This book examines the formation of colonial governance in New Spain through interactions between indigenous peoples and representatives of the Spanish Crown. The book highlights the complexity of native negotiation and mediation with colonial rule across time, culture, and place and how it shaped colonial political and legal structures from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Although indigenous communities reacted to Spanish presence with significant acts of resistance and rebellion, they also turned to negotiation to deal with conflicts and ameliorate the consequences of colonial rule.

This affected not only the development of legal systems in New Spain and Mexico but also the survival and continuation of traditional cultures. Bringing together work by Mexican and North American historians, this collection is a crucially important and rare contribution to the field. This is a valuable resource for native peoples as they seek to redefine and revitalise their identities and assert their rights relating to language and religion, ownership of lands and natural resources, rights of self-determination and self-government, and protection of cultural and intellectual property.

It will be of interest primarily to specialists in the field of colonial studies and historians and ethno-historians of New Spain.