House Republicans Attempt End-Run Around Environmental and Archaeological Law for Mining at Apache Leap

House Republicans Attempt End-Run Around Environmental and Archaeological Law for Mining at Apache Leap
When Terry Rambler, the chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, woke up Wednesday in Washington, D.C., it was to learn that Congress was deciding to give away a large part of his ancestral homeland to a foreign mining company. Rambler came to the nation’s capital for the White House Tribal Nations Conference, an event described in a press announcement as an opportunity to engage the president, cabinet officials and the White House Council on Native American Affairs “on key issues facing tribes including respecting tribal sovereignty and upholding treaty and trust responsibilities,” among other things. http://huff.to/1w2GFhf – Huffington Post

Archaeology Southwest’s Information Task Force Seeks Your Input
By taking this seven-minute, seven-question survey, you will help Archaeology Southwest understand what you want to know about archaeology and preservation in the region, and how you want to receive that information. Thank you! bit.ly/ASW-Survey – Archaeology Southwest via Survey Monkey

Lord of the Tree Rings
Thomas W. Swetnam, Regents’ Professor of dendrochronology and director of the University of Arizona Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society. Election as a AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed on AAAS members by their peers. This year, 401 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. Being chosen as an AAAS fellow signifies that colleagues in the field deem the nominee among the best in the country. http://bit.ly/1wksrM9 – University of Arizona

Ready for Field School? Archaeology Southwest’s Preservation Archaeology Field School Is Now Accepting Applications
Join us this summer for the 2015 season of our Preservation Archaeology Field School!  Students will earn 7 hours of undergraduate or graduate credit through the University of Arizona while investigating how ancient communities formed during an era of migration and social change. Our team will excavate at the 14th-century Dinwiddie site in beautiful southwest New Mexico. We will also record sites on survey, analyze what we find in the lab, and learn to make and use ancient tools while building a full-scale replica of a Cliff phase adobe room.  Field trips to archaeological sites, visits to contemporary Native American communities, and public outreach events in our project area emphasize communication with diverse audiences and reinforce the principles of Preservation Archaeology as we focus on recovering maximum information with limited impacts on the archaeological record.  Qualifying students will receive a stipend through the NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates program to assist with field school costs.  Applications are due March 6; for more information, see http://bit.ly/WpM8LX – Archaeology Southwest

A Look at Kwastiyukwa – the Giant’s Footprint
Kwastiyukwa is a large ancestral Jemez Pueblo located atop Holiday Mesa at an elevation of 7,610 feet (Elliot 1982:23-24). It is located in the northern portions of Jemez Province, which extends from Redondo Peak in the north to the confluence of the Rio Salado and Jemez River on the south and from Peralta Canyon in the east to about a mile west of the Rio Guadalupe (Elliot 1986:1). Kwastiyukwa roughly translates from the Towa, or Jemez, language as “the giant’s footprint.” The name derives from a large footprint petroglyph observed near the vicinity of the site (Elliot 1982:23). http://bit.ly/15XLWOL – Jemez Daily Journal

Does Localized Climate Change in the Ancient Southwest Illustrate a Lesson for Modern Populations?
The role of localized climate change in one of the great mysteries of North American archaeology — the depopulation of southwest Colorado by ancestral Pueblo people in the late 1200s — has been detailed by researchers. In the process of their study, investigators address one of the mysteries of modern-day climate change: How will humans react? http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141204074309.htm

Ethnoarchaeology at Hopi to be Featured  at Archaeology Southwest’s Next Archaeology Café (Phoenix)
On December 16, Dr. E. Charles Adams (Arizona State Museum) will share Ethnoarchaeology at Hopi: Opening a Window into the Past. Place: We meet in the Aztec Room of Macayo’s Central, 4001 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, near the Indian School light rail stop. Presentations begin after 6:00 p.m. It is best to arrive at about 5:30 p.m. in order to get settled, as seating is open and unreserved, but limited. Archaeology Café is free, but guests are encouraged to order their own refreshments from the menu. http://bit.ly/1AOm69R – Archaeology Southwest

