Interior Rescinds Science Policy for National Parks

Interior Rescinds Science Policy for National Parks
As deputy director of the National Park Service, Michael Reynolds played a key role in developing a sweeping new vision for managing national parks. The new policy, enacted in the final weeks of the Obama administration, elevated the role that science played in decision-making and emphasized that parks should take precautionary steps to protect natural and historic treasures. http://bit.ly/2LLKU1I — Reveal/Center for Investigative Reporting

Rep. Grijalva Introduces Bill to Protect Great Bend of the Gila as a National Monument
Congressman Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ) today reintroduced legislation in the House of Representatives seeking national monument designation for a remarkable cultural landscape known as the Great Bend of the Gila, an 80-mile stretch of the lower Gila River spanning southern Arizona’s Maricopa and Yuma counties. Archaeology Southwest, an Arizona-based nonprofit whose headquarters are located in Representative Grijalva’s district, has been working in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, 11 tribes, and local communities to promote this national monument proposal. http://bit.ly/2O3lGIX — Archaeology Southwest

Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva today introduced a set of bills designed to promote Arizona public land conservation, including the Great Bend of the Gila National Monument Act to designate a national monument on approximately 85,000 acres of federal land in Southern Arizona. The monument will be managed as part of the Bureau of Land Management’s National Conservation Lands. The area identified by the bill is filled with cultural and historical resources, including many sites considered sacred to area Native American tribes. Important archaeological remains, including petroglyphs and rock art of Hohokam, Patayan and Mimbres origin, run along the Gila River. http://bit.ly/2NZz9BK — Democrats-naturalresources.house.gov

New Bill Offers Stiffer Penalties for NAGPRA Violations—by Archaeologists
“No one is above the law, especially researchers and professors who rely on federal funding,” said Congressman Todd Rokita. “I have introduced legislation that would hold liberal academics accountable to tribes when they violate federal laws pertaining to Native American graves and funerary objects. It is imperative that we respect the rich history of the Native American culture, which is uniquely American, and give tribes and their deceased the respect they deserve.” http://bit.ly/2LINGVM — Rokita.house.gov

Track the bill: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr6647

UC Berkeley’s Hearst Museum Faces Criticism over Slow NAGPRA Compliance
The remains of thousands of Native Americans, along with possessions such as beads and fishhooks buried with them, now sit in drawers and boxes at University of California museums. Federal and state laws require their return to tribes able to prove a connection to them. Some tribes accuse university officials of delaying so professors can continue to study the bones, and are pushing state legislation to force UC to speed its efforts. http://bit.ly/2vaJUde — Ventura County Star

Leases to Open near Chaco Culture National Historical Park
Pieces of the more than 98,000 acres the federal government announced this month it will put up for lease in December are within that 10-mile buffer zone the bill would create. Environmentalists argue the Bureau of Land Management, which owns the properties, has not completed studies of how oil and gas drilling would impact the area. http://bit.ly/2LGv1tz — Santa Fe New Mexican

Half-Million Acres in Utah to Open to Leasing
Many parcels to be auctioned were drawn from a huge backlog of lands that industry had “nominated” for leasing but were tabled by the Obama administration’s Interior Department while it was developing “master leasing” plans for several Utah landscapes, where hydrocarbon deposits overlapped with public lands that held strong wildlife, archaeological and recreational values. http://bit.ly/2LMWpX3 — Salt Lake Tribune

Drilling near Canyonlands
In the latest rushed oil and gas leasing process that favors development over national park protection, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning to include 158,944 acres of land near Canyonlands National Park in their September oil and gas lease sale. The BLM’s inadequate 10-day protest period ends August 6 for the proposed sale, which includes nearly 109 parcels including some within the viewshed and immediate proximity to the Horseshoe Canyon unit of Canyonlands. http://bit.ly/2v9cdJ3 — National Parks Conservation Association

Commentary: Why We Need the Antiquities Act
Rep. Tipton also implied that many monument designations are “politically motivated” to exclude “responsible” energy development in these areas.  Actually, the reverse is true. The extraction industries are destructive enterprises no matter how responsible they try to be. This is precisely why the Antiquities Act of 1906 was enacted. http://bit.ly/2v7LNaC — Steamboat Pilot & Today

