The significance of the research project stems in part from the strategic positioning of the Rio Alamosa and its drainage as a geographical borderland between the Northern Pueblo (formerly Anasazi) cultural area to the north and the Southern Pueblo (Mogollon) cultural area to the south. The Cañada Alamosa Project focuses on the recognition and interpretation of frontiers and migrations in the archaeological record. Frontiers have been defined as the leading edges of contact and change between cultures and as zones of interaction. Frontiers and boundaries are important because they recognize that social systems are open and provide perspective on the more intensely studied central places, such as Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, and the Mimbres River. Too often frontiers are interpreted from the perspective of the core area rather than as dynamic places where new norms are often established. Thus the goal of the Cañada Alamosa Project is to view the history of the southwestern pueblo world from the perspective of those caught in the middle.

The excavators at the Cañada Alamosa are paying volunteers enlisted through a peer-reviewed grant with Earthwatch Institute. These individuals have come from all over the United States and Canada to participate in the project while receiving an intensive archaeological field school.

• The Cañada Alamosa Project: Introduction
• The Cañada Alamosa Project: Before A.D. 1400: The Pueblo History of the Canyon
• The Cañada Alamosa Project: The Post Pueblo Period: After A.D. 1400
• The Archaeological Sites at Cañada Alamosa
• The Cañada Alamosa Project: Current Interpretations