New Construction in the Heart of Los Angeles Needs to Respect the City’s Heritage
Not far from Olvera Street downtown, two sprawling parking lots soon will give way to residential apartments, shops and restaurants. Amid them, landscaping will highlight a historic trail — a reminder that this project may be situated near the birthplace of the original city of Los Angeles. But because the exact location of that original settlement remains a minor mystery, the developers should be especially careful when full-scale construction begins. Any developer excavating in the area would do well to remember the debacle four years ago when construction crews stumbled across remnants of the city’s first cemetery while building La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, a cultural center dedicated to the heritage of Mexican Americans in Los Angeles. Human remains were excavated and haphazardly removed. http://lat.ms/1s28pEo – Los Angeles Times

Scattered Cases of Hantavirus in Northwest New Mexico
New Mexico health officials say a 28-year-old McKinley County man is the third person in the state to die from Hantavirus this year. The Department of Health says there have been a total of six Hantavirus cases in the state this year. Those include a 49-year-old Otero County man who remains hospitalized but whose condition is improving. http://bit.ly/1IlEI60 – KRQE News 13

Native Runners Commemorate 1864 Sand Creek Massacre
One by one, the runners walked by the simple marble gravestone of one of two U.S. Army officers who refused to fire on their ancestors in one of the worst atrocities in the settlement of the West. The Cheyenne and Arapaho runners touched the stone in Denver’s oldest cemetery Wednesday after trekking from the scene of the Sand Creek massacre on the plains about 180 miles away. Their journey marked the 150th anniversary of the attack. http://bit.ly/1wPa6Gw – Associated Press via Earthlink

Disney to Translate Finding Nemo into Navajo
Hollywood is paying a tribute of sorts to the largest American Indian-speaking population in the United States by translating the wildly popular children’s film Finding Nemo into Navajo. Advocates of the tribal language say it is slowly dying out, and that the move by Disney-Pixar could help it find a new generation of speakers by reaching out directly to children. Marilyn Reeves, an Albuquerque-area Navajo grandmother, said her two grandchildren already watch the 2003 movie about the loveable clownfish every day. http://yhoo.it/1CWcXRi – Yahoo News

Lecture Opportunity – Santa Fe
Southwest Seminars Presents Photographer and author Craig Varjabedian, who will give an illustrated talk Eloquent Photographs of the Enchanted Lands and Peoples of the American West on December 8 at 6pm at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the annual Mother Earth Father Sky Lecture Series held to honor The New Mexico Environmental Law Center. No reservations are necessary and refreshments are served. Admission is $12 at the door and seating is limited. Call Connie Eichstaedt at 505 466-2775 for more information; email: southwestseminar@aol.com; http://bit.ly/YhJddr– Southwest Seminars

Lecture Opportunity – Santa Fe
Southwest Seminars Presents former director of the Palace of the Governors, Museum of New Mexico, Dr. Thomas E. Chavez, who will give the lecture New Mexico’s Cultural History Lesson to the World on December 15 at 6pm at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the annual Mother Earth Father Sky Lecture Series held to honor The New Mexico Environmental Law Center. No reservations are necessary and refreshments are served. Admission is $12 at the door and seating is limited. Call Connie Eichstaedt at 505 466-2775 for more information; email: southwestseminar@aol.com; http://bit.ly/YhJddr– Southwest Seminars

Tour Opportunity – Tucson
On December 20, archaeologist Allen Dart leads Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s 8 a.m.-12 p.m. Near-Winter Solstice Tour of Los Morteros and Picture Rocks Petroglyphs Archaeological Sites, departing from Silverbell Road & Linda Vista Blvd. in Marana, Arizona. Los Morteros is an ancient Hohokam village site with a ballcourt and bedrock mortars. The petroglyphs at Picture Rocks include a solstice and equinox marker, dancing human-like figures, whimsical animals, and other rock symbols made by Hohokam Indians between 650 and 1450. Fee $35 (Old Pueblo and Pueblo Grande Museum Auxiliary members $28). Reservations are required by December 19: 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org.

Thanks to Cherie Freeman, Brian Kreimendahl, and Adrianne Rankin for contributions to this week’s newsletter.