Ceremonial Shield Will Return to Acoma Pueblo

Ceremonial Shield Will Return to Acoma Pueblo
A sacred ceremonial shield will be returned to the Pueblo of Acoma following a settlement agreement filed Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court. The settlement orders the EVE Auction House in Paris, France, to release the shield into U.S. custody at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, where a federal law enforcement agent will take custody of the sacred object and transport it to the Bureau of Indian Affairs evidence room in Albuquerque. “The Pueblo of Acoma has waited years for the return of the Shield after successfully halting its sale at auction,” Acoma Pueblo Gov. Brian D. Vallo said Friday in a statement. “The Shield is integral to the cultural sustainability of the Acoma people and is a significant item of our cultural patrimony.” http://bit.ly/2LpRaMf – Albuquerque Journal

TODAY, July 17, Live Podcast with Chaco Scholar Paul Reed
Join the Center for Western Priorities in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for a live podcast recording at the Second Street Brewery Rufina Taproom at 2920 Rufina Street from 4:15-5:30pm MT on Wednesday, July 17th. There will be opportunity before and after the recording to meet and mingle with other guests. Panelists include Stephanie Garcia Richard, New Mexico Land Commissioner; Todd Leahy, Deputy Director of New Mexico Energy and Natural Resources; and Paul Reed, Preservation Archaeologist, Archaeology Southwest. We look forward to an engaging conversation on the importance of public lands to New Mexico and how to balance the oil and gas boom in the Permian basin with other priorities, including permanent protection for the Greater Chaco region. http://bit.ly/2Sl6pXf – Center for Western Priorities

Podcast: The Fight for Public Lands in Utah
“Every conservation battle has to be fought over and over again,” says Stephen Trimble. Right now, environmental activists in Utah are working to restore full protections to two national monuments, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, both of which have been massively reduced by the Trump administration. For today’s episode, we learn about the Native history of this area and the ongoing fight for Utah’s public lands with Stephen Trimble, Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, and Alastair Bitsoi, all contributors to the collected volume Red Rock Stories: Three Generations of Writers Speak on Behalf of Utah’s Public Lands, which was originally delivered as a chapbook to members of Congress. http://bit.ly/2SkeOKB – A Very Public Affair on WORT 89.9FM

Alleged Misconduct at a New Mexico BLM Field Office
In early fall 2017, two Bureau of Land Management archaeologists drove to a Chevron oil and gas site in the dry grasslands of southeast New Mexico. The oil company had damaged a Native American archaeological site, and they needed to assess the situation. What they found raised thorny questions about what’s happening on the ground — out of the public eye and inside the BLM, an agency tasked with managing 245 million acres of land for the American public’s benefit. http://bit.ly/2LoZfk9 – High Country News

BLM Headquarters to Move to Colorado
Grand Junction will be the new home of the Bureau of Land Management’s national headquarters, an excited U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner told the Daily Sentinel in a phone interview this afternoon. “I’ve been informed and it will be made official tomorrow that the BLM headquarters is moving to Grand Junction,” said Gardner, R-Colo. “This is incredible news and it is historic. It’s historic for Grand Junction and Colorado and this is going to result in significantly better land management decisions. But the bottom line is this is fantastic news for Grand Junction and Colorado.” http://bit.ly/2lCcaDD – Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

Groups Call for Closer and Longer Review of Greater Chaco Drilling Permits
Environmental groups and Navajo government officials are criticizing the U.S. Bureau of Land Management over the bureau’s handling of oil and gas leases approved in the Greater Chaco area. Navajo leaders and 16 tribal and environmental organizations addressed their concerns in a letter sent to BLM’s New Mexico state director Tim Spisak last week calling for more public hearings on the issue. “We urge you to reject the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Findings of No Significant Impact and Environmental Assessments,” the letter reads. http://bit.ly/2lBPVOa – NM Political Report

Profile of Bruce Babbitt
During eight years as secretary of the Interior under President Bill Clinton, and previously as Arizona’s governor, Babbitt distinguished himself as a Democratic politician who skillfully navigated environmental debates and prioritized the conservation of wildlands, streams and wildlife. He participated in the creation of 19 new national monuments, from Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah to Giant Sequoia in California, as well as five monuments in Arizona. http://bit.ly/2Sjrhyn – azcentral.com (Arizona Republic)

