Boom Times for Archaeologists in North Dakota – Is the Four Corners Region Next?

Boom Times for Archaeologists in North Dakota – Is the Four Corners Region Next?
Drilling crews are eager to plunge their equipment into the ground. Road builders are ready to start highway projects, and construction workers need to dig. But across the hyperactive oil fields of North Dakota, these and other groups often must wait for another team known for slow, meticulous study — archaeologists, whose job is to survey the land before a single spade of dirt can be turned. The routine surveys have produced a rare jobs bonanza in American archaeology, a field in which many highly educated professionals hop from project to project around the world and still struggle to make a living. http://bit.ly/SLrUjq – Navajo Times

U.S. Navy Counting Petroglyphs in California
Archaeologists know it as Renegade Canyon, a lava gorge in desert badlands with more than 1 million images of hunters, spirits and bighorn sheep etched in sharp relief on cliff faces and boulders. But this desert is in the heart of the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, and it is where the Navy and Marines develop and test advanced bomb and missile systems. http://lat.ms/1p68Xon – Los Angeles Times

All About Agave
They are often called century plants, but they don’t live for 100 years — not even close. They look sort of like a cross between a towering cactus and a fleshy succulent — but in fact they are in the asparagus family. Their appearance might not tantalize the taste buds, but parts of the plants have been roasted and eaten since prehistoric times. http://bit.ly/1jslU6l – Arizona Daily Star

Tohono O’odham Celebrate Ancestors, In Sculpture
Long before there were cowboys in the West, there were Indians, and after a decade and a half of effort, some of Southern Arizona’s indigenous ancestors are receiving public recognition by way of a new sculpture called La Primera Vista (First Sight). The large bronze sculpture, originally sketched by the late Tohono O’odham artist Leonard Chana, recognizes the region’s original inhabitants. It shows a Native woman holding a basket of squash, beans, and melons, a child with a corn cob, and a man holding a bow-all looking toward the Santa Cruz River and reflecting on the 1692 appearance of a Franciscan monk, likely the first European to arrive in Tucson (then known locally as Chuk Son or “the spring at the base of black mountain.”) – http://bit.ly/1hXv1AH – Indian Country Today

Taos Renames Kit Carson Park
A northern New Mexico town council has voted to change the name of Kit Carson Park over concerns by critics that the famed scout and explorer was cruel to American Indians. The Taos Town Council passed a resolution Tuesday to rename the downtown park Red Willow following a presentation from activists, the Albuquerque Journal reports. http://bit.ly/1qhvVL7 – Navajo Times

There is Still Time to Preregister for the 2014 Pecos Conference
http://bit.ly/1s6qvkj – 2014 Pecos Conference Registration

Lecture Opportunity – Santa Fe
Southwest Seminars Presents Dr. Thomas Dalton Dillehay, Rebecca Webb Wilson University Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Religion, and Culture; Joe B. Wyatt distinguished University Research Professor, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University; Author, Settlement of the Americas: A New Prehistory who will give a lecture Spanish Conquest of the Southern Cone of South America on July 7 at 6pm at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the annual Voices From the Past Lecture Series held to honor The New Mexico History Museum. Admission is by subscription or #12 at the door. Seating is limited. No reservations are necessary and refreshments are served. Contact Connie Eichstaedt at 505 466-2775; email:southwestseminar@aol.com – http://bit.ly/YhJddr 

Preservation Archaeology Students Present Upper Gila Archaeology Fair
Join the Archaeology Southwest/University of Arizona Preservation Archaeology field school team at the Gila Valley Library from10:00 – 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 28, 2014. Learn about new discoveries at the Dinwiddie Site, see exhibits, and try making your own jewelry and stone tools using ancient methods. Stick around for a site tour from 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. – http://bit.ly/1sheqwf

Current Research Blog: Follow along with Archaeology Southwest’s Preservation Archaeology Field School at Mule Creek
Prelude to Field Research – http://bit.ly/1vmUYfR
Going from Textbooks to Field Research – http://bit.ly/1p52cDl
Celebrating World AtlAtl Day – http://bit.ly/UDQmoF
Experimental Archaeology – Research Often Takes a Slow and Steady Pace – http://bit.ly/1y4PkRD
Archaeological Survey and a Rusty American Dream – http://bit.ly/SYGULk

Thanks to Adrianne Rankin for contributing to this week’s SAT newsletter.