Southwest Archaeology Today for August 20, 2007

Southwestern Archaeology Making the News – A Service of the Center for Desert Archaeology

– New Museum In Tuba City Highlights Navajo Culture: Jocelyn Billy, the reigning Miss Navajo, was one of the speakers at the grand-opening ceremonies for the Explore Navajo Interactive Museum here in late July. She spoke in her native language, then repeated her remarks in English. The message was the same: It is time for Navajos to share their culture with the world.
http://www.azcentral.com/travel/arizona/features/articles/0817navajo0812.html

– Book Review – Anasazi America: But another lost civilization, right here in North America, offers not just examples of failure to avoid but also of success to imitate. Anasazi America, by David E. Stuart, an archaeologist specializing in the Southwest, offers an excellent introduction to this oh-so-relevant history.
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2007/08/17/Anasazi/

– Apache Acorn Harvest In Payson: Members of the White Mountain Apache tribe can be seen all over Payson. For the last two or three weeks now in various spots around town, groups ranging from entire families to just a couple of Native Americans from the White Mountain Apache tribe have been seen gathering something in the fields and open lots around Payson. They have been collecting acorns to get the oak nuts inside them from the numerous oak trees in and around town.
http://www.paysonroundup.com/section/localnews/story/30132

– Arizona Humanities Council Lecture to Examine Archaeological and Cultural Views of the Treatment of the Dead: Allen Dart Presents ” What Do We Do with Our Ancestors” Saturday September 8, 2007, 10 a.m. to noon at the Yavapai Apache Nation Tribal Headquarters, 2400 W. Datsi, Camp Verde. Ever since archaeology became an active intellectual pursuit, many archaeologists have held that all materials left behind by ancient peoples, including human remains as well as artifacts, are proper subjects for scientific study, and that these materials should all be preserved in museums to keep them accessible for study in the future. In contrast, some Native Americans and others believe that human remains and grave objects should not be subjected to any kind of destructive scientific studies, or not even disturbed or studied at all, and that if they are disturbed they should be respectfully reburied.
http://www.cdarc.org/sat/opac-ancestors.doc