Southwest Archaeology Today for June 21, 2008

Southwestern Archaeology making the News – A Service of the Center for Desert Archaeology

– Mt. Taylor Designated Traditional Cultural Property: A state committee has approved a proposal from five American Indian tribes to give central New Mexico’s Mount Taylor temporary protection as a cultural property at a contentious meeting. The state Cultural Properties Review Committee voted 4-2 Saturday in Grants for an emergency listing of more than 422,000 acres surrounding the mountain’s summit on the state Register of Cultural Properties.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/b0qg – LA Times (Site may require user registration.)

– (Related Post) First Hand Accounts of Mt Taylor Meeting: New Mexico’s Mount Taylor, sacred to several tribes and under threat of uranium mining, has been designated (again) as a Traditional Cultural Property (TCP). Uranium mining historically wreaked havoc in the area and left a legacy of environmental destruction and cancer and among miners and residents, including many Native Americans. The Acoma, Hopi, Laguna, Navajo and Zuni tribes requested the designation after a recent flurry of uranium permits and exploration on the 11,301-foot mountain that disturbed some shrines and grave sites.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/le9e – The Goat, A High Country News Blog

– New Publication Explores Orayvi Split: Historians may record 1906 as the year of the Great San Francisco Earthquake, but, for anthropologists, it is the year that split the Hopi community of Orayvi, the longest continually occupied settlement in North America. The break-up-which came two mornings after the last complete Snake Dance ever performed in that pueblo and in which half of the pueblo’s residents were forced to leave-has been the subject of anthropological debate for the century that followed. Hoping to resolve the debate at last, Peter Whiteley, Curator of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History, offers a compelling new analysis in his book “The Orayvi Split: A Hopi Transformation.”
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/amon-tso061908.php

– Audio Podcast Report on Joint Efforts on Preserving Southwestern Villages and Rock Art: Graffiti is plaguing many of our nation’s national parks and monuments, including some ancient Native American cliff dwellings. At Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico, conservators from a government program are taking advice from Natives, whose ancestors built these ancient sites, to make sure the restoration is done appropriately. KUNM’s Jim Williams reports.
http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=08-P13-00024&segmentID=7

– Three University of Arizona Anthropology Students Earn NSF Dissertation Awards: Three University of Arizona graduate students have earned National Science Foundation fellowships. Jos