Dear Friends,
I’m in the field this morning, doing some filming in the few hours before the temperatures in the Great Bend of the Gila reach triple digits, so I have to keep this short.
In this week following Earth Day, when so much of the news is about war and climate change impacts, I am going to defer once again to the powerful voice of Robin Wall Kimmerer. The wonderful people at Emergence Magazine share her wonderful essay on mosses. I recommend that you listen to the audio of her reading her own words. I find her words and her voice to be healing, and I hope you do, too.
Until next week,
President & CEO, Archaeology Southwest
Banner image: National Park Service
Tunnel Fire Swept through Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument
The Tunnel Fire was reported Sunday morning [April 17] roughly 2.5 miles from the monument, which is located northeast of Flagstaff. By Tuesday morning, “high winds pushed the fire north and east through Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument,” said [Park Service spokesperson Naaman] Horn in an email. “Park staff were quickly notified of the impending danger and park visitors and staff were evacuated by early afternoon. The fire reached the southwestern boundary of the monument approximately 4 p.m. Tuesday and by late evening the fire had passed through the entire monument, with the fire continuing beyond in a northeasterly direction. Given the magnitude of the fire, the visitor center and adjacent park housing remain thankfully standing and intact.” Kurt Repanshek for National Parks Traveler | Read More >>
One of the casualties of the Tunnel Fire has been the Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, which has been “burned in its entirety,” the park said on Facebook. The monument, which occupies 3,040 acres and is surrounded by Coconino National Forest, is centered around a cinder cone that is the youngest volcano of the largest volcanic field in the contiguous United States. Jesus Jiménez and Farah Eltohamy in the New York Times | Read More >>
“All Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki staff are accounted for and safe,” the [Facebook] post read. “We were also able to successfully evacuate all culturally important items from the visitor center,” officials said. “For those who worried, the Kabotie painting, corn rock, Qa’na Katsina doll, and other items are safe.” Lane Sainty in the Arizona Republic (azcentral) | Read More >>
Zuni Crew 642’s Work Caring for Ancestral Places
“Uh-oh, I shouldn’t have looked down,” said Darian Seowtewa with a chuckle. The 20-year-old from the Pueblo of Zuni, New Mexico, was standing on a narrow patch of sandstone, perched between a 13th-century masonry wall and an 800-foot drop. The archaeological site that he and his crew were working at stretched out for a quarter-mile along a ledge, overlooking Bears Ears National Monument’s sweeping landscape of petrified sand dunes and juniper-carpeted plateaus. It was a hot week in July in southeastern Utah, and laughter from Seowtewa and the crew echoed through the canyon. They were working to stabilize Ancestral Puebloan structures built by their ancestors long ago. Karuna Eberl for the National Parks Conservation Association | Read More >>
The Chinese Crews Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad
From outside a small excavation pit, Karen Kwan and Margaret Yee watch as a researcher carefully extracts a scrap of linen clothing from the buried ruins of a house. A few yards away, another researcher brushes dirt from a ceramic bowl intricately painted with bamboo and floral motifs. Terrace [Utah] was established by Chinese railroad workers in 1869, when construction crews were racing to connect the eastward and westward tracks of the railroad 70 miles from here at Promontory Summit. Eventually, simple wood structures rose on both sides of Main Street, housing hotels, clothing stores, restaurants, railroad machine shops, even a 1,000-volume library specializing in science, history and travel literature. Smithsonian Magazine | Read More >>
Proposed National Monuments in Five States
A group of more than 300 former National Park Service employees today urged President Joe Biden to use his authority under the 1906 Antiquities Act to create six new national monuments in Texas, Nevada, California, Oregon and Illinois. “There are thousands of acres of public land that are at risk and in need of additional protections,” the group, members of the nonprofit Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, said in a letter to the president; Interior Secretary Deb Haaland; and Brenda Mallory, the chair of the Council on Environmental Quality. The sites recommended for protection are Castner Range in Texas, Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada, Range of Light in California, Douglas-Fir in Oregon and two in Illinois: Cahokia Mounds and a site of the 1908 race riot in Springfield. Rob Hotakainen in E&E News | Read More >>
Continuing Coverage: Pueblo Leaders to Meet with Land Managers over Greater Chaco Protections
Native American leaders said Tuesday they were excited about a series of meetings this week with land managers as the Biden administration considers prohibiting new oil and gas development on hundreds of square miles of federal land in northwestern New Mexico that several tribes consider sacred. Top officials with the All Pueblo Council of Governors said during a virtual briefing that they will reiterate their support for the proposal during tribal consultations. The meetings are part of the public outreach being done by the U.S. Interior Department as it considers the withdrawal from nearly 550 square miles (1,425 square kilometers) around Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Susan Montoya Bryan in the Washington Post | Read More >>
Commentary: Pausing Leases Is Still the Right Call for Greater Chaco
A pause also allows the people of the region to express their priorities, especially about the need to protect cultural properties and heritage. Most of all, it allows the necessary time to create a thoughtful and respectful plan to manage these lands—one that, for the first time, should put the needs and interests of people right up there with profit. Editorial Board of the Santa Fe New Mexican | Read More >>
Read more on how to comment from Preservation Archaeologist and Chaco Scholar Paul F. Reed >>
April 29 Rally (In-Person, Albuquerque): Support Protecting Greater Chaco
Chaco needs your help! Please join us to help protect the Greater Chaco Region. We are rallying outside of the public meeting to show support for the Department of Interior’s proposal to establish an administrative mineral withdrawal within ten miles of Chaco and prohibit new oil and gas leasing on federal public lands for twenty years. New Mexico Wild | More Information and Registration >>
Gwinn Vivian’s Celebration of Life
Gwinn’s celebration of life will be on Saturday, 30 April 2022, at 10 AM MDT Albuquerque; 9 AM MST most of Arizona; 9 AM PDT West Coast; 12 Noon EDT New York, Maryland. It will be live-streamed; please continue to check this website where more information will be added soon. Gwinn’s family sent this obituary for us to share with you.
