Summary: Rinya is a work of fiction set in the mid 1700s in what is now the San Francisco Bay Area. It takes place during the first contact between a native California tribe and the Spanish "colonial enterprise." Written especially for readers 9-12 years of age, it is the story of a boy who finds his home, village and culture suddenly assaulted by people who conquer in the name of their own way of life, driven by a partnership between church and state in a ruthless drive for wealth, power, land and souls.