Utah Public Lands Initiative Clears House Committee

Utah Public Lands Initiative Clears House Committee
The House Natural Resources Committee advanced the Public Lands Initiative on Thursday, moving the bill to the full House with a week to go before Congress adjourns until after the election. The PLI, sponsored by Utah Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz, would protect part of the Bears Ears region while opening other swaths of land for oil and gas development. The measure, which the Utah members are trying to fast-track to halt a potential national monument designation by President Barack Obama, was approved by a party-line vote of 21-13 following a sometimes testy debate. http://bit.ly/2daNxoi – Salt Lake Tribune

1200 Archaeologists, Historians and Museum Professionals Protest the Dakota Access Pipeline
In a Friday letter to President Obama, the United States Department of Justice, Department of the Interior, the Army Corps of Engineers, a coalition of more than 1,200 archeologists, museum directors, and historians from institutions including the Smithsonian and the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries denounced the deliberate destruction of Standing Rock Sioux ancestral burial sites in North Dakota. http://bit.ly/2cEmcgC – Daily Kos

Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition Declares Public Lands Initiative an Affront to Tribal Sovereignty
Today’s House markup of H.R 5780, Representative Rob Bishop’s (R, UT) Utah Public Lands Initiative (PLI) represents yet another chapter in the long and sordid history of this disastrous bill. While the addition of a Bears Ears Commission that would elevate tribal voices is a positive change, the foundation and framework remain problematic in innumerable ways. The PLI is a step back to the nineteenth century, affronting the sovereignty of the Ute Tribe of Utah. http://bit.ly/2daPFw0 – Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition

Navajo Nation Confirms Support of a Bears Ears National Monument
Today’s press conference entitled “Utah Navajo to Voice Opposition to Monument Designation” is another attempt to show selective opposition to the proposed Bears Ears National Monument by using a handful of members of the Navajo Nation, while ignoring the clear support of the elected leadership of the Navajo Nation. Contrary to this attempt to show opposition, the Navajo Nation Council has unanimously passed a resolution supporting a Bears National Ears Monument. Six of seven Navajo communities in Utah passed resolutions supporting a Bears Ears National Monument. On July 16, at a public hearing in Bluff, Utah hosted by the Obama Administration, Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye and Navajo Nation Speaker LoRenzo Bates stood side-by-side to deliver a strong statement of support urging President Obama to designate a Bears Ears National Monument. http://bit.ly/2daQrsT – Navajo Nation

Blogs Worth Reading: Kellam Throgmorton Continues to Analyze Ownership, Public Lands, and Bears Ears
This week I return to our “regularly scheduled programming” and discuss the issue of ownership in relation to archaeology and public lands. The question “who owns the past?” arises wherever there is contestation over cultural heritage between groups. Conversations about ownership have hinged on the ethical considerations surrounding portable artifacts, antiquities, and human remains. Examples include the return of the Euphronios Krater to Italy, the recent sale of Hopi Katsina friends (or masks) in a Paris auction house, England’s stubborn refusal to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece, and the long controversy over the repatriation of the Ancient One (Kennewick Man). http://bit.ly/2cDCp5V – MAPA Binghamton

Editorial: A Native View of Bears Ears
Every day when I wake up, as is the tradition in my culture, I step outside and face east to greet the sun and pray. From my home on Paiute Mesa I can see the twin buttes of the Bears Ears and the ancestral homelands of my people stretching between and beyond. I pray for this landscape. Why? Because our elders’ spirits dwell in each rock face and canyon, each slope and stream. Because as Native Americans we rely on the Bears Ears region for spiritual well-being and cultural teachings to pass on to our children. And because right now its future — and our future — hangs in the balance. http://bit.ly/2cUsE2M – Deseret News

Editorial: Arizona Republic Calls Out Those Who Would Betray the Grand Canyon
The people get it: We need to protect the Grand Canyon from nearby uranium mining. We could do it, too, if Congress broke out of its establishment straitjacket. Or if President Barack Obama rides to the rescue of an Arizona treasure that too many Arizona politicians won’t protect. (It’s that establishment straitjacket again.) Here’s what the people want: A new national poll shows strong, bipartisan support for safeguarding Grand Canyon National Park by creating a mining-free buffer around it. This mirrors results of a survey of Arizonans earlier this year that found 80 percent support for enhanced protections. http://bit.ly/2daQzsw – Arizona Republic

NASA Developing a New Perspective on Chaco Canyon 
John Kantner spent the better part of his career as an archaeologist trying to unlock the mysteries of the ancient Chaco Canyon civilization. He, like many of his colleagues, was left with only theories and shots in the dark… But this past summer, NASA, in partnership with several other organizations, launched in the Greater Chaco area “space archaeology” campaign, an increasingly popular method of research that uses aerial and satellite thermal imagery to find buried historic ruins. http://bit.ly/2daOo8y – Durango Herald

