President Obama Declares New National Monument in Southwest New Mexico

President Obama Declares New National Monument in Southwest New Mexico
President Obama’s record on public lands protection has been spotty – as of January 2013, he’d opened more than twice as many acres to drilling as he’d conserved. Lately, though, the POTUS has been on a bit of a roll. Over the last 16 months, Obama has used the Antiquities Act – the 1906 law that gives the President executive authority to declare national monuments – to protect sites including the San Juan Islands, 1,600 acres along Northern California’s coastline, and New Mexico’s vast Rio Grande del Norte landscape. Earlier this week, Obama dropped the Antiquities hammer again – this time on the Organ Mountains, a rugged, spectacular range overlooking Las Cruces in southern New Mexico. The designation, officially the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, encompasses nearly half a million acres, making it Obama’s largest by far. http://bit.ly/1k6Rm9b – High Country News

Climate Change Seen as a Direct Threat to Mesa Verde
When we think about what’s at stake with climate change, we usually imagine impacts to our current way of life. But as a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists points out, our shared human history is at risk of being wiped away as well. Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park – the largest archaeological preserve in the U.S., with some 500,000 visitors a year – is among 30 sites profiled in the report, which puts a spotlight on the impacts of climate change on the nation’s landmarks. The park’s abundance of archaeological sites have already been pummeled by fire and erosion, which are increasingly fueled by climate change; and archaeologists fear sites will be destroyed before they can be studied, or even discovered. http://bit.ly/1kCjtli – High Country News

Christine Szuter to Lead Amerind Foundation
Christine Szuter was named executive director of the Amerind Foundation. The foundation has a public museum and art gallery in Texas Canyon, 60 miles east of Tucson, designed “to promote knowledge and understanding of the Native Peoples of the Americas.” She will succeed John Ware, who is retiring to Santa Fe, N.M., this summer after 13 years as executive director. http://bit.ly/1nIrlkD -Arizona Daily Star

Archaeology Southwest’s Exhibit Chaco’s Legacy Opens June 5th in Bloomfield and Aztec NM
Now on display at Aztec Ruins National Monument and Salmon Ruins Museum, Chaco’s Legacy explores the rise and spread of a powerful ancient southwestern Pueblo society from New Mexico’s remote Chaco Canyon. Based in Archaeology Southwest’s latest research, the exhibition provides an intuitive vision of ancient Pueblo landscapes, sites, and artifacts through a virtual-reality game engine, Unity 3D. The National Science Foundation funded development of the exhibition, which will celebrate its grand opening on Thursday, June 5, 2014, 6:00–8:00 p.m., at Salmon Ruins Museum, 6131 Highway 64, Bloomfield, NM. To attend, please RSVP Kathleen Bader by email, kbader@archaeologysouthwest.org, or by phone, 520-882-6946 x 26.  http://bit.ly/1tb1V0x – Archaeology Southwest

National Park Service Grants Assist Tribes in Repatriation of Human Remains and Cultural Objects
The National Park Service today announced nearly $40,000 in repatriation grants under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) to assist museums, Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations in returning ancestral human remains and cultural objects to their people. http://bit.ly/TKsMWS – Native News Online

“Breaking Good” – Unique Problems and Opportunities for the Cañoncito Band of the Navajo at To’hajilee
The people of To’hajilee Chapter have but one thing to ask of the “Big Rez”: Please stop thinking of them as the “Enemy Navajo.” After all, the sins of their traitorous ancestor Sandoval are 200 years in the past. “‘Lost Navajo,’ ‘Pueblo Navajo,’ ‘Enemy Navajo,’ whatever the latest name is,” sighed the chapter’s executive director, Jim Platero. “People still think of us that way. That’s why we’re always on the bottom of the totem pole.” http://bit.ly/SAWZXz – Navajo Times