Commentary: Monuments Review Was a Sham
They show Zinke’s team dismissed data from his own Bureau of Land Management staff showing that monument protections had safeguarded archeological treasures and boosted tourism. Zinke ignored science, economics and millions of public comments on his way to implementing the largest rollback of public lands protections in the nation’s history. http://bit.ly/2LJxcN7 — The Hill

Commentaries: Senator Mike Lee Aims to Give away Public Lands
A thousand years from now people will yearn for nature, beauty, open space, and public lands. Let us not deny them these most important aspects of quality of life by falling for Lee’s misguided quest to take lands from the people of the United States and give them to his wealthy backers. http://bit.ly/2LIvtHz — The Hill

Lee is among those who today argue that all that land should have been turned over to the states. Actually, the passages of relevant laws he misquotes or misapplies were about selling the land to private interests, and giving each state a cut of the profits. But Lee is probably hesitant to say that because such a sell-off would much more clearly be for the purpose of carving up, digging up and fencing off millions of acres. http://bit.ly/2v84XNt — Salt Lake Tribune

Restaurateurs Defend Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Lost in the headlines about the proposed changes to Utah’s public lands are small players like Spalding and Castle, who both support and have been supported by the monument, building a culturally significant business in the harsh high desert. https://n.pr/2v9fJmS — NPR

For those of us fortunate enough to live in southern Utah, landscapes such as the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument are our backyards. We live and work in a storied place, a place that people travel the world over just to experience. But under President Donald Trump’s proclamation last December, the Grand Staircase is only about half the size it once was. http://bit.ly/2vqcbMb — Salt Lake Tribune

History Lesson: Keeping Artifacts Local
People have loved this land for countless summers before this one. So let us visit one of these summers past. Specifically, let us visit the base of Mt. Elden in 1926, where Jesse Walter Fewkes and 12 hired men hurriedly excavated the Elden Pueblo archaeological site. http://bit.ly/2v60g7c — Arizona Daily Sun

Book Announcement — A Study of Southwestern Archaeology
A Study of Southwestern Archaeology. By Stephen H. Lekson. http://bit.ly/2LHJcOU — University of Utah Press

Job Opportunity — Grand Canyon Trust
The Ancestral Lands Program manager is responsible for helping to envision and implement various aspects of the Grand Canyon Trust’s Utah Wildlands and Native America programs, with an emphasis on defending Bears Ears and Grand Staircase national monuments and developing and expanding campaigns to protect indigenous ancestral public lands on the Colorado Plateau. The position requires a diverse mix of advocacy, policy, communications, political, and interpersonal skills. The selected candidate will be an integral and critical part of this groundbreaking work, and will serve as an equal thought leader alongside primary colleagues within the Grand Canyon Trust. Though this position requires someone who is a high-level thinker, the selected candidate must also execute and follow through on ideas on the ground and in the office. http://bit.ly/2v5oo9O

Lecture Opportunity, Santa Fe NM
Southwest Seminars Presents Melanie Yazzie (Dine’), Professor and Head of Printmaking, Department of Art & Art History, University of Colorado-Boulder who will give a presentation On Being a Contemporary Native American Artist at 6pm on August 6 at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the annual Native Culture Matters Lecture Series. Melanie is a painter, sculptor, printmaker and storyteller and currently has a show Memory Weaving at Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe. Admission is by subscription or $15 at the door. No reservations are necessary. Refreshments are served. Seating is limited. Contact Connie Eichstaedt tel: 505 466-2775; email: southwestseminar@aol.com; website: southwestseminars.org

Lecture Opportunity, Albuquerque NM
Join William H. Doelle, President and CEO of Archaeology Southwest, for a presentation entitled Pursuing a Better Future for Bears Ears National Monument on Wednesday, August 22, 7:00 p.m., at St. Michael and All Angels Church, 601 Montano Road NW, Albuquerque. Dr. Doelle will discuss some of the issues surrounding the beleaguered Bears Ears National Monument and share video presentations from Willie Grayeyes, Utah Diné Bikéyah, and Octavius Seowtewa, Pueblo of Zuni. http://bit.ly/2LM3Hdm

Editor’s Note: As we went to press, we learned that archaeologist George Cowgill has passed away. Dr. Cowgill was professor emeritus at Arizona State University. We will share more information as it becomes available. Meanwhile, here is a link to Dr. Cowgill’s website about his research: http://bit.ly/2NYyTCO.

Please submit news, book announcements, and events at this link: https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/submit-to-sat/

Questions? sat-editor@archaeologysouthwest.org