Dear Friends,
As I said last week, one of the joys of working at Archaeology Southwest is that no one day is like another. We work on a wide range of mission-driven projects that have different timelines and cadences. We can’t control external events that have an impact on what we do, we simply have to work through or around those events. But that’s life.
The critical through-line in all of this is our people. Archaeology Southwest’s people. Our two newest employees, Sarah Whelan (Vice President of Finance & Operations; goes by “Whelan”) and Dr. Danielle Phelps (Director of Development and now-resident Egyptologist; goes by “Dani”), are just entering their second months with us. Others have been here for decades. Vice President of Research Dr. Jeff Clark wins our persistence award—he’s been with us for nearly 25 years! New Mexico State Director and Preservation Archaeologist Paul Reed and Vice President of Communications & Outreach Kate Sarther are not far behind Jeff, with more than 20 and 18 years of service, respectively. Several others have been here more than a dozen years. You get the point. Our folks are dedicated to our work.
When I came to Archaeology Southwest just over a year ago, one of my highest priorities was to celebrate and champion our remarkable staff. I want us to share out, collectively and as much as possible, the wonderful work we do and have been doing for decades. I am thrilled to report that we now have a “Speakers Bureau” page on our website. It’s a one-stop-shop for people to learn about what we do.
Ancient Technology Expert and Preservation Archaeologist Allen Denoyer wins the award for best title with “Mud!” Vice President of Preservation & Collaboration Dr. John Welch comes in a close second with “DIRT! How Archaeologists’ Constant Companion Is Becoming Our Best Research Tool.” Reed, undeniably one of the world’s experts in the archaeology of northwest New Mexico, will help you Reimagine Chaco Canyon. Clark, equally expert in southern Arizona, offers several fantastic presentations on the archaeology of the Safford Basin, San Pedro Valley, and other regions. If you would like to know more about any of these offerings, please visit our website or email Director of Outreach Sara Anderson at sanderson@archaeologysouthwest.org. We can do these lectures in person or on Zoom; let us know your needs and we’ll work something out!
So, what do I do in a typical week at Archaeology Southwest? Many things. Some administrative tasks are mundane and repetitive. Others tasks, like presenting on Archaeology Southwest at the World Archaeological Congress in Darwin, Australia, next June, are once-in-a-lifetime. No matter what I do, I always, always take time to reflect on our people and celebrate what they do.
In my head, I often hear the resonant words of the late Lin Bremer, a great Chicago radio (WXRT) host, who regularly said “Take nothing for granted, it’s great to be alive!”
He was right. L’chaim!
Steve Nash
President & CEO, Archaeology Southwest
P.S. from Kate: Archaeology Southwest recently hosted a meeting of Creative Mornings Tucson and Steve spoke on the January topic of Journeys. Check it out!
Banner image: Andy Laurenzi
Continuing Coverage and Commentary: Our Public Lands Are Once Again in Jeopardy
National monuments, migratory birds, endangered and threatened species: Some of the nation’s most vulnerable natural resources are in jeopardy after Doug Burgum issued—on his first full day as secretary of the Department of the Interior—a seven-page directive weakening their protections to further fossil fuel development. … On Monday, Burgum directed his assistant secretaries to ease the way for energy development on federal lands, including by reinstating all energy leases that had been canceled under the Biden administration and offering more parcels of public land for oil and gas drilling, among other pro-fossil fuel actions. Lisa Sorg and Wyatt Myskow for Inside Climate News | Read more »
“Conducting a slap dash, secret review of national monuments shows that this administration is scared of public scrutiny because they know how popular these public lands are. The majority of the country continues to show their love for public lands, including during the first Trump administration’s attempt to privatize the country’s sacred, historic and recreationally and culturally significant landscapes. … With roughly 85% of BLM lands already available for energy production–and roughly half of existing oil and gas leases not being used–it’s crystal clear that these recent orders targeting the 15% of public lands that are protected for the public’s use have nothing to do with the nation’s energy portfolio.” Chris Hill, CEO, Conservation Lands Foundation (press statement) | Read more »
