Mardith K. Schuetz-Miller

My Encounters in Indian Country is a chronicle of "a long life blessed with adventure and travel" written as a personal and friendly narrative of the author's journey through time and across the globe. Her account ranges from childhood events that sparked her interest in history and Indian culture to her fascinating friendships and adventures as an archeologist and historian. The reader travels from Oklahoma to South America and around the globe with stories ending in Mexico. The reader meets the people encountered along the way by this remarkable woman who shares her story with us. Meet Laura Lopez in Guatemala; Princess Curuncho in Costa Rica; Alfredo, an Indian guide at Machu Pichu; Nakai and her medicine wheel; Jack Battis, Coushatta Medicine Man; Reggie Cedar Face; Mildred Cleghorn, great niece of Geronimo; Ed Calf Robe, Medicine Man with a flying pipe; Martha Many Grey Horses; Chief Oliver Red Cloud, and Claudia Iron Hawk, medicine woman and descendent of Wounded Knee. The author explores ancient archeological sites; is married in the desert; experiences a Vision Quest; finds her Spirit Guide and becomes "Big-cat Woman". This is an exciting, fast-moving adventure into a world few know, full of spirituality, beauty and warm friendships.

Joining an acclaimed multivolume work funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission is a new volume of The Presidio and Militia on the Northern Frontier of New Spain. As the work of the Documentary Relations of the Southwest project, under the general editorship of Charles W. Polzer, S. J., the volumes stand alone in their translation and publication of a wide variety of documents that describe the Spanish exploration and conquest of what is now the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The presidial system of northern New Spain's Central and Texas Corridor was an evolving institution used for exploration, military presence and defense against foreign powers, local militia duty, mission support, personal service, and penal obligations. The new volume, which covers parts of what is now Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico, includes letters, diaries, judicial papers, military reports, and interrogations. Difficult for researchers to access and sometimes to decipher, the records are presented in Spanish and in English translation, annotated and introduced by the volume editors.