Developing a Land Management Plan for Bears Ears

Developing a Land Management Plan for Bears Ears
The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition intends to proceed with the development of a comprehensive land management plan for the 1.9 million-acre landscape that was incorporated into the Coalition’s original proposal to the Obama administration. The Coalition’s intent is to develop a land management plan that is grounded in a Native perspective but also easily implementable into the federal agency planning process and land management decisions. http://bit.ly/2CYom8c – Coalition for American Heritage

Video: Painted Walls and Tree-Ring Dates in the Embattled Bears Ears Cultural Landscape
In this Tea & Archaeology presentation, Benjamin Bellorado discusses some results of the Cedar Mesa Building Murals Project, a five-year study of decorated buildings at Ancestral Pueblo cliff-dwellings in the southern Bears Ears area. Results indicate that, in the early A.D. 1200s, murals expressed important aspects of social identities related to community, political, and religious identities on local scales. Subsequent changes in mural styles reflect broader changes in the political and ritual systems of the larger region. The project was conducted through a partnership with the federal archaeologists at the Monticello Field Office of the BLM and with the University of Arizona School of Anthropology and the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. https://youtu.be/qbMqd9BuYX8 – Archaeology Southwest (opens at YouTube)

(Words Fail…)
Archeologists helped draft the law that presidents use to protect areas like the Grand Canyon, but today’s Republicans want to muzzle archeologists and others to keep them from weighing in on a lawsuit over Trump’s yanking protections from Utah sites that date back to the end of the last Ice Age. Our nation’s Congress passed the Antiquities Act in 1906 to protect ancient American Indian sites, but Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jean Williams asked a federal judge not to accept legal documents from archaeologists objecting to Trump’s largely dismantling two national monuments in Utah. She said the blitz of documents was “inherently prejudicial” to Trump and the other defendants. “Federal defendants do not have adequate time or space to address every formulation of the arguments,” Williams wrote. http://bit.ly/2CRKnW9 – Salon

Commentary: Shutdown Places Cultural Heritage at Risk
And the threat isn’t just to the natural wonders and to public safety. The national parks are full of cultural and historic resources that could be damaged or stolen with so little oversight and protection. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-national-parks-shutdown-20190104-story.html – Los Angeles Times

Commentary: Archaeology and Spurious Television
This month, a new show exploring “mysteries” of the ancient past premiered on Travel Channel: “Legends of the Lost with Megan Fox.” Its four episodes explore questions such as the role of female warriors in Viking society, the peopling of the Americas and the historical underpinnings of the legendary Trojan War. Interspersed with these well-studied topics, the show also makes more-dubious claims, such as proposing the existence of giants and that ancient stones may hold healing properties. In the process, it strands us in a landscape where objective facts are interspersed with myths in ways that threaten to leave the audience uncertain about what really happened in the human past. https://wapo.st/2CWzMcj – David S. Anderson in the Washington Post

Profile: C. Dean Wilson
Show C. Dean Wilson an ancient Indian pot and he will not pause before telling you about its form, materials, age, and the distinctive details of the type. “See how fine those coils are,” he says of a Mogollon piece on a shelf at the Center for New Mexico Archaeology, the home of the Museum of New Mexico’s Office of Archaeological Studies. “That’s because the clays out there are incredibly plastic. It’s not necessarily suited to painting, but it’s perfect for this textured pottery.” http://bit.ly/2CZwnK9 – Santa Fe New Mexican

Driving through Mesa Verde in the 1910s
In May 1914, Superintendent Thomas E. Rickner of Mesa Verde National Park applied for a permit to allow automobiles to make the trip into the park. He knew this permit would increase the number of visitors to the cliff ruins. On June 4, 1914, five automobiles from the Montezuma County Motor Club made the delightful round trip. Four were from Mancos and one from Cortez. The road went as far as Spruce Tree House and easily made it in a day. http://bit.ly/2CXSDUm – The Journal

Job Opportunities, Desert Archaeology, Inc.
Desert Archaeology is seeking to fill two Field Director/Project Director positions (one in the Phoenix office, one in the Tucson office) for directing survey, testing phase projects, and small data recovery projects and in assisting Senior Project Directors and Principal Investigators with field supervision of large projects. Field Directors/Project Directors direct and participate in all phases of a project, from pre-field planning (including writing research designs and work plans) and logistical support, to crew supervision, work with laboratory personnel, and post-field analysis and report preparation. Applications will be reviewed beginning January 21, 2019. Positions open until filled. https://desert.com/open-positions/