Podcast: From Researched to Researcher
Jessica Yaquinto hosted Dr. Ora Marek-Martinez (Diné, Nez Perce, and Hopi), Director of Northern Arizona University’s Office of Native American Initiatives and the Native American Cultural Center and Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Department. They discussed Dr. Marek-Martinez’s journey to become an anthropologist and negotiating different understandings of anthropology between the different cultures she was raised in. Topics also included how to improve anthropology as a discipline (including reading recommendations) and how faculty can better support Indigenous students. Heritage Voices | Listen Now >>
Call to Applicants: Summer Youth Intern Program (Española NM)
Each year we invite high-school students to join our Project Archaeologist and Adult Mentors for hands-on learning about conservation and historic preservation through a unique STEM and Humanities curriculum. Student-interns practice citizen science recording petroglyphs and archaeological features, and learn skills in art, writing, and communicating history. We strongly encourage Indigenous and Hispano/a youths (as well as students from any background) to experience this region’s cultural heritage in person. Interns may opt to earn dual credit (3 college credit hours) for their participation. Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project | Learn More >>
TODAY, April 27 Webinar: The “Lands Between”: Safeguarding a Sacred Cultural Landscape
With Theresa Pasqual (Acoma Pueblo), Kenny Wintch (Friends of Cedar Mesa), and Sarah Stellberg (Advocates for the West). Between Bears Ears, Canyons of the Ancients, and Hovenweep National Monuments in present-day southeast Utah lies the cultural, ancestral, and traditional lands of the Hopi, Zuni, the Rio Grande Pueblos, Ute, Diné (Navajo), Paiute, and other Indigenous people. This area is the most archaeologically rich complex of public lands in the United States open for oil and gas leasing. These roughly 300,000 acres of public lands hold a staggering number of cultural sites, though much of the landscape has not yet been surveyed. The panel will discuss the area’s archaeological and cultural significance, leasing of this landscape to oil and gas companies (often with minimal input from Tribes and the public), and the need for lasting protections of the “Lands Between.” Voices for the West (Advocates for the West) | More Information and Zoom Registration >>
REMINDER: April 28 Webinar: The Sacredness of Practicing Ancestral Pueblo Agriculture and Adapting to Modern Changes
With Reyna Banteah. What does it mean to be an Indigenous female farmer in this day and age? Individual interpretation and experience vary from person to person, but in essence, it is a story of survival. Indigenous people have all been given inherited gifts and various passions for the continuity of Indigenous culture. This is a story of survival, healing, re-connection, and remembering what it means to be a restorative and reciprocal steward of the land. Every seed planted in the ground is an act of ensuring Indigenous cultures survive. Leaning into ancestral Pueblo agriculture is a life way that also fortifies healing along the way. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center | More Information and Zoom Registration >>
REMINDER: April 29 Webinar: Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area
We are excited to be working with the Santa Rita Experimental Range from the University of Arizona to host an online webinar about the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area. Register today and save your seat to hear more about the heritage area and the rich cultural, historical, and natural heritage you can only find here. Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area and Discover Fridays (Santa Rita Experimental Range) | Zoom Registration >>
April 29–30 Event (In-Person, Salt Lake City): Preservation Engaged: Celebrating Utah’s Communities
Preservation Utah and the State Historic Preservation Office bring to you “Preservation Engaged: Celebrating Utah’s Communities,” the first statewide annual historic preservation conference since 2019. This event will include a mix of session types, ranging from hands-on demonstrations and practical advice to panel discussions and inspiring preservation case studies. The second day will be a public-focused day, to find ways of engaging new audiences into the world of historic preservation. We hope you join us for these two days of training, education, and networking with professionals and students who love historic preservation as much as we do! Preservation Utah and the Utah State Historic Preservation Office | More Information >>
May Subscription Lectures (In-Person, Santa Fe)
