• A collection of essays previously published in previous Heyday titles or News from Native California, comprised of works by over 20 authors, including many leading California Indian authors, scholars, and activists.
• There are many popular contemporary books about social justice, antiracism, or Native resistance, but there are no contemporary anthologies that survey resistance efforts specifically in California and by California Indian people. This book offers an important corrective that focuses on the dynamics and challenges specific to California.
  
• Many Californians support education curricula that tell more just and accurate stories about California history, and this book could be an important resource for K-12 teachers, professors at universities, and curriculum designers due to its wide range of essays about contemporary California Indian communities.
• The essays, though frequently touching on historical events, all tie back to contemporary issues, and nearly all of them have been published in the past ten years.
  
• California-based stories about decolonization, land-back movements, Traditional Ecological knowledge (TEK), dam removal, and other issues frequently appear in national and international news. This collection builds on that interest and places those stories in a larger context about resistance and justice in Native California.
• ABOUT THE FRONT COVER IMAGE: Photograph, "Weshoyot," by Cara Romero. This portrait is of Weshoyot Alvitre, an illustrator and Tongva descendant, and was taken underwater in May of 2021 in Long Beach, California. From the photographer: "The headpiece is made of shells and the basket is for gathering. The fishing nets remind us of Weshoyot’s grandfather, and the cottonwood bark skirt by Leah Mata Fragua that floated so beautifully in the salt water."