican American mayor of a major U.S. city and the first Mexican American U.S. ambassador. Mario T. García’s updated biography of the ambitious, distinguished, and talented Telles brings the Chicano struggle for political representation to a new generation of readers.

Upstream relates the history behind the nation’s largest state-built water and power conveyance system, California’s State Water Project, with a focus on Indigenous perspectives. Author Beth Rose Middleton Manning illustrates how Indigenous history should inform contemporary conservation measures. She uses a multidisciplinary and multitemporal approach and offers a vision of policy reform that will lead to improved Indigenous futures around the U.S.