  The dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) in the Local Group are excellent
systems on which we can test theories of galaxy formation and evolution.
Color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) containing many thousands of stars from the
asymptotic giant branch to well below the oldest main-sequence turnoff are
being used to infer their star-formation histories, and surprisingly complex
evolutionary histories have been deduced. Spectroscopy of individual red giant
stars in the dSphs is being used to determine the distribution of chemical
abundances in them. By combining photometry and spectroscopy, we can overcome
the age-metallicity degeneracy inherent in CMDs and determine the evolution of
dSphs with unprecedented accuracy. We report on recent progress and discuss a
new and exciting avenue of research, high-dispersion spectroscopy that yields
abundances for numerous chemical elements. The later allows us to estimate the
enrichment from both Type Ia and Type II supernovae (SNe) and places new limits
on how much of the Galaxy could have been accreted in the form of dSph-sized
fragments and when such mergers could have taken place.
