High Country News Recaps the Conflict at Bears Ears

High Country News Recaps the Conflict at Bears Ears
The proposed monument does not include any tribal lands, yet if anyone is home here, it’s Begaye, whose ancestors sought refuge near the Bears Ears during the 1860s, when U.S. troops killed, brutalized and enslaved Navajos before exiling them from their homeland. The Zuni, Hopi and other Pueblo leaders here to lend support to the monument are also home. Their ancestors built the Bluff Great House, just a stone’s throw from the hearing venue, back in the 11th century, and their religions and cultures were shaped by this ground. http://bit.ly/2ejSGuy – HCN

Editorial: The President Should Protect Bears Ears
Once taking office nearly eight years ago, President Obama has used the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create or expand 26 National Monuments protecting hundreds of millions of acres of federal land from future development, mining and other terrain-scarring uses…. It’s an impressive effort to try to preserve landmarks and protect the natural beauty that defines so much of the nation. The president should add one more: the proposed 1.9 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument, so named for two adjacent buttes in southeast Utah that, from a distance, look like a hatless Smokey Bear emerging over the horizon. The proposed monument encompasses steep canyons and sweeping vistas, Native American ruins and sacred grounds, and outdoor recreation spots, including hiking trails, campgrounds and popular rock-climbing sites. It consists of federal lands roughly south of Canyonlands National Park, east of the Glen Canyon Recreational Area, and north of the Navajo Nation, and would overlay the existing Natural Bridges National Monument and some designated national forest lands.  http://lat.ms/2ejV6cX – Los Angeles Times

Blogs Worth Reading: Chip Colwell Ponders If Sacred Lands Shuold Have the Same Rights as Corporations
A majestic mountain sits not far northwest of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Like a low triangle, with long gentle slopes, Mount Taylor is clothed in rich forests that appear a velvety charcoal-blue from the distance. Its bald summit, more than 11,000 feet high, is often blanketed in snow – a reminder of the blessing of water, when seen from the blazing desert below. The Zuni tribe lives about 40 miles west of Mount Taylor. In 2012, I worked with a team to interview 24 tribal members about the values they hold for Dewankwin K’yaba:chu Yalanne (“In the East Snow-capped Mountain”), as Mount Taylor is called in the Zuni language. We were told that their most ancient ancestors began an epic migration in the Grand Canyon. http://bit.ly/2ejXn7W – The Conversation

Crow Canyon Hosts Three Day Archaeoastronomy Conference
A Dolores-based archeology organization is hosting a three-day conference at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center from Oct. 25-29 in Cortez. “Before Borders: Revealing the Greater Southwest’s Ancestral Cultural Landscape” features presentations by Native American speakers, research papers, discussion forums, interactive sessions and field trips. http://bit.ly/2ejWYlL – Cortez Journal

Fellowship Opportunity – SAA’s 2016 Fred Plog Memorial Fellowship
The deadline for the SAA’s 2016 Fred Plog Memorial Fellowship is fast approaching on November 1. This award ($1,000) provides support for a graduate student with ABD status writing a dissertation on the North American Southwest OR northern Mexico OR on a topic, such as culture change or regional interactions, on which Plog himself did research. Please forward this information to eligible students. Here is a link to a pdf with all of the details. http://bit.ly/2ejYYdB.  Please direct any questions and applications directly to Deborah Huntley, SAA Fred Plog Fellowship Committee Chair (dhuntley@archaeologysouthwest.org)

Lecture Opportunity – Tucson
On Monday, October 24 at 6:00 pm as part of the Arizona State Museum’ Indigenous Perspectives on Cultural Property Lecture Series, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the San Carlos Apache Tribe, Vernelda Grant who will present Intertribal International Repatriation. The presentation will be held at the Chavez Building room 111, on the University of Arizona campus.

Lecture Opportunity – Santa Fe
Southwest Seminars Presents Dr. Robert K. Hitchcock,  who will give a lecture From Hunting to Herding: The Kalahari San and 2,000 Years of Adaptation on October 24 at 6pm at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the annual Mother Earth Father Sky Lecture Series held to honor The New Mexico Environmental Law Center. Admission is by subscription or $12 at the door. No reservations are necessary. Refreshments are served. Seating is limited. Contact Connie Eichstaedt:  tel. 505 466-2775; email:southwestseminar@aol.com; southwestseminars.org