The Monument Wars

The Monument Wars
In the West, where I currently live, we have our own unfinished wars: the Indian wars. I was reminded of how unfinished they are this fall, when I attended a demonstration led by Native Americans against the Dakota Access Pipeline. The protest took place in front of the statehouse in Bismarck, North Dakota, where on the building’s vast greensward there is a memorial to pioneers. The gray, cast-metal statue depicts a family: a patriarch, his shirt unbuttoned, poised for action; a matriarch, babe in her arms, leaning into her husband; and their strapping son. This is a military monument, despite its domestic subject, one of the many across the West that commemorate the invaders of these lands as heroes and, more than that, as us, while insisting that Native Americans are them. http://bit.ly/2jy9Ubc  – Harper’s

Incoming Administration Takes Aim at Public Lands
President-elect Donald Trump aims to open up federal lands to more energy development, tapping into a long-running and contentious debate over how best to manage America’s remaining wilderness. The U.S. government holds title to about 500 million acres of land across the country, including national parks and forests, wildlife refuges and tribal territories stretching from the Arctic to the Gulf of Mexico. They overlay billions of barrels of oil and vast quantities of natural gas, coal, and uranium. With Trump poised to take office on Jan. 20, energy companies and their lobbyists are eyeing a new gusher of federal drilling and mining leases after a period of stagnation under the administration of Barack Obama. http://reut.rs/2jnsEww – Reuters

BLM Readies Oil and Gas Leasing on the Chaco Landscape
An oil and gas lease sale that would auction off about 840 acres near Chaco Culture National Historical Park will proceed on Jan. 25 after five years of challenges from opponents. The Bureau of Land Management announced this week that four parcels spanning Rio Arriba and Sandoval counties in New Mexico will be in an online auction at 9 a.m. http://bit.ly/2jnpUzh – Durango Herald

Interior Secretary Argues for Enhanced Tribal Consultation Process
Outgoing Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell has issued a Cabinet exit memo that highlights in part her progress on Indian affairs over the past four years. Notably, she does not shy away from areas of deficit, especially regarding perennial Indian education issues that have long plagued the Department of the Interior.The memo, titled “Toward a Bright Future: The Interior Department’s Record of Progress,” notes that the Obama administration had from its beginning in 2009 made the restoration of the federal government’s relationship with tribes “a top priority.” Based on close consultation with Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, Jewell said in the memo that the U.S. government “…[had] opened a new chapter with First Americans based on self-determination and self-governance.” http://bit.ly/2jnegEp – Indian Country Media Network

Editorial: Outdoor Retailer Chastises Utah State Government, Threatens Departure
Over the past several months Utah’s political leadership has unleashed an all-out assault against Utah’s protected public lands and Utah’s newest monument. It’s time for Outdoor Retailer to leave the state in disgust. Over 20 years ago, I successfully led the effort to relocate the Outdoor Retailer Trade show to Utah. The state has some of the country’s most beautiful, varied, wild and iconic public lands that personified our industry’s values. Utah’s public lands also formed the underpinnings of the state’s great competitive advantage — an unmatched quality of life unique to much of America that has attracted some of the best and brightest companies and their employees to the state. http://bit.ly/2jnkiVv – Salt Lake Tribune

Archaeology Café (Phoenix): Look on my works, ye mighty
On Tuesday, January 17, 2017, Dr. Katherine Dungan shares Look on my works, ye mighty: Modeling Chaco Great House Visibility at our January café. She will will discuss how archaeologists use computer modeling to reconstruct past visibility, as well as the place of visibility, in the very different histories of two great house communities near Chaco Canyon. Presentations begin at 6:00 p.m.; it is best to arrive around 5:30 p.m. Location: Macayo’s Central, 4001 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ. http://bit.ly/2jnxHNo – Archaeology Southwest

Burning Down the (Pit) House
On Saturday, January 21, 2017, at 9:00 a.m., Archaeology Southwest will conduct a controlled burn of a scale-model replica of an Early Agricultural period dwelling. The pithouse is based on an excavated example from the site of Los Pozos near Prince Road and I-10 in Tucson, AZ. That house dated to the Cienega phase (800 B.C. to A.D. 50). Archaeologists will collect data during and after the burn. In time, they will excavate the burned remains in the hope that this will inform on archaeological excavation and interpretation of similar features. The event is open to the public. Plan to arrive before 9:00 a.m. to see the scale-model pithouse before the fire is lit. Location: Steam Pump Ranch, 10901 N. Oracle Rd., Oro Valley, AZ. http://bit.ly/2jnAPce – Archaeology Southwest

