Archaeologists Petition the White House for a Bears Ears Monument

Archaeologists Petition the White House for a Bears Ears Monument
How a 1.9 million-acre parcel in southeast Utah dotted with archaeological and historical sites is managed has been a source of contention for years. Now, with less than one year left of Barack Obama’s presidency, multiple groups have petitioned him to declare the land — known as the Bears Ears region — a national monument. The latest push comes from a group of more than 700 archaeologists who have signed a letter to the president asking him to create a national monument if Congress does not pass a bill adequately protecting the area’s fragile archaeological sites. http://bit.ly/265Mqzz – Farmington Daily Times

Editorial Presents Grim Account of Public Meeting on the Sale of Bears Ears Parcel
On June 8, members of SITLA held a generously agreed-upon public comment session ahead of a proposed land sale in the Bluff area. The proposal involves the sale of a parcel of State Trust land that includes a portion of Comb Ridge where Highway 191 cuts through. There is only one bidder at present, the Hole-in-the-Rock Foundation (HIRF). They joined SITLA onstage, presenting the spectacle of a suspiciously unified front.  http://bit.ly/1UEHwlV – Salt Lake Tribune

Badgers Blamed for Looting Sites and Grave Robbing in SE Utah
Faced with overwhelming proof that archaeological sites in Utah’s Bears Ears region are being raided and destroyed by looters, vandals, and grave robbers, people opposed to protecting the area’s cultural heritage have a new explanation: badgers. Utah state Representative Mike Noel floated the theory to the Salt Lake Tribune today: “There is no fresh digging. All we can see today are badger holes. We have to get a handle on these badgers because those little suckers are going down and digging up artifacts and sticking them in their holes.” http://bit.ly/1UEIVZG – Center for Western Priorities

Preservation Archaeology: Learning about Looting
Before arriving at field school, I had imagined well-preserved sites disturbed by nothing more than a few animal burrows, adobe walls and floors that behaved nicely, and no looting. (Blame National Geographic glamour and the fact that no one really wants to publish the holes—literal or figurative—in our sites and our knowledge.) Animal burrows and hard-to-see adobe walls and floors are one thing, but what has surprised me the most has been the aspects of destruction and the insights that can come from looting. http://bit.ly/1UqGJ6O – Archaeology Southwest

Fancy a Solstice Sunrise at Mesa Verde?
Mesa Verde National Park will offer a backcountry sunrise tour of the Balcony House site to highlight the archaeoastronomy features of the ancestral Puebloan dwelling, said Jeff Brown, interpreter at the national park. This backcountry tour will start at 5:15 a.m. and is projected to last an hour and a half, with an additional tour being offered Tuesday, Brown said. The tours will be unique because the group will include two videographers from the National Park Service who will film the event. http://bit.ly/200Fkp0 – Durango Herald

A News Organization Finally Gets Mesa Verde Right
The culture that once thrived at Mesa Verde National Park was rich, complex and far-reaching – and it didn’t mysteriously disappear. http://bbc.in/1sNr3RU – BBC

“Creepytings” Gets a Slap on the Wrist
The woman who defaced sites within several national parks in 2014 pleaded guilty today to seven misdemeanor counts of damaging government property. Casey Nocket, age 23, was ordered by a federal judge to serve two years of probation and 200 hours of community service. She is also banned from all lands administered by the National Park Service (NPS), US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Army Corps of Engineers during her probation period. http://1.usa.gov/1UWaAEa – National Park Service