One-Year Moratorium on Chaco-Area Drilling Passes House

One-Year Moratorium on Chaco-Area Drilling Passes House
Today, U.S. House Assistant Speaker Ben Ray Luján’s initiative to secure a one-year moratorium on oil and gas drilling near the Chaco Culture National Historical Park was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. Assistant Speaker Luján’s amendment was included in the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations package that passed Tuesday – a critical move toward securing a permanent ban on oil and gas drilling in the greater Chaco region. “We at Archaeology Southwest are very pleased that Congressman Luján’s amendment has passed and is part of the Interior Appropriations bill. This will help protect Greater Chaco’s fragile sites and landscapes,” said Paul Reed, Preservation Archaeologist. http://bit.ly/2xgmGTC – Lujan.house.gov

Award Recognizes All Pueblo Council of Governors
The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) today honored the All Pueblo Council of Governors (APCG) with the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Conservation of the Year Award for 2019. APCG received the award in recognition of their outstanding leadership in protecting the landscape surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park and other areas in the region from industrial development and pollution associated with rampant oil and gas leasing. http://bit.ly/2xd3NkL – National Parks Conservation Association

Video: Native Fire: Prescribed Fire through Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Editors’ note: This short new documentary by the National Interagency Fire Center presents an excellent introduction to Native American traditional ecological knowledge around fire management. It also discusses how that knowledge is informing policy on our public lands today. Prescribed burns based in traditional practices maintain and revitalize indigenous connections to these ancestral lands while encouraging the growth of culturally important plants, such as those used for medicine and basketry. https://youtu.be/RUPXtKeOHu0 – National Interagency Fire Center (opens at YouTube)

National Trust for Historic Preservation Announces Ninth President & CEO
On behalf of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Board of Trustees, I am delighted to share with you that Paul Edmondson has been appointed the 9th President and CEO of the National Trust. Through the search, the Trust’s Board identified Paul as the person who, owing to his experience, his lifelong commitment to preservation, and his integrity, is perfectly suited to lead the National Trust. The Board embraces him with great enthusiasm and complete unanimity. Before taking on the role of interim President earlier this year, Paul Edmondson served for many years as the National Trust’s chief legal officer. In that capacity he has not only been a strong advocate for historic preservation, but also someone who worked to find practical and creative solutions in a broad range of projects and places. http://bit.ly/2xbzZ7R – National Trust for Historic Preservation

Report Rock Art Vandalism
If you have found vandalism associated with rock art in the United States we will try to locate the appropriate land manager and inform them of the issue. Thank you for helping to protect our cultural heritage! https://arara.wildapricot.org/Vandalism – American Rock Art Association

Landowners Donating to Expand Yucca House National Monument
Yucca House National Monument southwest of Cortez inched closer to growing six times larger this week after the deputy director of U.S. National Parks testified in the U.S. Senate in favor of a land donation to the monument. Companion bills introduced by Colorado Republicans Rep. Scott Tipton and Sen. Cory Gardner in March would facilitate a 160-acre donation to Yucca House by Bernard and Nancy Karwick, adding to the monument’s current 33 acres. Yucca House was home to ancestral Puebloans circa A.D. 1150. Unlike Mesa Verde National Park, which manages Yucca House, the site remains unexcavated today. The proposed expansion would include more archaeological sites to the east of the park’s current boundary. http://bit.ly/2RwwXo0 – The Journal

Santa Cruz River Flows Past Tucson’s Birthplace Once Again
“The Santa Cruz is the reason we can call Tucson home,” says Claire Zugmeyer, an ecologist with the Sonoran Institute. “It’s our lifeblood and the foundation of the region’s rich natural and cultural heritage.” The return of water to this specific stretch of the Santa Cruz is particularly important. People have been farming alongside the river near Sentinel Peak and Tumamoc Hill for more than 4,000 years. It’s considered the birthplace of Tucson. http://bit.ly/2xb5jUi – This Is Tucson (and see http://bit.ly/2x9eBAj for historic photos)

Tucson City Council Passes Resolution Opposing I-11
The city’s resolution says that path — which would run very near its own CAP recharge facilities and several public lands, including Saguaro National Park and Tucson Mountain Park — would degrade the Sonoran Desert and produce “enormous adverse impacts to economic, environmental, historic, cultural and archaeological resources that could not adequately be mitigated.” http://bit.ly/2xg756w – AZPM

Despite overwhelming public and City of Tucson opposition to an I-11 Avra Valley route, the fight to save the Avra Valley is far from over! ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration need to hear from you! There’s still time to send your comments to ADOT before the July 8 public comment deadline: Online: i11study.com/Arizona; Phone: 1.844.544.8049; Email: I-11ADOTStudy@hdrinc.com; Mail: I-11 Tier 1 EIS Study Team c/o ADOT Communications, 1655 W. Jackson Street Mail Drop 126F, Phoenix, AZ 85007. The full draft of the DEIS can be found at: http://origin.i11study.com/Arizona/Documents.asp. – Avra Valley Coalition

