25 Tribal Nations Unite to Support a Bears Ears National Monument

25 Tribal Nations Unite to Support a Bears Ears National Monument
Native peoples in the Southwest take the long view. They have lived in the redrock canyons of the Colorado Plateau for 12,000 years and have shown astonishing resilience in the face of devastating change in the last 500 years. Now, they bring this ancestral perspective to the management of public lands in the canyons and mesas of southern Utah. For the first time in conservation history, the primary advocates for a new national monument are the tribes themselves. This historic Native coalition is trying to protect the wildlands that sweep southward from Canyonlands National Park toward the Navajo Nation. http://bit.ly/1QuJDsf – High Country News

Blogs Worth Reading: “Dear President Obama, Please Protect Bears Ears”
The Antiquities Act of 1906 gives the President the authority to protect historic and scientific objects through the declaration of national monuments.Americans across the country are calling for national monument or conservation area designation of Bears Ears. This 1.9 million acre area is located 150 miles south of San Rafael Swell. Wild desert landscapes, ancient Indian ruins, and the spirits of many tribes’ ancestors reside in this breath-taking space. http://bit.ly/1KBWarI – The American Anthropological Association Blog

High Country News Editorial Blasts Utah Representative Bishop’s Plans to Dismantle a Public Legacy
Utah Republican Rep. Rob Bishop is using his position as chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee to wage a war on the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, our Republican president from 1901-1909.  The latest front in this war is Bishop’s plan to mangle the mission of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The fund helps protect hunting, fishing and other outdoor recreation opportunities, while safeguarding our national parks and preserving historic sites. http://bit.ly/24lbvDg – High Country News

Archaeology Café (Tucson): Fire, Climate, and Society—Past, Present, and Future
On March 1, 2016, Christopher Roos (Southern Methodist University) will present “Fire, Climate, and Society—Past, Present, and Future.” In the Southwest U.S., a century of fire suppression has turned old growth forests into tinderboxes that burn in increasingly destructive ways as the climate warms. But do all fire-climate-society relationships conform to this story? We meet on the patio of Casa Vicente, 375 S. Stone Ave., Tucson. Presentations begin after 6:00 p.m. It is best to arrive before 5:30 p.m., as seating is open and unreserved, but limited. http://bit.ly/1UgzKy1 – Archaeology Southwest.

Mammoth Kill Site Uncovered in New Mexico
It began with a man walking along a shallow wash near Abiquiu, New Mexico one afternoon and noticing some flakes of what looked like bone. He happened to be walking near the property line, maybe on his neighbor’s property. So he went to visit his neighbor, to tell him about the find. His neighbor, Tim Rowe, happened to be a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Texas in Austin and knew something about old bones. Together they walked to the shallow wash to take a closer look. They found some very big ribs near the edge of the wash and teeth that clearly came from some elephant-like creature. But the only time elephant-like creatures ever roamed New Mexico was about 13,000 years ago when mammoths grazed the plains of eastern New Mexico. No one has ever found a mammoth in the high country. http://bit.ly/217JCj9 – Heritage Daily

New Mexican Land Grants Tracked by Public Database
The Center for Land Grant Studies, with funding from Rio Arriba County, the New Mexico State Archive, and the Chamiza Foundation, is developing a database of all New Mexico land grants. The initial version will list basic information on each grant including primary source references. Later versions, if additional funding is secured, will include a footnoted summary of the history of each grant, links to scans or transcriptions of original grant documents, translations if available, maps and other resources. http://bit.ly/217IT1g – Southwest Books.Org

Video Link: Inside the Arizona State Museum’s Conservation Lab
From Columbian mammoth remains to prehistoric sloth dung to contemporary American Indian pottery, the Arizona State Museum is home to thousands of artifacts that must be carefully stored and preserved. Central to that effort is the museum’s Conservation Laboratory, led by conservator Nancy Odegaard, who also is a professor in the University of Arizona’s School of Anthropology, Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Drachman Institute in the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture. Under Odegaard’s direction, a team of students, employees, visiting scholars and community volunteers undertakes the often-meticulous task of evaluating and stabilizing damaged museum holdings. http://bit.ly/1UgAEL2 – University of Arizona News

