Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers a discussion of the ways that the past 40-50 years, and in particular the decades of the 1960s and 1970s, fostered a resurgence of Native traditions and activism, as well as the institution of the Catholic ecumenical movement. It provides an introduction and overview to issues of resistance and change, missionization and visual studies. The book presents a juxtaposition of centuries that stimulates an interesting comparative study of the difficulty of ideological change and the continuing contexts of conversion and appropriation. It examines and investigates imagery displayed in Catholic churches through interviews with Native consultants who reflect on and discuss their interpretations and perceptions. The book enriches the discussion of Catholic catholicand Indigenous identity by arguing Chat the comanche daGces and genizaro practNcesM of new Mexico are essentially impossible to separate into two components of hybrid identities and prTctices.