Congressional Republicans Seek Veto Authority over 1906 Antiquities Act

Congressional Republicans Seek Veto Authority over 1906 Antiquities Act
Citing state sovereignty and economic hardship, Republican lawmakers said Tuesday that they wanted to give Congress the authority to veto presidents’ national monument designations, a power used by nearly every executive since Theodore Roosevelt. The Antiquities Act of 1906 has led to the designations of 136 national monuments, a list that includes the Grand Canyon and the Petrified Forest in Arizona and the Statue of Liberty in New York. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/09/13/124016/gop-wants-to-give-congress-veto.html#ixzz1YJx4v3nd

New On-Line Museum to Provide Amazing Views of the Ancient Southwest
The award-winning imaging and web design team at the Bilby Research Center has been helping Anthropology Professor Chris Downum produce interactive web applications with virtual tours of some of the Southwest’s premier museum and National Park Service collections, providing anyone with internet service access to thousands of new images of artifacts rarely seen by the public. In doing so, Downum is using new imaging technologies and the perspectives gained during his 35-year career in archaeology. http://www.research.nau.edu/newsletter/fall2011/downum.aspx

Chaco Culture National Historic Park Preservation Team Working to Preserve the Legacy of the Ancient Ones
Victor Beyale filled a crack in the stone wall with mortar and thought of the Ancient Ones.  “They must have been tougher,” he said. “Much tougher than us.”  The quiet mason from Nageezi picked up another round of mud mix from a bucket and carefully filled another crack in the ancient Pueblo Pintado three-story wall.  http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Safeguarding-the-Ancient-Ones-

Puebloan Historian Joe Sando Passes
Joe Sando, who became the first Jemez Pueblo member to chronicle life in the tribe as a historian and writer, died Tuesday. He was 88.  He died of natural causes at an assisted living center in Albuquerque, said his publisher and friend Marcia Keegan.  http://www.santafenewmexican.com/localnews/Joe-Sando–1923-2011-Scholar-wrote-about-Indian-history-from-th

One Blanding Looter Pleads Guilty While Another Receives Minimum Sentence
A Blanding school teacher Friday admitted to selling a turkey feather blanket and a prehistoric women’s apron in the ongoing Native American artifacts trafficking case.  David A. Lacy, 55, pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of trafficking stolen artifacts and Native American cultural items in U.S. District Court. Lacy sold the antiquities to an undercover informant in December 2007. He will be sentenced in November. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705391016/2-sentenced-1-pleads-guilty-in-Native-American-artifacts-trafficking-case.html?s_cid=rss-30

Mesa Community College Geologist Develops Program for Rock Art Preservation
Hopi Indians of the American Southwest have imprinted their legacies on the faces of rocks for hundreds of years. By helping modern Hopis preserve their symbolic heritage, Niccole Villa Cerveny is making an impression of her own on the students who take her geology research class, many of whom are Native Americans. Cerveny, a professor at Mesa Community College (MCC) in Arizona, is one of a number of scientists working to bring research into a community college setting.  http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2011_09_16/caredit.a1100097

Mimbres Cultural Heritage Site Now Open To The Public
Mattocks Ruin, a world famous archeological site, located in Mimbres is now open daily from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM beginning Sunday, September 18, 2011.  Also parts of the MCHS location are two historic Mimbres Valley Territorial Adobe houses dating from the 1880s, the Gooch and Wood houses. These houses will be eventually restored and open to the public as part of the historic ranch heritage of the Mimbres Valley. The Mimbres Cultural Heritage Site is located at 14 Sage Rd., Mimbres, NM off HWY 35. There are road signs indicating the turn between mile markers 3 and 4. The site is approximately 3 miles from the intersection of HWY 152 and HWY 35. For more information call Marilyn Markel, Education Director, MCHS, 575-536-9337.

The Legend of Yale’s Skull and Bones Society and Geronimo’s Remains Continues
Towana Spivey, the museum curator, was adamant: “The facts on the ground here just don’t line up with the story being told.” I’ve been involved in the Geronimo story, more or less accidentally, for a number of years, and agree with Spivey. That’s not to say that I don’t accept the story about Prescott Bush—in fact, I do. The circumstantial evidence suggests that Bush and his friends did indeed mount a grave-robbing operation, and that they came away with something. But with what? The historical rec­ord is clear that in 1918, when the “most spectacular ‘crook’” took place, Geronimo’s body was not lying in the kind of vault described in the Skull and Bones logbook. It had been buried in an unmarked grave, precisely to deter would-be grave robbers. The pres­ent monument was not built until 1930. There’s no iron door on it, like the one the Bones history describes. Assuming that Prescott Bush and his friends did smash open a burial vault, there are only two possible candidates at Fort Sill.  http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/10/geronimo-201110

2012 Arizona Archaeology Expo Kick-Off Planning Meeting Scheduled
The meeting is planned for Tuesday, October 4, 2011 at 1:30 p.m.at the State Historic Preservation Office, 1300 W. Washington, Phoenix in the Basement Boardroom. Please come and share your ideas as the SHPO initiates planning for the 2012 Arizona Archaeology and Heritage Awareness Month (AAHAM) celebration. We will be deciding on a theme for the month that focuses on our state’s Centennial, so bring your ideas! Given the focus on Arizona’s Centennial, we will be changing the name of the “Arizona Archaeology Expo” to the “Arizona Heritage Expo” next year. (We can also discuss if people think that it is a good idea to keep this name, or to go back to the “Archaeology Expo.”) Ann Howard, SHPO Public Archaeology Programs Manager at 602/542-7138, or avh2@azstateparks.gov

Travelogue – Chaco Canyon
The drive from Taos, in north-central New Mexico, to Chaco Canyon in the northwest corner of the state is so beautiful it could make you cry. There were azure skies, red and gold mountains, giant Wild West cliffs of pastel strata, all the improbable hues you see in New Mexico paintings that make you think the artists must all be constantly munching peyote.  http://www.statesman.com/life/travel/new-mexicos-chaco-canyon-filled-with-mystery-1863789.html

Latest News from the Archaeology Channel
In the most recent installment of the Video News from TAC, you will witness two remarkable archaeological excavations: one in the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River and the other on the beautiful Polynesian island of Tubuai.  See these stories in the September 2011 edition of this monthly half-hour show, available now on our nonprofit streaming-media Web site, The Archaeology Channel (http://www.archaeologychannel.org) as well as on cable TV in cities across the US.