From forward: "Luther S. Cressman's Prehistory of the Far West is the first book length synthesis of the prehistory of far-western North America. It is at the same time a scientific reminiscence exemplifying the period of its author's active life in the field when the archaeological approaches and interpretations of today were being shaped. The synthesis incorporates the multi-disciplinary approach in which Professor Cressman was a pioneer and the warm humanistic bent for which he is especially known among his students and colleagues... Professor Cressman was also one of the first archaeologists in the West to reckon with the effects of postglacial enfironmental change on the human occupants of the region."