The primary concern of Banker's book is, as he states in its preface, "not the Presbyterian impact on the Southwest, but instead the impact of the Southwest on the Presbyterians."

A history of the Four Corners states during their formative territorial years. Newly revised edition.

This encyclopedia is the first comprehensive survey of Hispanic American religiosity, contextualizing the roles of Latino and Latina Americans within U.S. religious culture. Spanning two volumes, Hispanic American Religious Cultures encompasses the full diversity of faiths and spiritual beliefs practiced among Hispanic Americans. It is the first comprehensive work to provide historic contexts for the many religious identities expressed among Hispanic Americans. The entries of this encyclopedia cover a range of spiritual affiliations, including Christian religious expressions, world faiths, and indigenous practices. Coverage includes historical development, current practices, and key individuals, while additional essays look at issues across various traditions. By examining the distinctive Hispanic interpretations of religious traditions, Hispanic American Religious Cultures explores the history of Latino and Latina Americans and the impact of living in the United States on their culture.

"Mexican Protestantism was born in the encounter between Mexican Catholics and Anglo American Protestants, after the United States ventured into the Southwest and wrested territory from Mexico in the early nineteenth century. In Sea la Luz, Juan Francisco Martinez traces the birth and initial development of this ethno-religious community brought through the westward expansion of the United States. Using the records of Protestant missionaries, he uncovers the story of Mexican converts and the churches they developed. Those same records reveal Protestant attitudes toward the war with Mexico, the conquest of the Southwest, and the Mexican population that became U.S. citizens with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (1848)."--BOOK JACKET.

This fascinating rediscovery of Josephine Foard highlights her work at Laguna Pueblo beginning in 1899 and her efforts to improve and market pueblo pottery for the Lagunas' economic benefit.

The question of how one can be both Hispanic and Protestant has perplexed Mexican Americans in Texas ever since Anglo-American Protestants began converting their Mexican Catholic neighbors early in the nineteenth century. Mexican-American Protestants have faced the double challenge of being a religious minority within the larger Mexican-American community and a cultural minority within their Protestant denominations. As they have negotiated and sought to reconcile these two worlds over nearly two centuries, los Protestantes have melded Anglo-American Protestantism with Mexican-American culture to create a truly indigenous, authentic, and empowering faith tradition in the Mexican-American community. This book presents the first comparative history of Hispanic Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists in Texas. Covering a broad sweep from the 1830s to the 1990s, Paul Barton examines how Mexican-American Protestant identities have formed and evolved as los Protestantes interacted with their two very different communities in the barrio and in the Protestant church. He looks at historical trends and events that affected Mexican-American Protestant identity at different periods and discusses why and how shifts in los Protestantes' sense of identity occurred. His research highlights the fact that while Protestantism has traditionally served to assimilate Mexican Americans into the dominant U.S. society, it has also been transformed into a vehicle for expressing and transmitting Hispanic culture and heritage by its Mexican-American adherents.

Guided by a penchant for self-reflection and thoughtful discussion, Presbyterians have long been pulled in conflicting directions in their perceptions of their shared religious mission—with a tension that sometimes divides hearts as well as congregations. In this first comprehensive history of the Presbyterian Church in Oklahoma, historians Michael Cassity and Danney Goble reveal how Oklahoma Presbyterians have responded to the demands of an evolving society, a shifting theology, and even a divided church. Beginning with the territorial period, Cassity and Goble examine the dynamics of Presbyterian missions among the Five Tribes in Indian Territory and explain how Presbyterians differed from other denominations. As they trace the Presbyterian journey, they examine the way Presbyterians addressed the evil of slavery and the dispossession of Oklahoma’s Indians; the challenges of industrial society; the modern issues of depression, war, and racial injustice; and concerns of life and faith with which other Americans have also struggled. An insightful and independent history that draws upon firsthand accounts of congregations and church members across the state, Divided Hearts attests to the courage of Presbyterians in dealing with their struggles and shows a church very much at work—and at home—in Oklahoma.

Biographies of and a collection of writings by women who, for various reasons, found themselves living in New Mexico Territory, from the mid-nineteenth century to the beginning of World War I.

From the mid-1830s to the 1860s, the missionaries sent to Minnesota by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) wrote thousands of letters to their supervisors and supporters claiming success in converting the Dakota people. But author Linda M. Clemmons reveals that the reality of the situation was far more conflicted than what those written records would suggest. In fact, in the rough Minnesota territory, missionaries often found themselves looking to the Dakota for support. The missionaries and their wives struggled to define what it meant to convert and “civilize” Dakota people. And, although many scholars depict missionaries as working hand in hand with the federal government, Clemmons reveals discord over the Dakota people’s treatment, especially after the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862, when many missionaries spoke out against exile. The missionaries found that work with the Dakota was rarely as heroic, romantic, or successful as what they read about in the evangelical press, but, at the same time, they themselves painted a rosier picture of their own work.

Huge mountain ranges and vast uninhabited areas characterize the Mountain West. The region is home to several dense urban centers, but there is enough space between cities for three very distinct religious cultures to develop. Arizona and New Mexico's religious public life is still dominated by the Catholic church which was in place three centuries before these areas became U.S. states. Mormons came to Utah and Idaho in the 19th century to set up their own church-state and only later were admitted to the Union. Religious minorities from Native Americans to 'mainstream' Protestants must contend with these religious establishments. In the third subregion of Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana no one religious body dominates and many inhabitants claim no religious affiliation at all. Religion and Public Life in the Mountain West explores these three distinct religious regions but then goes on to see how they work together and what they have in common.