May 9, Matthew Barbour, Native American Conquistadors: Mesoamerican Conquest of the New World. May 16, Harriet ‘Rae” Beaubien, Surprising Finds from a Classic Maya Site: Recovery and Rediscovery. May 23, Linda A. Brown, Dream Bundles: Cultural Preservation & Contemporary Maya Ritual Practitioners. May 30, Steven H. Lekson, Azteques, Cliff-Dwellers, Anasazi, Ancestral Pueblo…What’s in a Name? Southwest Seminars | Learn More >>
REMINDER, May 3 Webinar: Birds of the Sun
With Pat Gilman, Christopher Schwartz, and Steve Plog. Macaws and parrots are colorful birds generally native to areas south of the border between the US and Mexico, but they are present in numerous archaeological sites in Arizona and New Mexico, as well as at the very large site of Paquimé just south of the border in Chihuahua. Archaeologists have paid too little attention to these birds except to highlight the existence and possible importance of interactions between the peoples of Mesoamerica and the US Southwest and Mexican Northwest. This presentation will focus on recent detailed analyses of these birds and what we know about them as a result. Archaeology Café (Archaeology Southwest) | More Information and Zoom Registration >>
May 4 Webinar: Lost Oasis: The Ice Age Archaeology of Utah’s Western Desert
With Daron Duke. 12,000 years ago, the most desolate place in the United States—the Great Salt Lake Desert–was quite the contrary. Vast wetlands drew Utah’s first inhabitants, gave refuge to its last Ice Age megafauna, and anchored a key waterfowl flyway. From the largest spear points on the continent to the earliest evidence for tobacco use, archaeologists can now highlight the unique contribution of this place to the story of human settlement of the Americas. Utah State Historic Preservation Office | More Information and Registration >>
May 5 Webinar: Lunar Twins: Cahokia’s Emerald Acropolis and Chaco’s Chimney Rock in the 11th Century
With Timothy Pauketat. Lunar alignments characterize a series of 9th through 12th century North American Indigenous civilizations. Ancestral Puebloans, Caddos, and Cahokians were involved, among others, hinting at a thick continent-wide history if not also a series of long-distance communications. In this talk, Dr. Pauketat will focus on comparing two Cahokian lunar shrine complexes in Illinois—Pfeffer and the Emerald Acropolis—to Chimney Rock in Colorado. Both Cahokian examples have been the focus of salvage archaeological investigations in recent years, pointing to some surprising similarities with Chimney Rock. What explains these widely separated, intensive 11th-century ceremonial constructions atop remote elevated landforms? Crow Canyon Archaeological Center | More Information and Zoom Registration >>
May 7 Event (In-Person, Blanding UT): Archaeology Day
Pottery making, weaving, flintknapping, basket making, wood carving, atlatl throwing, and other hands-on activities. Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum | Learn More >>
May 10 Webinar: Mapping Yaqui History
With Anabel Galindo. Dr. Galindo explores Yaqui mobility from the Spanish colonial period to the early 20th century in a theoretical framework emphasizing the importance of moving away from misconstrued notions about Indigenous peoples and their histories. Indigenous Interests series (Old Pueblo Archaeology Center) | More Information and Zoom Registration >>
May 11 Webinar (and In-Person, Durango CO): Ancient Basketry Shields of the Northern Southwest
With Edward Jolie. Indigenous American shield-making traditions are best attested among the peoples of the Plains and Southwest cultural provinces where shields were used in martial and ceremonial contexts. In these regions, shields are frequently represented in images cross-cutting a range of visual media including rock and mural paintings, and pictographs and petroglyphs, some of which exhibit considerable antiquity. Actual shields, however, are almost unknown archaeologically. This presentation discusses new data resulting from the analysis of the five known coiled basketry shields recovered from archaeological sites in the northern Southwest. San Juan Basin Archaeological Society | More Information and Zoom Link >>
May 19 Webinar: The Elk Ridge Community in the Mimbres Pueblo World
With Barbara J. Roth. Elk Ridge was the largest pueblo in the northern portion of the Mimbres River valley during the Classic Mimbres period (1000–1130 CE). Recent excavations at the site combined with survey data indicate that it was part of a thriving community with social ties to other nearby pueblos and likely served as the ritual and perhaps economic hub for these smaller pueblos. In this presentation, Dr. Roth will discuss data from fieldwork she directed at Elk Ridge and surrounding sites and will explore how and why Elk Ridge played such a prominent role in this portion of the Mimbres River Valley. Third Thursday Food for Thought (Old Pueblo Archaeology Center) | More Information and Zoom Registration >>
Remember to send us notice of upcoming webinars and Zoom lectures, tours and workshops, and anything else you’d like to share with the friends.