Southwest Archaeology Today for November 6, 2009

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

– November Declared National Native American Heritage Month: The indigenous peoples of North America — the First Americans — have woven rich and diverse threads into the tapestry of our Nation’s heritage. Throughout their long history on this great land, they have faced moments of profound triumph and tragedy alike. During National Native American Heritage Month, we recognize their many accomplishments, contributions, and sacrifices, and we pay tribute to their participation in all aspects of American society.
http://tinyurl.com/yj8no45 – The White House

– Inaugural Don D. and Catherine S. Fowler Book Prize Announced October 28, 2009: Congratulations to Phil R. Geib for having his forthcoming monograph An Archaeological Transect Across the Northern Kayenta Region: Excavations Along the Navajo Mountain Road selected as the inaugural winner of the Don D. and Catherine S. Fowler Prize. Described as a “tour de force” by Don Fowler, Geib’s work uses the excavation of thirty-three archaeological sites as an informative cross-section of prehistory from which Navajo Nation archaeologists have retrieved a wealth of information about subsistence, settlement, architecture, and other aspects of past lifeways. Phil R. Geib is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of New Mexico. He has worked for the NAU Anthropology Laboratory, the Navajo Nation Archaeology Department, and directed a sample survey of the Kaiparowits Plateau. The Don D. and Catherine S. Fowler Book Prize, a $3,000 cash award, will be awarded annually to one book-length monograph in anthropology submitted for publication to the University of Utah Press.
http://tinyurl.com/yf85o8n – U of U Press.

– Call for Papers – Museum Anthropology: Looking Back, Looking Forward: NAGPRA after Two Decades – A special issue of Museum Anthropology. In 1990, the United States Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), thereby forever altering museum collections and exhibits, and the relationship between museums and Native American communities. In this special thematic issue of Museum Anthropology, we are seeking innovative studies of NAGPRA’s impacts, brief reflections and commentaries, and analyses that investigate the trends of the last two decades and anticipate what is still to come. Particularly welcomed are papers that evaluate whether NAGPRA has led to the kind of spiritual healing that it was intended to facilitate, or whether it has opened old wounds (or made new ones). Viewpoints are encouraged from Native Americans, tribal representatives, museum professionals, federal employees, lawyers, archaeologists, physical anthropologists, and other academic scholars. New deadline: february 1, 2010. The top peer-reviewed comments and articles will be published in the fall of 2010 (vol. 33, n. 2). Initial submissions should not exceed 8,000 words including notes, tables, and references. Inquiries and manuscripts should be sent via email to muaeditor@gmail.com.

– DeSoto Campsite Located in Georgia: An archaeologist says excavations in southern Georgia have turned up beads, metal tools and other artifacts that may pinpoint part of the elusive trail of the 16th-century Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto. Dennis Blanton of the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta was scheduled to present his findings Thursday to the Southeastern Archaeological Conference in Mobile, Ala.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=9005055
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091105084838.htm

– Archaeology of Santa Fe is the Topic of Special Symposium: Beginning about 1,500 years ago, small groups started staying long enough to plant, cultivate and harvest corn. And 700 years ago, during a period of hard times, they began to build fortified villages, including one on the north side of the Santa Fe River and another to the south along the Arroyo Hondo. These are some of the things archaeologists have learned about the history of the area from excavations in recent decades in downtown Santa Fe and other parts of the region. On Saturday from 1 to 5:30 p.m., these findings will be the subject of a symposium titled “Beneath the City Different: The Archaeology of Santa Fe,” sponsored by the School for Advanced Research and Friends of Archaeology with support by the Old Santa Fe Association.
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Sifting-through-Santa-Fe-s-past

– Richard Moe Retires from National Trust for Historic Preservation, Intends to Continue Fight to Preserve Ancient Southwestern Sites: Richard Moe “the national force who brought the Valley Floor crusade to the country’s attention” retired on Tuesday from his post as president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, D.C. Moe said he plans to continue to serve that board in his retirement, in addition to continuing his efforts to defend the Canyons of the Ancients, an Anasazi heritage site about 26 miles west of Cortez near the Utah border.
http://www.telluridenews.com/articles/2009/11/03/news/doc4af10aa2e48f4964870778.txt

– Lecture Opportunity (Albuquerque): Dr Stephen Plog will present ” Chaco in 1896: The Golden Gate to Eldorado” at the Tuesday, November 17, 2009 meeting of the Albuquerque Archaeological Society. The meeting will be held at 7:30 PM at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, 2000 Mountain Road NW.

– Free Day for Veterans in National Parks: Veterans get Fee Free Day at National Parks, Refuges, and Other Interior Lands: To honor America’s service men and women, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced that areas managed by the department will not charge entrance fees on Wednesday, November 11, 2009. Visitors to public recreation lands managed by the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Reclamation are invited to take a day to honor and reflect on what our service men and women have done to maintain our freedom and keep peace around the world, Salazar said. The Department of Agriculture also is waiving entrance fees at its national forests.

– Cultural Resource Management and Archaeological Practice in Brazil is the Next Feature on the Archaeology Channel: Many countries around the world now take seriously the need to manage and protect their cultural heritage. An infrastructure project in Brazil shows how that country is discovering, investigating and protecting its archaeological sites, as seen in Archaeology in Taguatinga Valley, the latest video feature on our nonprofit streaming-media Web site, The Archaeology Channel.
http://www.archaeologychannel.org

Thanks to Carrie Gregory and Larry Kim for contributing to today’s newsletter