For his study of the interaction between the early Spanish conquerors and the Athapaskan and Puebloan Indians of the Southwest, Carter (history, South Texas College, McAllen) begins with the first settlements of the Athapaskans shortly after the end of the last ice age. The Spanish don't appear until halfway through the book but, by the time they do, Carter has established the different cultures among the native population. He demonstrates the internal conflicts that aided the conquest before following the Spaniards up from Mexico into what are now Arizona, New Mexico and Southern California. This makes the reaction of the Spanish to the different groups more comprehensible. Most intriguing is the story of the attempts of the Franciscan and Dominican priests to make sense of the beliefs of the Athapaskans, leading to their conclusion that the unrelated Apache tribes were minions of Satan. Carter concludes by analyzing the seventeenth-century Indian coalitions that mounted revolts against the Spanish. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)