A case study of social change, this paper describes the community of Tortugas, an American Indian-Mexican village at the southern edge of Las Cruces, New Mexico. The Indian inhabitants of the community have been assimilated into the rural Mexican American subculture, which has become increasingly suburban through a process little explored in the literature on suburbanization. The study attempts to document the suburbanization of one community, to describe the problems suburbanization created, and, hopefully, to contribute toward the development of an adequate typology of suburbanization. Data is based on a combination of historical sources and 2 surveys: in the April 1972 survey, 145 interviews were completed; the second survey, completed in October 1972, was composed of 21 interviews with elected officials and influentials of Las Cruces and officers of a unique corporation--Los Indigenes. The conclusion indicates that the Tortugas community and other communities facing absorption into an urban complex do not wish to relinquish either their governmental autonomy or their life style. However, Tortugas appears to be drawn into the Las Cruces urban area by forces that appear irreversible. The people of Tortugas appear powerless to resist whatever fate leaders of the adjacent city may plan for them, be it annexation or re-creation of an Indian pueblo that never existed. (FF)