Anasazi Heritage Center Displays 7000 Years of Southwestern Basketry
Visitors to the Anasazi Heritage Center this year will be able to see the diverse history of Native American basketry in the Four Corners from 7,000 years ago to present day.  Baskets were first woven mainly for practical purposes such as processing corn and later evolved into artistic and sometimes ceremonial objects, said Sarah Thomson, who developed the exhibit. “You’ll see a very ancient tradition move through time,” she said. http://bit.ly/1Q3AeCu – The Cortez Journal

Kaibab National Forest Kicks off Arizona Archaeology Month with Events Starting on the 3rd of March
March is Archaeology Month, and the Kaibab National Forest has several free activities planned each week to mark the occasion. This is the seventh year the Kaibab National Forest has organized weekly lectures and hikes during the month, according to South Kaibab Zone Archaeologist Neil Weintraub. http://bit.ly/21jghPi – Williams News

Internship Opportunity: Moab
Responsibilities include developing new educational materials, along with researching, preparing and presenting interpretive programs for the public in an exciting and spectacular environment, including guided walks and hikes and interpretive talks on the archaeology of the region. The intern would provide visitors with orientation to a variety of public archaeological sites in the Canyon Country BLM District Office, recreational opportunities, and educate the public about archaeology, the National Historic Preservation Act, and the Archaeological Resources Protection Act. Occasional monitoring of archaeological sites will be required. http://bit.ly/1TujR6q – BLM via Geologic Society of America

Tour Opportunity – Tucson to Santa Cruz de Terrenate and Fairbank
The Presidio San Agustín del Tucson Museum offers this field trip to its “sister” presidio of Terrenate, which was constructed near the west bank of the San Pedro River in 1775.  It lasted only five years and during that time suffered from its isolation and numerous raids.  Two of its four commanders were killed in raids.  Historical archaeologist Homer Thiel will describe the ruins that are still visible and explain this interesting episode in Arizona’s history. The group will depart the Presidio Museum onSaturday, March 5, at 8:30 am and carpool to Terranate. Lunch will be enjoyed under the cottonwood trees at the remains of the town of Fairbank on the east bank of the San Pedro River, a few miles from Terrenate.  The return trip will pass through the beautiful high grasslands of the Sonoita Plain.
This trip is limited to 30 people so sign up now at http://www.tucsonpresidio.com/civicrm/event/info?id=6&reset=1. When registering, please indicate whether you would like to be a driver or a passenger. The price for the trip including a box lunch is $20 for Presidio members and $30 for non-members.

Lecture Opportunity – Grand Junction
Colorado Archaeological Society- GJ chapter is hosting a lecture Wednesday, March 15 by retired National Parks archaeologist Doug Scott, Ph.D. Dr. Scott is an expert in battlefield archaeology. His lecture will focus on this many summers of tracing, mapping and analyzing battlefield details of the Little Big Horn and other famous and not so famous sites in the west. Lecture is free and open to the public, 7-9 PM at GJ city hall council chambers. Enter the westside doors at 250 N. 5th St. For more information visit www.cas-gj.org or call 970-433-4312.

Lecture Opportunity – Santa Fe
Southwest Seminars presents Dr. Alison E. Rautman, R.P.A., Archaeologist and Professor, Center for Integrative Studies, Michigan State University; Editor, American Antiquity and Co-Author, ‘Hinterlands and Regional Dynamics in the Ancient Southwest’ who will give a lecture Before Gran Quivira: Early Pueblo Villages in Salinas National Monument on February 29 at 6pm at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the Ancient Sites Ancient Stories Lecture Series. Admission is by subscription or $12 at the door. No reservations necessary. Seating is limited. Contact Connie Eichstaedt tel: 505 466-2775; email: southwestseminar@aol.com; http://bit.ly/YhJddr– Southwest Seminars