Continuing Efforts to Fight for the Preservation of the Chaco Landscape

Continuing Efforts to Fight for the Preservation of the Chaco Landscape
Over the past few months, I have continued to advocate for protection of the Greater Chaco Landscape. This has included attending a number of meetings with Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and other officials, conducting a tour of the Chaco Landscape with several Pueblo leaders, and engaging my fellow archaeologists on a number of issues. In April, I led a tour to Chaco Canyon and the Great North Road. Accompanying me were representatives of Tesuque, Santa Ana, and Isleta pueblos. My focus for the tour was showing folks the wonderof the Greater Chaco Landscape and discussing the encroachment of oil-gas facilities. By the end of the trip, I think we all had a much greater appreciation for the wonder and majesty of the Greater Chaco Landscape and the great need to protect it. http://bit.ly/1HqASoK – Archaeology Southwest

Hopi Tribe Gains Congressional Support in Efforts to Stop Paris Auction of Sacred Items
Herman G. Honanie, chairman of the Hopi Tribe, will be joined by U.S. Representatives Paul A. Gosar (Arizona – 04) and David Schweikert (Arizona – 06) and others this coming Wednesday, May 27, 2015 to call on the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI and other federal agencies to take all immediate actions necessary to halt the Auction House EVE from conducting a scheduled auction of Hopi sacred items… on June 1 in Paris, France. http://bit.ly/1F4kGb5 – Native News Online

Cache of Dice and Potential Gaming Objects Documented in Utah Cave
A cave on the shore of Utah’s Great Salt Lake is giving archaeologists a rare glimpse into a seldom-studied aspect of life in the ancient West — prehistoric gambling. Researchers exploring the cave, known simply as Cave 1, have identified hundreds of dice, hoops, carved sticks and other trinkets used in indigenous games of chance and skill. http://bit.ly/1HDGAsA – Western Digs

Shumla School Examining Pattering in Ancient Petrogyphs and Pictographs
High above the banks of the Pecos River, just before it merges with the Rio Grande, a nearly 4,000 year-old message sits on a canyon wall. There are more just like it throughout the area, which is better known as Seminole Canyon. Those messages are pictographs, left behind by a prehistoric people who once called the area home. “It’s remarkable what they did and the stories that they left behind,” said Dr. Carolyn Boyd. http://bit.ly/1cVb9ww – KSAT.Com

Archaeology and Google Earth
Open-access imagery is changing the face of archaeology, and that may not be a good thing. The May issue of Discover magazine takes a look at this phenomenon and enlists the expertise of Arizona State University archaeologist Francis McManamon to help size up the problem. Increasingly, amateur archaeologists are using imaging technology like Google Earth to help them find indications of ancient sites – such as eroded agricultural furrows, defensive berms and burial mounds – that might go unnoticed at ground level. http://bit.ly/1Ao6H4s – ASU News

Basketry Exhibit Opens in Grand Junction
The stories of Navajo basketry and early history of the Diné (meaning Navajo people) come to life in an exhibit that opens Friday, May 22, at the Museum of the West, 462 Ute Ave. “Diné Bits’aa’Bahane: The Story of Navajo Baskets is a colorful exhibit that explores the story of Navajo basketry and traces early Diné history and how the first baskets were manufactured,” a news release said. This traveling exhibition from the Anasazi Heritage Center will be on display through Oct. 17. http://bit.ly/1JNOFuy – Grand Junction Sentinel

Native American? American Indian? Indigenous?
As indigenous peoples, names and references to our race and ethnic identity are very important – especially in a time when names and pejorative references to Native people are being challenged in popular culture. Wherever I go, from the reservation to the city, through the halls of academia, from younger to older, to the grassroots, and in social media, I hear numerous discussions and debates around how people choose to identify with certain references, e.g., which word is the most appropriate: Native American? Native? Indian? American Indian? Indigenous? http://bit.ly/1cdiGGm – Indian Country

National Parks Conservation Association Circulating Petition to Protect the Grand Canyon from Development
The U.S. Forest Service has before it an application to improve roads and allow utilities that would pave the way for a massive new development near the entrance to Grand Canyon National Park. The proposed development—2,100 residential units and commercial space—is equal to that of 10 big-box stores and would use precious water needed for the park’s fragile seeps, springs, and creeks. We can’t let this happen. http://bit.ly/1PG3pQR – National Parks Conservation Association

Lecture Opportunity – Cortez
The Hisatsinom Chapter of the Colorado Archaeology Society is pleased to present Brunella Santarelli on Tuesday, June 2, at 7:00 PM at the Methodist Church, 515 Park Street, Cortez, CO, to discuss Technological Analysis of Pueblo I Lead Glazes from the Animas-La Plata Project, Durango, Colorado. Brunella will discuss recent research on glaze paint found on pottery in the Upper San Juan region, the earliest use of glaze paint on pottery in the Southwest. Her research fills a missing gap in the knowledge of ceramic technology of the Southwest and examines composition, morphology and isotope signatures of the Pueblo I glaze paints in an effort to reconstruct the technology of production. Contact Kari Schleher at 505-269-4475 with questions.

Lecture Opportunity – Cortez
As part of the Four Corners Lecture Series, Southwest Colorado Canyons Alliance is pleased to present Sharon Edgar Greenhill on Wednesday, June 2, 7:00 p.m., at the Sunflower Theatre, 8 East Main Street in Cortez, CO. Greenhill will present the award-winning documentary Agave is Life which chronicles the 10,000 year-old story of mankind’s symbiotic relationship with the agave plant. Follow http://bit.ly/1FxH4gw for more information about this and other presentations by Southwest Colorado Canyons Alliance during the Four Corners Lecture Series.

Lecture Opportunity – Santa Fe
Southwest Seminars Presents Erik Otto Berg, Historian, Writer, and Arizona Humanities Council Scholar, who will give a lecture, The Eagle and the Archaeologists: 1929 Lindbergh Aerial Photographic Survey of Prehistoric Sites on May 25 at 6pm at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the Ancient Sites II Lecture Series held to honor The Archaeological Conservancy. Admission is by subscription or $12 at the door. No reservations are necessary and refreshments are served. Seating is limited. Contact Connie Eichstaedt 505 466-2775, email: southwest seminar@aol.com. http://bit.ly/YhJddr – Southwest Seminars

Lecture Opportunity – Santa Fe
Southwest Seminars Presents Dr. Laurie Webster, Textile Scholar and Author, who will give a lecture, Prehistoric Pueblo Weaving on June 1 at 6pm at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the Voices From the Past Lecture Series held to honor Archaeology Southwest. Admission is by subscription or $12 at the door. No reservations are necessary and refreshments are served. Seating is limited. Contact Connie Eichstaedt 505 466-2775, email: southwest seminar@aol.com. http://bit.ly/YhJddr – Southwest Seminars

Lecture Opportunity – Tucson
On Friday, June 19, at 3 p.m., archaeologist Allen Dart will present Southwestern Rock Calendars and Ancient Time Pieces at the Pima County Public Library Woods Memorial Branch, 3455 N. First Ave., Tucson. The program shows how Native Americans in the Southwest developed sophisticated skills in astronomy and predicting the seasons, centuries before Old World peoples first entered the region, and includes examples from the Picture Rocks petroglyphs site near Tucson, the architecture of the “Great House” at Arizona’s Casa Grande Ruins, and calendar-reckoning features at other southwestern archaeological sites. Kelly Urman, 520-594-5445 or Kelly.Urman@pima.gov.