Agnese Haury Bequeaths Her Legacy to the University of Arizona

Agnese Haury Bequeaths Her Legacy to the University of Arizona
The University of Arizona has received $50 million from the estate of philanthropist Agnese Nelms Haury. It will be used to fund scholarships and research on issues of the environment, social justice, and the Southwest. It will also establish an annual prize for what Dean of Science Joaquin Ruiz hopes will become the environmental equivalent of a Kavli Science Award or Nobel Prize. http://bit.ly/1B0iFLT – Arizona Daily Star

Remembering Agnese
Agnese Nelms Haury, a dedicated philanthropist with a passion for investing in innovative scholarship, passed away on March 20, 2014, in Tucson, Ariz. She was 90 years old. Her husband, twin sister, and brother predeceased her; survivors include a niece and nephews. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Haury retained a commitment to her Southwestern origins while also developing international interests, through studying and then living abroad. http://bit.ly/1qXTxF – Legacy.Com

Los Angeles Times Examines the Blanding Raids
For generations, the people of the Four Corners region have battled the federal government over collecting and selling Native American artifacts. Then agents persuaded a local dealer to go undercover. Operation Cerberus Action was supposed to expose a lucrative trade in stolen antiquities. Instead, it tore a hole in a Utah town. http://bit.ly/1uQPFX1 – Los Angeles Times

PBS News Hour Looks at Nine Mile Canyon and the Preservation Challenges Caused by Fracking
As a budding archaeologist in 1989, Jerry Spangler was amazed by what he saw in Utah’s Nine Mile Canyon. “I was unprepared,” Spangler said, for the unspoiled “secrets of its ancient inhabitants.” Thousands of archaeological sites and petroglyphs lined the canyon walls — more petroglyphs, it turned out, than anywhere in the lower 48 states. http://to.pbs.org/1obTaBr – PBS News

Tonto National Forest Service Plans for Off-Road Vehicle Management Will Accelerate Damage to Ancient Places and Important Habitats
Conservation and archaeological groups joined thousands of other Arizonans this week in submitting formal comments asking the Forest Service to revise its proposed travel-management plan for off-road vehicles in the Tonto National Forest to protect wildlife, air quality, cultural resources and wilderness values. The plan would add more than 600 miles of open motorized routes and almost 7,000 acres of unrestrained off-road vehicle areas — allowing damaging motorized use in protected wilderness areas, beaches, rivers, and essential wildlife habitat. http://bit.ly/1moyYR5

Off-Road Vehicles and Public Lands – Why Preservation Matters
Over the past 30 years, as the popularity and availability of four-wheel-drive and off-highway vehicles has increased, motorized uses of our public lands have intensified. Exploring America’s most majestic, secluded, and meaningful landscapes is easier than ever. At the same time, our right to access and enjoy these places must be balanced against the need to protect the very same cultural, biological, and geological resources that make them so special. http://bit.ly/1rdSijc – Archaeology Southwest

Five Indicted for Off-Road Vehicle Protest at Recapture Canyon
Federal authorities are accusing a San Juan County commissioner and a handful of protesters of conspiracy and illegally riding ATVs into southeast Utah’s Recapture Canyon in May. The Bureau of Land Management closed the canyon to motorized use in 2007 to keep wheels off its many archaeological sites. About 50 riders motored into the canyon following a May 10 rally in Blanding denouncing federal “overreach” and mismanagement of public lands. http://bit.ly/1qYho7S – Salt Lake Tribune

Preservation Archaeology – Flooding in (Ancient) Arizona
Several archaeologists working in southern Arizona have suggested that unusually large floods may have been a big problem for farmers relying on canal irrigation, as they could have damaged canal infrastructure and required substantial repairs, or even could have damaged stream channels irreversibly. In certain circumstances, archaeologists can use paleoenvironmental data to estimate when such damaging floods may have been likely. http://bit.ly/1DrufDy

Lecture Opportunity – Northwest Tucson
In partnership with the Western National Parks Association, Archaeology Southwest announces a series of four lectures, each Saturday in October: “You Are Here: Understanding Who Came Before Us in This Place (and Why That Matters).” At 12:00 noon, on October 4, 2014, Bill Doelle and Matt Peeples will present the first lecture in the series, “Who Called the Tucson Basin Home in the Distant Past?” Doelle and Peeples will provide an overview of life in the southern Southwest in the distant past, with particular attention to lines of evidence—how do we know what we know? Reservations are required. Call Western National Parks Association at 520-622-6014 to reserve your seat. 12880 N. Vistoso Village Drive, Oro Valley, AZ, 85755 http://bit.ly/Z6VXGe – Archaeology Southwest

Lecture Opportunity – Tucson
The Western National Parks and University of Arizona School of Anthropology’s Emil Haury lecture series continues with Dr. Carla Van West, who will present The Tree Ring Chronicles at the University’s Integrated Learning Center, Room 140, at 7:00 pm, Tuesday, Sept. 9. Tuesday’s presentation will focus upon dendrochronology and the eventful evening when Douglass, Judd, Hargrave, and Haury bridged the so-called “gap” between the floating chronology and the historic tree-ring chronology.

Lecture Opportunity – Santa Fe
Southwest Seminars Presents Dr. Archaeologist Kurt Anschuetz, who will give a lecture entitled, “Pueblo Ritual Landscapes: Archaeology of Blessing Places and Pilgrimage Pathways,” on September 22, at 6:00 pm, at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the annual Native Cultures Matter Lecture Series held to honor and acknowledge the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). No reservations are necessary, and admission is by subscription or $12 at the door. Refreshments are served and seating is limited. Contact Connie Eichstaedt at 505-466-2775; email: southwestseminar@aol.com; website: http://bit.ly/YhJddr

Lecture Opportunity – Santa Fe
Southwest Seminars Presents PhD Candidate Joseph ‘Woody’ Aguilar, who will give a lecture entitled, “Spanish Efforts to Reconquer New Mexico: Post-Revolt Puebloan Sites in Northern New Mexico” on September 29, at 6:00 pm, at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the annual Native Cultures Matter Lecture Series held to honor and acknowledge the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). No reservations are necessary, and admission is by subscription or $12 at the door. Refreshments are served and seating is limited. Contact Connie Eichstaedt at 505 466-2775; email: southwestseminar@aol.com; website: http://bit.ly/YhJddr

Thanks to Cherie Freeman for contributions to this week’s newsletter.