In the course of the hundreds of Rio Chama rafting trips that we've logged during the last 30 years, none of us has ever had a bad trip. Such is the magic of the Rio Chama. No matter the weather, the water level, the season, the crowded Big Eddy boat ramp on a blistering Sunday afternoon, or even the coffee forgotten at home, the Rio Chama remains "The People's River." Its stunning beauty, plus its exceptional camping, user-friendly whitewater, and mostly predictable flows, combine to create one of the Southwest's premiere, multi-day, river running experiences.The spectacular, towering canyon walls of the Wild & Scenic section through the remote Chama River Canyon Wilderness is New Mexico's own "Grand Canyon." The geology of the Rio Chama is so exceptional that this river is ideally suited for a river guide with a geological theme. And so, following the release of the Rio Grande geologic river guide in 2011, we turned our (part-time) attention to the Rio Chama. Although most Rio Chama recreation is focused on the El Vado to Big Eddy stretch, thedecision was easily made to include the entire boatable section, from the highlands in Colorado to the confluence with the Rio Grande, as each section of the river displays its own visual spectacles and assortment of adventures. Plus, the geology is magnificent and diverse along the entire length of the river.

This account of the archaeology of a cave in southern New Mexico makes a dramatic contribution to the ongoing debate over how long human beings have lived in the Americas. The findings presented here show that human settlement may go back as far as 75,000 years before the present, whereas the long-accepted Clovis dates showed humans only about 12,000 years ago. MacNeish and his colleagues subjected the cave, its environs, and its contents to rigorous interdisciplinary investigation. The first section of this volume comprises their reports on the changing environment of the area. The second section concentrates on the excavation of the cave's layers, presenting the results of radiocarbon dating and describing the evidence of human occupation, including friction skin prints and human hair. The third section discusses the cultural implications of the materials recovered and suggests how the ancient peoples may have exploited the changing environment and developed different ways of life throughout the Americas before the time of Clovis man. No serious discussion of early inhabitants in the New World can disregard the findings presented in this monumental work of scholarship.

The U.S. war with Mexico was a pivotal event in American history, it set crucial wartime precedents and served as a precursor for the impending Civil War. With a powerful introduction and rich collection of documents, Ernesto Ch‡vez makes a convincing case that as an expansionist war, the U.S.-Mexico conflict set a new standard for the acquisition of foreign territory through war. Equally important, the war racialized the enemy, and in so doing accentuated the nature of whiteness and white male citizenship in the U.S., especially as it related to conquered Mexicans, Indians, slaves, and even women. The war, along with ongoing westward expansion, heightened public debates in the North and South about slavery and its place in newly-acquired territories. In addition, Ch‡vez shows how the political, economic and social development of each nation played a critical role in the path to war and its ultimate outcome. Both official and popular documents offer the events leading up to the war, the politics surrounding it, popular sentiment in both countries about it, and the war’s long-term impact on the future development and direction of these two nations. Headnotes, a chronology, maps and a selected bibliography enrich student understanding of this important historical moment.