As U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum takes the reins of the largest land management agency in the country, he is tasked with deciding whether oil and gas leasing remains off limits near Chaco Culture National Historical Park. … President Donald Trump on his first day in office directed federal agencies to review public land withdrawals that the Joe Biden administration implemented. That includes the moratorium on oil and gas leasing within a 10-mile radius of Chaco Culture National Historical Park — a sacred landscape that is already dotted with pumpjacks and other oil and gas infrastructure. The review of the mineral leasing withdrawal was buried in the executive order titled Unleashing American Energy. Hannah Grover for the New Mexico Political Report | Read more »
NSF Scrambles to Comply
As U.S. science agencies scramble to follow a slew of executive orders from President Donald Trump clamping down on diversity initiatives and other topics, the National Science Foundation (NSF) appears alone in creating an intricate, multistep process for deciding whether an already awarded grant violates those directives. NSF officials declined to comment on the process, which began last week and is expected to wrap up later this week. But people with direct knowledge say it started with NSF senior managers selecting 10,000 grants, from a pool of roughly 50,000 active awards, for review. They then enlisted staff to vet the awards using a list of key words that include “diversity,” “inclusion,” “women,” and “race.” Jeffrey Mervis for Science | Read more »
How Museum Staff Saved the Getty Villa
On Tuesday, Jan. 7, at about 7 a.m., the Getty’s Emergency Planning Specialist Les Borsay arrived at the Getty Villa in Malibu. “This was not normally a day I would have necessarily been out there,” Borsay told LAist. He was there with several other staffers from the Getty’s Brentwood campus to test some of the Villa’s fire suppression equipment, which was taking longer than expected. Then came the message from the Getty in Brentwood: a small brush fire up started up at the Highlands, sparked by embers of the Palisades Fire, he said. For the next 28 hours, Borsay and 16 other staffers organized themselves to supplement fire department efforts and along the way contributed to helping keep the Getty Villa and its priceless art collections from going up in flames. Now, nearly a month later, administrators of cultural institutions around the country are coming to Borsay to learn what he and his staff did, how they did it, and what they learned so they themselves can close any disaster safety gaps in their own plans. Adolfo Guzman-Lopez for LAist | Read more »
Podcast: Archaeologists Reunite Wildfire Survivors with Deceased Loved Ones
One devastating byproduct of the rapid spread of wildfires is that precious items are often left behind. That includes the cremated remains of loved ones. In 2017, a group of archaeologists founded a nonprofit called the Alta Heritage Foundation to help reunite families with their loved ones’ remains. The recovery process includes two steps. First, cremains are located with the help of specially trained dogs. Then, archaeologists carefully separate the remains from other debris. There is never a cost to families. The LA fires represent the biggest recovery effort yet. Chelsea Rose, host of Underground History, spoke with Alex DeGeorgy, chairman of the Alta Heritage Foundation board, and Mike Newland, the foundation’s treasurer. Jefferson Public Radio | Listen now »
Now Available to Download: Crow Canyon’s 40th Anniversary Volume
Research, Education, and American Indian Partnerships at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center guides Southwestern archaeology and public education beyond current practices—particularly regarding Indigenous partnerships—and provides a strategic handbook for readers into and through the mid-twenty-first century. Open access edition supported by the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center King Family Fund and subvention supported in part by the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center and the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society. University Press of Colorado | Learn more and download (free) »
In Memoriam: Jim Judge
W. James “Jim” Judge, an archaeologist and professor emeritus at Fort Lewis College, passed away at his home in Durango on December 1, 2024, at the age of 90. A memorial service will be held Saturday, February 22, 2025 at Fort Lewis College. Durango Herald | Read more »
Podcast: Wintertime Stories
Not everyone looks at the night sky in the same way. Science Moab talks with Autumn Gillard, the Cultural Resource Manager for the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, who shares her passion for the night sky influenced by her grandmother’s teachings. We discuss the importance of the night sky in Southern Paiute culture, including its influence on traditional stories, dances, agricultural methods, and ecological knowledge. Science Moab | Listen now »
Publication Announcement: The Gasco Site