Spanish Fortifications and Protected Mining on the Frontier of New Spain
Frontier military outposts in Arizona began with several early presidios established along the Santa Cruz River. Presidio San Ignacio de Tubac was founded in June 1752 after a Pima uprising that threatened Spanish silver mining interests around Arivaca and the Santa Rita Mountains, including the Alto, Salero, Montosa and Wandering Jew mines worked by Jesuit missionaries from Tumacácori in 1688. http://bit.ly/1nnsh27 – Arizona Daily Star

How the Preservation of Historic Structures Shapes Our Sense of Place
I have been trying trying to understand what makes historic places special to so many of us.  Part of it is that they are relatively rare in the United States, I guess.  For several decades our newer everyday architecture – our subdivisions, strip malls, office buildings – has been simultaneously bland and deadening in its consistency.  Every place looks like every other place, or so it seems.  While that isn’t literally true – some exciting buildings are being designed and built, some nourishing new places are being fashioned – the best of our older buildings and neighborhoods have a distinctiveness to them, almost by default. http://huff.to/1jMRyPr – Huffington Post

Three Historic Properties in El Paso Are Added to List of Endangered Places of Texas
Local historic preservation advocates applauded the recent inclusion of El Paso’s Oñate Crossing, Hart’s Mill and Old Fort Bliss in a new, yearly compiled list of the most endangered historic sites across Texas. “It’s a great, great piece of El Paso’s heritage fabric but it has been overlooked by the annals in our history,” said Bernie Sargent, chairman of the El Paso County Historical Commission. “The importance of that particular site has really not been given its just due.” http://bit.ly/1mnLoW2 – El Paso Times

Florence, AZ, Takes Proactive Approach in Historic Preservation
With a panel discussion on historic preservation as the theme, Pinal Partnership could not have found a more fitting site for its monthly breakfast meeting on May 16 than Florence.  A panel representing different sections of Pinal County gathered at the Holiday Inn Express to share their insights to preserving a community’s past. Gilbert Olgin, senior planner for the town of Florence, was the historic liaison for seven years. http://bit.ly/SAZXv6

Traditional Cultural Places (TCP) Workshop Pre-Planning Session
At the 2015 Historic Preservation Conference in Flagstaff, the State Historic Preservation Office and various partners hope to offer another TCP Workshop to further our joint goal of better preserving and protecting TCPs.  These workshops focus on the promotion of mutual respect and understanding in a format that allows for the definition and discussion of issues related to the identification, evaluation, management, and protection of these special places. In this pre-planning session, held on Friday at 2 Pm during the 2014 Arizona Historic Preservation Conference in Rio Rico, Az, we will review results of the 2013 TCP Workshop, and discuss ideas and topics for consideration in planning next year’s proposed Workshop in Flagstaff.

Lecture Opportunity – Cortez, CO
As part of the Four Corners Lecture Series, the Hisatsinom Chapter of the Colorado Archaeology Society is pleased to present Dr. Randall H. McGuire on Tuesday, June 3rd at 7:00 PM at the Methodist Church, 515 Park Street, Cortez, CO to discuss Cerros de Trincheras and War in the Formative Period Trincheras Tradition. McGuire’s presentation will address research on cerros de trincheras, terraces constructed by prehistoric people in Sonora, México, and the results of the Cerros de Trincheras and Defense Project. Contact Kari Schleher at 505-269-4475 with questions.

Lecture Opportunity – Santa Fe
Southwest Seminars Presents Dr. Bruce Bernstein, Executive Director, Continuous Pathways Foundation and Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Pojoaque Pueblo; Former Executive Director, Southwestern Association for Indian Arts; former Director and Chief Curator, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture; Museum of New Mexico; who will give a lecture Living in Indian Country: Forever Visitors on June 2 at 6pm at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the annual Voices From the Past Lecture Series held to honor The New Mexico History Museum. Admission is by subscription or $12 at the door. Seating is limited. No reservations are necessary and refreshments are served. Contact Connie Eichstaedt at 505 466-2775; email: southwestseminar@aol.com; http://bit.ly/YhJddr

Thanks to Brian Kreimendahl for contributing to this week’s SAT Newsletter.