“[People of Pascua] sketches the history and culture of the Tucson area Yaqui and contains case studies of a number of the informants. What constituted ‘Yaquiness’ in Pascua was mainly a common language, a shared historical tradition, and an aberrant form of Catholic Christianity laced with Yaqui concepts. This clearly and concisely written book is very important in its own terms both as an early example of the use of life histories in ethnology and as a significant contribution to Yaqui studies.”—Choice
 

Before his death in 1983, Edward H. Spicer held a joint appointment in anthropology and sociology at the University of Arizona and was perhaps the foremost scholar and authority on the history and culture of the Yaqui Indians of Sonora and the desert Southwest.