Academic Texas history falls short from the Native American perspective. With only oral traditions, for historic Native people caught up in a rapidly crumbling world, priorities shifted to self-preservation rather than the keeping of stories, belief systems, tribal affiliations, and language. The Native language records of the Texas missions and other sources in the 1800s are sparse, but had it not been for them, even the few surviving words of the Karankawa, Chitimacha, Atakapa, Coahuilteco, Cotoname, Comecrudo and other groups in this volume would have been lost forever.

The first part of this fascinating book is a short but compelling memoir which chronicles Alexander Joseph Perez's journey as he discovers and uncovers his ancestors' languages, unspoken since the 1880s, then undertakes the monumental task of resurrecting and collecting them into this volume.