Travel Grant Opportunity for Undergraduates, Institute for Field Research
The Institute for Field Research (IFR) believes in immersion experiences and the power of mentorship to change the lives of aspiring scholars. To that end, the IFR has donated $2,000 to the Society for American Archaeology to support undergraduate student travel to attend the 2019 SAA Annual Meeting. The SAA will select several qualified undergraduate students from a pool of applicants, on a competitive basis, to receive travel awards up to $1,000. Submission deadline is January 25. http://bit.ly/2CYKIqc – Institute for Field Research and Society for American Archaeology

Grant Opportunity, Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society
Proposals for AAHS Research and Travel Grants Accepted between January 1 and February 15, 2019. Research Grants of up to $1,000 and Travel Grants of up to $500 are available on a competitive basis to any AAHS member (professional or avocational) who is involved in a study or research in the areas of Southwestern archaeology, anthropology, American Indian studies, ethnohistory, or history. Information, application forms, and past awardees can be found at http://www.az-arch-and-hist.org/grants/instructions-for-scholarships-and-grants/.

Book Announcement: The Crimson Cowboys
The Crimson Cowboys: The Remarkable Odyssey of the 1931 Claflin Emerson Expedition, by Jerry D. Spangler and James M. Aton. University of Utah Press. https://uofupress.lib.utah.edu/the-crimson-cowboys/

Book Announcement: Images of Dinetah
Images of Dinetah: Reflections of Past Life in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico by Bob Young and James Copeland, self-published, http://www.rockartfineart.com and Amazon.

Special Program, Tucson AZ
Reflections about Bears Ears: An Evening in Honor of Karen Strom. Wednesday, January 23, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m., CESL 103, Free. This program honors a recent gift of Native American art from astronomer and photographer Dr. Stephen Strom, in memory of his late wife, Karen. Dr. Strom will tell us about his latest project documenting the southern Utah region known as Bears Ears. Keynote speaker, Carleton Bowekaty, a member of the Pueblo of Zuni Tribal Council and the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, will share the experiences of the coalition as it advocated for the establishment of Bears Ears National Monument in 2015/16, and how it is responding to the monument’s subsequent downsizing in 2017. At a reception following the program, selections from the Strom Collection will be on display and Dr. Strom will sign copies of his new books, Bears Ears: Views from a Sacred Land, with introduction by journalist Rebecca Robinson and poetry by Joy Harjo; and Voices from Bears Ears with Rebecca Robinson. The Center for English as a Second Language (CESL) is one building east of ASM north. Program co-sponsored by Archaeology Southwest. http://bit.ly/2CXolBc – Arizona State Museum

Lecture Opportunity, Las Cruces NM
On Thursday, January 10, at 7:00 p.m., Jeffrey Ferguson will present Tracing the Dynamics of Prehistoric Trade Relationships at Cañada Alamosa: Discovering Obsidian Sources and Ceramic Production Areas Using Analytical Chemistry. The free lecture, hosted by Human Research Systems, will be held in the Social Center Auditorium at University terrace Good Samaritan Village, 3011 Buena Vida Circle.

Lecture Opportunity, Santa Fe NM
Southwest Seminars Presents Randy Brokeshoulder (Hopi/Navajo/Shawnee), Tobacco Clan Member, great-grandson of Hopi carver Guy Maktima, son of Nick and Sharon Brokeshoulder; Katsina Carving Artist and Native Traditional Dancer; Recipient, New Mexico Higher Education Teachers Quality Scholarship, Institute for American Indian Education (IAIE), who will share a talk on Katsinam: Hopi Life Bringers, on January 14 at 6 pm at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the annual Ancient Sites Ancient Stories Lecture Series. Admission is by subscription or $15 at the door. No reservations are necessary. Refreshments are served. Seating is limited. Contact Connie Eichstaedt, tel: 505 466-2775; email: southwestseminar@aol.com; website: southwestseminars.org

Lecture Opportunity, El Paso TX
On Saturday, February 2, at 2:00 p.m. at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology, 4301 Transmountain Rd., Sean Dolan will present Mimbres Turkey Domestication and Iconography. http://bit.ly/2CXzphH – El Paso Museum of Archaeology

Thanks to Brian Kreimendahl for his contribution to this edition.

Please submit news, book announcements, and events at this link for consideration: https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/submit-to-sat/

Questions? sat-editor@archaeologysouthwest.org