Conquest and Catastrophe: Changing Rio Grande Pueblo Settlement Patterns in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

This book forces a rethinking of our understanding of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico between the beginning of Spanish exploration in 1540 and the aftermath of revolt and reconquest at the end of the 1600s. Specifically, Pueblo losses of settlements and population are reinterpreted in a masterful synthesis of history, archaeology, and human geography, including discussion of the natural environment based on paleoclimate reconstructions. Barrett shows that the greatest loss of Pueblo settle...