The history of Indian, Anglo, and Hispanic interaction in the American Southwest is largely based on the people's reliance on the key resources of land and water. For all peoples on all continents water has been the blood of life. The southwest has historically been "dry," making the need to locate water supplies essential. Thus, Spanish and Anglo explorers and colonizers battled with native occupants for strategic locations. Land and ethnicity therefore factored into relations among the natives and the settlers. Beginning with a discussion of the prehistoric background of farming and water use, the book then moves to a discussion on present day relations among the peoples of the Southwest and contemporary litigation over land and water resources.