Visitation, Climate, and Geological Processes Threaten Archaeoastronomy in the Greater Southwest
Life in the Southwest offers a rare opportunity for viewing of the night sky, one that few Americans have…For the ancestral Puebloans, a connection to the sky was a fundamental element of their culture. At locations across the Southwest, they built architectural features to track the movement of the sun and moon across the sky for agrarian and ceremonial purposes. http://bit.ly/2daSxsM – Cortez Journal

Tempe Burial Illustrates Care for the Disabled in Hohokam Society
Human remains found buried in downtown Tempe, Arizona, are revealing a touching story about one young woman’s painful life and the community that cared for her more than 800 years ago. The remains consist of a complete skeleton of a 20 year old woman — one of 172 buried or cremated remains that archaeologists have uncovered while studying a swath of Tempe’s city center to make way for a light rail system. http://bit.ly/2daU2Ye – Western Digs

Engineers in Preliminary Planning for “Paths to Mesa Verde” Trail
The 20-mile nonmotorized trail would connect Cortez and Mancos with Mesa Verde National Park. The ideal location and design of the trail is currently being studied via maps and preliminary surveying on the ground, said Pete Loris, president of the firm. Preferred trail alignments are expected to be presented in February. http://bit.ly/2cDCTZQ – Cortez Journal

Salt River Pima-Maricopa Peoples Support the Great Bend of the Gila Initiative
“This effort to protect the land of the Great Bend of the Gila demonstrates how Native Americans can come together on land that should be sacred,” said Gila River Indian Community Lt. Governor Monica Lynn Antone. “It’s our history, our ancestors and our vessels to our bloodlines.” (Representative) Grijalva said opposition is minimal, and he is encouraging a congressional hearing to prove it. It’s not yet known if Congress will hold the hearing. If Congress refuses, Grijalva said he’s prepared to strategize with the tribes and others on how to move the request to President Obama and the Antiquities Act, which gives the president the authority to create national monuments from public lands. http://bit.ly/2cDDQkQ – Au-Authm Action News

Artist in Residence Focuses upon Aztec Ruins
Sampson is spending the month of September as an artist in residence at Aztec Ruins National Monument as part of a pilot program initiated by the National Parks Arts Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe dedicated to bringing top artists to national parks around the country. “It’s been fascinating,” Sampson said of her experience at the park. “I’ve gotten to learn a lot about the architectural significance of Aztec Ruins and other ancient Puebloan sites. Prior to coming here, I went on a survey of other ruins sites to prepare myself. And the rangers here have been great about interpreting the site for me.” http://bit.ly/2daQdSE – Farmington Daily Times

Open House at Tucson’s Old Pueblo Archaeology
On Saturday October 15 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tucson’s nonprofit Old Pueblo Archaeology Center invites you to its free International Archaeology Day Open House at 2201 W. 44th Street, Tucson. Participate in a simulated archaeological excavation. Create your own petroglyphs, hand-built pottery, stone jewelry, cordage, and dance rattles to take home. Watch stone arrowheads being made. Play traditional Native American games, grind corn using a stone metate and mano, and bop stuffed bunnies with rabbit-throwing-stick! No reservations needed. 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org

Lecture Opportunity – Cortez
The Hisatsinom Chapter of the Colorado Archaeology Society is pleased to present Shanna Diederichs on Tuesday, October 4, at 7:00 p.m. at the Methodist Church, 515 Park Street, Cortez, CO, to discuss A Frontier in Bloom: Social Implications of Architectural Diversity and Conformity during the Colonization of the San Juan Region of the Northern Southwest. Shanna will discuss the frontier colonization that occurred during the Basketmaker III period in the northern southwest using architectural data. Contact Kari Schleher at 505-269-4475 with questions.

Lecture Opportunity – Santa Fe
Southwest Seminars Presents Rose B. Simpson, M.F.A. (Santa Clara Pueblo), a Ceramic Sculpture, Performance, and Multimedia Artist and member of the Naranjo family who will give a presentation Creative Process in Context: Cross Cultural Healing Mechanism on September 26 at 6:00 p.m. at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the Native Culture Matters Lecture Series held to honor and acknowledge the Indian Arts Research Center at School for Advanced Research. Admission is by subscription or $12 at the door. No reservations are necessary. Refreshments are served. Seating is limited. Contact Connie Eichstaedt at 466-2775; email: southwestseminar@aol.com; website: southwestseminars.org.

Lecture Opportunity – Tucson
The Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society (AAHS) is pleased to present Patricia A. Gilman on Monday, October 17, at 7:30 p.m. in the University Medical Center’s Duval Auditorium (1501 N Campbell Ave, Tucson 85724). Gilman will discuss Social Contexts of Chaco and Mimbres Macaws. Meetings are free and open to the public. For more information please visit the AAHS website: http://www.az-arch-and-hist.org/, or contact John D. Hall at jhall@sricrm.com with questions about this or any other AAHS program.