Pt. 1. Land and water on New Spain's frontiers. "Only fit for raising stock": Spanish and Mexican land and water rights in the Tamaulipan Cession / Jesús F. de la Teja ; Water, the Gila River Pimas, and the arrival of the Spanish / Shelly C. Dudley ; "Between this river and that": establishing water rights in the Chama basin of New Mexico / Sandra K. Mathews-Lamb
Pt. 2. The Native American struggle for water. Maggot Creek and other tales: Kiowa identity and water, 1870-1920 / Bonnie Lynn-Sherow ; The dilemmas of Indian water policy, 1887-1928 / Donald J. Pisani ; First in time: tribal reserved water rights and general adjudications in New Mexico / Alan S. Newell ; Winters comes home to roost / Daniel McCool
Pt. 3. Agricultural conundrums. Water, sun, and cattle: the Chisholm Trail as an ephemeral ecosystem / James E. Sherow ; Private irrigation in Colorado's Grand Valley / Brad F. Raley ; A Rio Grande "brew": agriculture, industry, and water quality in the lower Rio Grande Valley / John P. Tiefenbacher ; Specialization and diversification in the agricultural system of Southwestern Kansas, 1887-1980 / Thomas C. Schafer ; John Wesley Powell was right: resizing the Ogallala High Plains / John Opie
Pt. 4. Dam those waters! Private initiative, public works: Ed Fletcher, the Santa Fe Railway, and Phoenix's Cave Creek Flood Control Dam / Donald C. Jackson
The changing fortunes of the big dam era in the American West / Mark Harvey ; Building dams and damning people in the Texas-Mexico border region: Mexico's El Cuchillo Dam Project / Raúl M. Sánchez
Pt. 5. The coming fight. Water and the western service economy: a new challenge / Hal K. Rothman.