Diné and Pueblo Youth Join to Fight Fracking of the Chaco Landscape

Diné and Pueblo Youth Join to Fight Fracking of the Chaco Landscape
“Save the sacredness of our land and our water and our air and our soil. With fracking, all of those components in life are at a threat,” Antonio said. The group recently held a “consent dinner” for the communities of Torreon and Pueblo Pintado, New Mexico, to thank elders and organizers from the community who have been opposed to energy extraction in greater Chaco Canyon. http://bit.ly/2usTuZk – Navajo Times

The Impact of Climate Change upon Native American Ceremonial Practice
The Colorado River, one of the longest rivers in the United States, is gradually shrinking. This is partly a result of overuse by municipalities and seasonal drought. The other reason is global warming. The decline in the river reservoir will have serious implications for large U.S. cities, such as Los Angeles, that depend on the Colorado River as their water source. In addition, this will also have an impact on the Native American tribes who view the Colorado River as sacred to their religions. As Ka-Voka Jackson, a member of the Hualapai tribe and a graduate student working to address climate change on the Colorado River and restoring native plant species along its banks, stated, “The Colorado River is so sacred not just to my tribe, but to so many others.” http://bit.ly/2usNeRr – High Country News

Fire as a Signaling Device in the Ancient Pueblo World
Julie Coleman, archaeologist and tribal liaison for San Juan National Forest, says archaeologists’ accounts from earlier excavations of Chimney Rock documented evidence of large fires. But there wasn’t a connection to long-range communication until 1990 when Kathy Freeman, a high school student from Farmington, conducted an experiment using large mirrors as part of a science fair project. http://bit.ly/2usyVwb – Cortez Journal

Crow Canyon Shares Details from the Northern Chaco Canyon Outliers Project
Crow Canyon archaeology director Susan Ryan on Thursday spoke to a full house at the Sunflower Theatre about the Northern Chaco Canyon Outliers Project, an excavation that started in May on an ancestral Pueblo village northeast of Cortez. New information about what the Montezuma County region looked like more than 1,000 years ago could change how scientists and archaeologists view the present, she said. “When we talk about a place like Chaco Canyon, or any of the great houses that are located in the Mesa Verde region, we’re really talking about … human behavior that we can learn about,” she said. “In particular, we are talking about human behavior that has to do with things we are completely concerned about as citizens across the world today.”  http://bit.ly/2usEQlc – Cortez Journal

Advocates Respond to Threats to Canyons of the Ancients National Monument
The people who care for Canyons of the Ancients National Monument provide maps and wishes for luck. They are at a museum that serves as the monument’s headquarters, where it seems more people have been coming since April, when President Donald Trump issued an executive order that placed the monument on a list with 26 others to be reviewed for possible downsizing or delisting. Here, some 3 million pieces of pottery, pendants and tools are kept – objects that the region’s earliest people left in this desert thousands of years ago. http://bit.ly/2usCHWv – Colorado Springs Gazette

Editorial: Arizona Monuments Make Good Fiscal Sense
The National Park System in Arizona each year draws 12 million visitors, who spend almost $1 billion and support more than 15,000 jobs, according to new fact sheets by Democratic Party members of the Joint Economic Committee in Congress. Public lands advocates hope that will be enough to keep four Arizona national monuments safe as they undergo a review ordered by the U.S. Department of the Interior. http://bit.ly/2usSJ2J – Bryan Martyn via Public News Service

Students Learn the Practice of Preservation at a Historic Ranch near Taos
When thinking of The University of New Mexico, many envision the white stucco tower of Mesa Vista Hall or the sprawling main campus bleeding into UNM Hospital. But 165 miles north, up a winding mountain road and nestled among the juniper trees near Taos, is a smaller, more unique and intriguing part of the UNM campus: the D.H. Lawrence Ranch. Now a group of UNM students are doing their part to raise awareness of the ranch, and increase accessibility. It’s all part of the Museum Studies class “Collections in Context: Taos.” http://bit.ly/2usEM4J – University of New Mexico

Tour Opportunity – Mimbres Valley
Crow Canyon Archaeological Center still has a few openings on its Mimbres Archaeology tour on October 23-29, 2017. Led by Dr. Patricia (Pat) Gilman and Dr. Paul Minnis, the tour begins and ends in Tucson, AZ. Hike to cliff dwellings and rock art panels in the Mimbres and Gila Valleys, tour outstanding museum collections, and savor the rustic luxury of Bear Mountain Lodge, the tour “base camp” at the edge of the Gila Wilderness. For details: http://www.crowcanyon.org/index.php/travel-in-the-u-s/mimbres-archaeology or call 800.422.8975 x457.