First a trapper and trader, then a merchant, and finally an emerging capitalist in the flour industry of New Mexico and Colorado, Ceran St. Vrain was an iconic image of the industrious and self-reliant western pioneer of the 19th century. He was also a military hero, aiding the U.S. dragoons as an officer in the New Mexico Volunteer army in their fight against marauding plains Indians alongside Kit Carson. An intelligent and affable soul, he helped lead the southwest from a barter economy, poor in cash and lacking political infrastructure, into a post-military commercial society on the road...

Battles and massacres are intimate affairs for combatants and others involved, their physical and emotional violence often stemming from fervor and fear. Although mass killing characterizes both battles and massacres, the two are profoundly different. Battles take place between armed forces; massacres are one-sided events in which the dead are mostly innocent victims. Yet the fog of war shrouds both massacres and battles in a functional amnesia. Participants remember what exactly happened during such a violent encounter only imperfectly, and later clarity cannot always rectify accounts thus...

When an archaeology student excavates the final layer of debris filling an ancient pueblo room, she dramatically and unexpectedly exposes a sacred kiva lying below. The sinister events that follow, including a murder, hurl the young Graciella into a vortex of dangers from both past and present. With the help of an Apache detective investigating the murder, she attempts to escape from haunting forces that seek to destroy her, while treading a serpentine path that crosses the line between myth and reality. This tale of a prehistoric pueblo and its living descendents confronts one of humankinds...