Philanthropists Rally Behind Bears Ears
Recognizing the world-class cultural and natural resources of the newly established Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, a group of philanthropic foundations are committing $1.5 million to strengthen collaborative management of the area and ensure inclusion of local community voices. President Obama designated the Bears Ears National Monument on December 28, 2016 to safeguard one of the nation’s most significant and spectacular cultural landscapes and to honor five native tribal nations — the Hopi, Navajo, Ute Mountain Ute, Zuni, and Ute Indian Tribe — who, combined, prize more than 100,000 archaeological, rock art, and sacred cultural sites within the monument. With the support of another 30 tribal governments, those five tribal nations joined together for the first time in history to ask the president to designate a national monument to protect their sacred sites, which have long been threatened by ongoing looting, vandalism, and development plans. http://bit.ly/2jnameH – William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Colorado Canyons Association Hopes for Strong Protection of Public Lands
When Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke appears before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Jan. 17 for his confirmation hearings to become United States Secretary of Interior, we hope he will demonstrate his support for several critical issues related to public lands and to our local National Conservation Areas. We believe strongly that federal lands should remain in federal ownership, with management by agencies such as our partners at the Bureau of Land Management. We also know that adequate funding for the management of those lands, and continued funding support for programs such as the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), is critical in that regard.  In addition, our three local National Conservation Areas are part of a larger system of special BLM lands called the National Conservation Lands, this system requires a continued commitment and funding by the incoming Secretary of the Interior. http://bit.ly/2jnpclo – CCA

The Archaeology Southwest/University of Arizona Upper Gila Preservation Archaeology Field School
Our field school is now accepting applications for our 2017 field season at the 14th-century Gila River Farm site in Cliff, NM.  Qualifying undergraduates will receive a stipend from the National Science Foundation’s REU program to support their attendance.  Applications are due March 6, and the field season is May 24-July 5.  For more information please see our website, www.archaeologysouthwest.org/field-school.

The Complex World of Fashion and Native Appropriation
n March 2016, Denver, Colorado, hosted its third annual Native Fashion in the City, a playful and high-energy fashion show. Seven designers from Native American tribal communities showcased their collections, blending urban street style with their own cultural themes and designs. Sleek pencil skirts, structured dresses with bold geometric designs, slouchy graphic T-shirts, and denim patchwork jackets challenged popular media stereotypes about what Native American art should look like, as well as how Native people should dress and who should model the clothes they design. For years, waiflike, non-Native women adorned in Native-inspired prints and accessories have graced magazine covers and strutted down New York and Paris runways. To add insult to injury, the fashion industry has also largely played on Hollywood depictions of Plains Indians adorned in buckskin and feathers. It has excluded contemporary Native peoples and styles from the mainstream. Native Fashion in the City is attempting to change that by putting Indigenous models into designs made by tribal people. And it’s just one effort in a larger movement among Indigenous artists to highlight, redefine, and reclaim Native art. http://bit.ly/2jnckf1 – Sapiens

Podcast: Archaeology Southwest’s Paul Reed on Monument Designations and Agriculture at Chaco
Archaeologist Paul Reed discusses the recent Presidential proclamation creating Bears Ears National Monument in SE Utah.  Also, a recent controversial study claiming there was no agriculture at Chaco Canyon.  http://bit.ly/2jy9aCI – KSJE.com

KSJE Looks at Crow Canyon’s Pueblo Farming Project
In this episode of the Big Fat Farm Show, host Kellie Pettyjohn visits with Leigh Kuwanwisiwma, Director of the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, about the scientific and cultural topics that are being addressed at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center’s Pueblo Farming Project. http://bit.ly/2jnkDaI – KSJE.com

Book Review:The Lost World of the Old Ones
In The Lost World of the Old Ones, David Roberts merges his considerable experience of hiking in the desert Southwest with three decades of interest in the prehistoric peoples who lived there. His goal is to offer a general audience “the best and most provocative research conducted in the last 20 years by Southwestern archaeologists,” and this engaging narrative weaves together his understanding of the science with his many backcountry expeditions. This new book picks up where his 1996 classic, “In Search of the Old Ones,” left off, further examining how the ancient ones created a civilization in this harsh landscape. http://bit.ly/2jyjzyy – Cortez Journal

Lecture Opportunity – Casa Grande National Monument
On Wednesday January 25^th, at noon, Lauren Kingston, will present Growing Food in the Prehistoric Borderlands: diverse agricultural practices across time and terrain. The talk is based on the historic and prehistoric agricultural practices of the area. Casa Grande Ruins National Monument protects the multi-story Great House and the ruins of other ancient structures built by the people of the Sonoran Desert over 800 years ago.  Established as the nation’s first archeological reserve in 1892, the Ruins sparked the beginning of the archaeological preservation movement in America.  The Monument is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. except for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Directions and additional information are available on the Monument’s website, http://www.nps.gov/cagr, you may call (520) 723-3172, or follow us on Facebook by searching for Casa Grande Ruins National Monument.