New AZ SHPO Guidance Documents
The AZ SHPO (State Historic Preservation Office) has posted two new guidance documents to the SHPO website: (1) SHPO-ASM Interim Guidance Regarding Survey Report Standards and (2) Draft Final Historical In-Use Structures Guide and Forms. SHPO is accepting written comments on the Historical In Use Structures Guide through July 31, 2019. Send to mwalsh@azstateparks.gov. https://azstateparks.com//shpo-consultation-on-historic-preservation-compliance

Commentary and Call to Action: NEPA Enforcement and Border Infrastructure Construction
If you have ever had the joy of experiencing wild and unspoiled wilderness, then you will have no trouble grasping the potentially irreparable damage that can be wrought by constructing and maintaining such a structure through a remote section of the Sonoran Desert. But the reality is that we don’t know the extent of the impact. We don’t know, because nobody has performed an environmental assessment or an environmental impact assessment for this work. No one has performed basic due diligence measures as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), because no one is required to. Section 102 of the Real ID Act (2005) provides a blanket waiver for all 48 applicable federal laws (including NEPA), that would otherwise apply to construction of a border barrier through wilderness areas. How can you get involved? Submit a comment to DHS [Department of Homeland Security] on or before July 5th via commentsenv@cbp.dhs.gov. Join us for an information and listening session about border infrastructure on Wednesday, June 26th in Ajo, Arizona (201 W Esperanza Ave.; 5-7 PM). Tell your congressional representatives and senators that you take the charge as a trustee of public lands for future generations seriously and you want them to revisit Section 102 of the Real ID Act. – Aaron Cooper in the 6/24/19 email newsletter for the International Sonoran Desert Alliance (isdanet.org)

Event Opportunity, South Rim, Grand Canyon National Park AZ
The Grand Canyon is an ageless wonder of the world. Though 2019 marks the Grand Canyon’s centennial as a national park, it has been home to Indigenous people for millennia. In response to the park’s anniversary, “Rumble on the Rim” will take place at the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park on July 27, 2019. The event will combine educational presentations with entertainment that features Indigenous voices from the Colorado Plateau. Rumble on the Rim will focus specifically on the history of Grand Canyon from an Indigenous perspective. Speakers and performers include Vernon Masayesva, Ed Kabotie, The Antelope Track Dance Group (Hopi), Davonna Blackhorse, Havasupai Guardians of Grand Canyon, Havasupai Youth Ram dancers, Grammy nominee Radmilla Cody, Save the Confluence, Ryon Polequaptewa, and World Champion Hoop Dancer Derrick Davis. Rumble on the Rim is an all ages event open to the public without additional cost to visitors of Grand Canyon National Park, as room permits, from 10am-4pm at the Shrine of the Ages on Saturday, July 27th. http://bit.ly/2RzFKFJ – Rumble on the Rim/Rumble on the Mountain/Ed Kabotie

Lecture Opportunity, Santa Fe NM
Southwest Seminars Presents Dr. Heather L. Smith, Archaeologist and Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology and Applied Archaeology, Eastern New Mexico University, who will present a lecture “Paleo Points Prove South to North Migration!”, based on recent research into the spread of fluted point technology in Canada’s Ice-Free Corridor, on July 1 at 6:00 p.m. at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the Voices from the Past Lecture Series held annually. Admission is by subscription or $15 at the door. No reservations are necessary. Refreshments are served. Seating is limited. Contact Connie Eichstaedt at tel: 505 366-2775; email: southwestseminar@aol.com; web: southwestseminars.org

Lecture Opportunity, Taos NM
Paul F. Reed will speak about Chaco Canyon at the SMU in Taos Colloquium Series on July 9. Details at the link: https://www.smu.edu/Taos/Groups/Colloquium

Lecture Opportunities at the Preservation Archaeology Field School, Cliff NM
The public is invited to a month-long series of lectures at the headquarters of the Archaeology Southwest/University of Arizona field school, 8179 Hwy 180 W, Cliff NM 88028. Look for the cream building with blue portable toilets on the north side of Hwy 180 just east of Shields Canyon Road and the highway yard. This is 2.2 miles west of the 180-211 junction in Cliff. All presentations will begin at 7:00 p.m. https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/events/

June 27, Maxwell Forton, Shield Rock Art of Tsegi Canyon
July 1, Allen Denoyer, The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly Mule Creek Obsidian

Save the Date: 2020 Southwest Symposium Biennial Archaeological Conference
The 17th biennial conference will be held in Tempe, Arizona, January 30–February 1, 2020, on the Arizona State University Campus in the Ventana Ballroom within the Memorial Union. – southwestsymposium.org

We’re happy to help get the word out, but we’re not mind readers! Please submit news, book announcements, and events at this link for consideration: https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/submit-to-sat/

Questions? sat-editor@archaeologysouthwest.org