Darrell Creel is former director of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory and professor emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin. His most recent book is The Production and Distribution of Mimbres Pottery. Harry J. Shafer is professor emeritus at Texas A&M University and retired curator of archaeology at the Witte Museum. His most recent book is Painters in Prehistory: Archaeology and Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands.

"This intriguing volume provides a window into a little reported aspect of Mimbres archaeology, demonstrating the long-term occupation and land use within a tributary drainage to the Mimbres River. These investigations shed light on hitherto unrecognized aspects of late Classic Mimbres settlement and social behaviors as Classic Mimbres society collapsed and transformed. It is an essential companion to the well-reported large pithouse and pueblo sites in the Mimbres Valley and beyond."—Roger Anyon, co-author of Ancient Communities in the Mimbres Valley: Continuity and Change from AD 750 to 1350"Creel and Shafer's new publication presents long neglected data from the Gavilan Canyon area of the lower Mimbres River. It completes the picture of what was happening during the Mimbres Pithouse and Classic periods at the famous NAN Ranch site and its major tributary. As such, it is an excellent example of what we can still learn from decades old data for interpreting and understanding the movements and motivations of prehistoric peoples of the Mimbres Valley specifically and for ancient Southwestern societies in general."—Robert Stokes, Eastern New Mexico University