I am grateful for the support, encouragement, and resources provided by the following individuals and institutions: the South Asian American Digital Archive (www.SAADA.org); the Imperial County Historical Society/Pioneers’ Museum, especially Lynn Housouer CEO, Tim Asamen, Donna Brownell Grizzle, Dianna Newton, Norman Wuytens, and the members of the Agricultural Gallery; the University of California Desert Research and Extension Center, especially Khaled M. Bali; the Stockton Gurdwara Sahib, especially Bhajan Singh Bhinder and Tejpaul Singh Bainiwal; the Angel Island State Park, especially Casey Dexter; the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, especially archivist Jeff Jewell; the Clatsop County Historical Society, especially archivist Liisa Penner; the website www.SikhPioneers.org, founded by Tejinder Singh Tibia; the California State Library; the Oregon Historical Quarterly; and the staff of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Many thanks also to the MacDowell Colony, Alice d’Entrement, and Natalie Tarbet for providing me—at crucial times—with a much-needed room of my own.

I deeply appreciate and am indebted to the members of the Pioneers’ Museum’s East India Gallery and their families: Robert and Karmen Chell; Dr. Gurbax Singh Chahal; Norma Saikhon and Richard Fragale, who both left us too soon (Norma—how I wish I could place this book in your hands); Emma Singh Jimenez; Lilia Singh Santillan; Virginia Gutierrez; Richard and Shirley Dillon; and the late Anna Singh Sandhu. With warmth and courtesy, you invited me into your homes and hearts, sharing stories told over your dinner tables and passed on to your children. I hope I have not disappointed.

For opening the portal to far-away places and next-door neighbors, I say shukriya, gracias, arigatamaya, and Danke vielmals to Zyanya Ávila Louis, Louis Cid, Amrit Deol, Kaori Hattori de Panepinto, Harjot K. “Sonia” Gill, Adam L. Kern, Judd Liebman, Sophie Liebman, Luis F. López González, Angela E. Radan, Katherine Seidl, Bunty Singh, Harpreet Singh, and Mako Yoshikawa. Thanks, too, to Deborah J. Bennett for her translation of the corrido, La Rielera.

For sharing with me their knowledge, time, and expertise, my thanks to Paul A. Davis, Paul Rudof, and Pamela Talbot.

My affection, admiration, and appreciation to my longtime friends in the Cambridge Writers’ Group—I’m lucky to have had your unwavering insight and counsel for many, many years: Richard “Pic” Harrison; Betsy Hatfield; Betsy Morris; and Jeanie Stahl; and to those who still sit with us in that gracious circle, William R. Crout, Joan Powell, and Mary Ellen Preusser.

I am grateful for my tribe, who lift me up and feed me and always have my back, who have read and re-read countless times, and who know what it is to face the blank whiteness: Deborah J. Bennett, Eve Bridberg, Daphne Kalotay, Thomas H. McNeely, Julie Rold, and Mandeliene Smith.