Weiner RS, Friedman RA, Stein JR. Parallel roads, solstice and sacred geography at the Gasco Site: A Chacoan ritual landscape. Antiquity. Published online 2025:1–17. Read now (open access) »
February Live Lectures (Santa Fe NM)
Feb. 10, Mark S. Aldenderfer, Empires of Gold: Incas, Aztecs and Tibet; Feb. 17, Lynne Sebastian, Chacoan Great Houses; Feb. 24, Timothy R. Pauketat, Thunder Gods of Ancient Cahokia: How History Happened a Millennium Ago. $20 at the door or $75 for the series of 4. Feb. 10 program held at Santa Fe Woman’s Club, 1616 Old Pecos Trail. All others, Hotel Santa Fe. 6:00 p.m. Southwest Seminars | Learn more »
REMINDER: Feb. 12 Online Event: The Keepers of Tradition: Clown Societies in the Casas Grandes and Puebloan Worlds
With Michael D. Mathiowetz. Often simply characterized as irreverent buffoons who are models for proper and improper social, moral, and ethical behavior, clowns are quite complex beings with integral roles in governance, katsina ritualism, medicine societies, and the agricultural cycle. This presentation examines archaeological and ethnological data from the U.S. Southwest and northwest Mexico to identify Medio-period clowning traditions among the Casas Grandes culture, thereby providing insights on Casas Grandes governance, hierarchy, cosmology, and cultural disjunction. San Juan Basin Archaeological Society | Learn more »
REMINDER: Feb. 13 Online Event: Pueblo Identity & the People of Kuaua Pueblo
With Matthew Barbour. The term “Pueblo” is problematic. It was used by the Spanish to refer to many different ethnic groups living in the American Southwest at the time of European contact. All of these groups shared the trait of living in villages but had different languages and customs. This presentation explores the multi-ethnic composition of the people referred to as “Pueblo” through the lens of the occupation history of Kuaua Pueblo, known today as Coronado Historic Site. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center | Learn more and register (free) »
Feb. 15 In-Person Event (Green Valley AZ): Celebrating the Song Dogs
With R.E. Burrillo. Burrillo will share the history, biology, and cultural relevance of the coyote. 9:00 a.m., Santa Rita Springs Anza Room, Green Valley Recreation Center. Hosted by the Green Valley Amigas.
Feb. 18 In-Person Event (Flagstaff AZ): Below and Beyond Perry Mesa: The West Verde Project
With R.E. Burrillo. Burrillo will share the results of a survey 3,200 acres of a largely unstudied area extending north from Cave Creek between Perry Mesa and the Verde River basin on behalf of the Tonto National Forest, including new discoveries of entire pueblo communities that challenge the existing models of settlement, agriculture, and regional exchange within the greater Verde River region. 5:30 p.m., East Flagstaff Library Community Room, 3000 N. Fourth St., Suite 5. Hosted by the Northern Arizona Archaeology Society.
Feb. 20 Online Event: The Closest Neighbors of Paquimé
With Paul Minnis. Paquimé (Casas Grandes) was a major pre-Hispanic US Southwest/Mexico Northwest center. Archaeologists are illuminating its rise, regional influence, and demise. Minnis will discuss two decades of research that he and colleague Michael Whalen have conducted in Paquimé’s neighborhood. Third Thursday Food for Thought (Old Pueblo Archaeology Center) | Learn more and register (free) »
Feb. 20 In-Person Event (Tucson AZ): The Past in the Past: Traditionalism in Archaic Crete
With Grace Erny. This talk focus on how ancient Greek communities on the island of Crete thought about their island’s past. I discuss several case studies of engagement with older landscape features and ways of life, including the construction of megalithic buildings in the countryside, the use and display of non-Greek inscriptions, and open-air ritual practice at significant locations. Material interactions with real or imagined pasts were key strategies for consolidating power during a period of demographic growth, competition for resources, and emerging forms of social inequality in the seventh through the fifth centuries BCE. 5:00 p.m., Haury Building room 216, University of Arizona. AIA Tucson Society | Learn more »
Feb. 21 In-Person Event (Phoenix AZ): Old Leupp Boarding School and Nikkei Isolation Center: A Community-Accountable Archaeological Partnership
With Davina Ruth Two Bears. Two Bears will discuss the historical significance of the Old Leupp Boarding School (OLBS) archaeological site. Established as a boarding school for Navajo children from 1909 to 1942, OLBS was later repurposed in 1943 as a Japanese Isolation Center during World War II, impacting both the Diné and Nikkei communities. Dr. Two Bears, a Diné scholar, will share insights from her community-based research project, focusing on the site’s history and archaeology. 11:00 a.m., 3711 W. Deer Valley Rd., 85308. Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve | Learn more »
Dr. Two Bears serves on Archaeology Southwest’s Board of Directors.
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. Thanks!