Tohono O’odham Saguaro Harvesting
Tanisha Tucker has a lot of work to do before the monsoons start. Tucker, a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation, carries on the ancient custom of plucking the fruit from the giant saguaro cactus, but she must work quickly. Once the rains soak the land, the harvest season is over. Tucker explains how she carries on despite the passing of her great-great-aunt, Juanita Ahil, and her mother, Stella. Stella Tucker, who passed away early this year, was well-known in the community for educating the public about the saguaro harvest. http://bit.ly/2LpRQ4e – tucson.com (Arizona Daily Star)

Blog: Early Agricultural Period Ceramic Figurines
The excavations at these Early Agricultural period sites [in the Tucson vicinity of the Santa Cruz River valley] have led to a revolution in our understanding of the area’s prehistory. Material culture studies have revealed new information on a variety of artifacts, including ground stone cruciforms and an unusual cache of artifacts found in a Late Cienega phase (400 BC-AD 150) pithouse at Los Pozos. Our work along the river has also turned up a number of low-fired (baked at a low temperature) ceramic figurines. Recently, I have studied the figurines found at the Early Cienega phase (800-400 BC) Clearwater and Wetland Sites, and compared them to ones found at San Pedro phase sites and individual features along the river, including at Las Capas, Los Pozos, and the Dairy Site. https://desert.com/figurines/ – James Heidke at the Field Journal blog

New Study Considers Food Scarcity in Chaco Canyon
Today, Chaco Canyon receives only about nine inches of rain every year, and historical data from tree rings suggest that the climate wasn’t much wetter in the past. Benson, a retired geochemist and paleoclimatologist who spent most of his career working for the U.S. Geological Survey, set out to better understand if such conditions might have limited how many people could live in the canyon. In the recent study, he and Ohio State University archaeologist Deanna Grimstead pulled together a wide range of data to explore where Chaco Canyon residents might, conceivably, have grown maize, a staple food for most ancestral Pueblo peoples. http://bit.ly/2Sha7Bo – University of Colorado Boulder

Publication Announcement: Communities and Households in the Greater American Southwest
Communities and Households in the Greater American Southwest: New Perspectives and Case Studies, edited by Robert J. Stokes. University Press of Colorado. http://bit.ly/2LoBaKt

Publication Announcement: Cultural Resource Management in the Great Basin, 1986–2016
Cultural Resource Management in the Great Basin, 1986–2016, edited by Alice M. Baldrica, Patricia A. DeBunch, and Don D. Fowler. University of Utah Anthropological Paper No. 131. The University of Utah Press. http://bit.ly/2LoExRn

In Memoriam: Tony Lutonsky, New Mexico Archaeologist
In 1972, Tony moved to Albuquerque to attend the University of New Mexico. He received his degree in Archaeology and would go on to work for the Bureau of Land Management as Rio Puerco Archaeologist, retiring in 2002. Following retirement, Tony led a volunteer archaeology group for 20 years, which he thoroughly enjoyed. http://bit.ly/2LnkJhr – Albuquerque Journal

In Memoriam: Dr. Garon Coriz, Vocal Advocate for Bears Ears
A local man who recently returned to New Mexico to serve as a doctor on Kewa Pueblo died early Saturday in a rock climbing accident in the Sandia Mountains. Dr. Garon Coriz, 33, was an avid rock climber who scaled peaks around the world and was an outspoken Indian rights advocate for causes, including the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. http://bit.ly/2LnXjZ9 – Albuquerque Journal

Lecture Opportunity, Santa Fe NM
Southwest Seminars Presents Dr. Myrriah Gomez, Assistant Professor, Honors College and Former Assistant Professor of English, University of New Mexico; Recipient, Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship and UNM Faculty of Color Award for Teaching; Author, Nuclear Nuevo México: Identity, Ethnicity, and Resistance in Atomic Third Spaces (in progress), who will give a lecture “Legacy of Aztlan” on July 22 at 6:00 p.m. at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the Voices From the Past Lecture Series held annually. Admission is by subscription or $15 at the door. No reservations are necessary. Refreshments are served. Seating is limited. Contact Connie Eichstaedt at tel: 505 366-2775; email: southwestseminar@aol.com; web: southwestseminars.org

Lecture Opportunity, Cortez CO
As a part of the Four Corners Lecture Series, the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center and the Hisatsinom Chapter of the Colorado Archaeology Society are pleased to present Dr. Jim Allison on Tuesday, July 23, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, to discuss “Coal Bed Village and the Archaeology of Montezuma Canyon.” In this talk, Jim discusses the history of archaeology in Montezuma Canyon, Utah, and the current BYU archaeological field school excavations at the Coal Bed Village site. Contact Kari Schleher at 505-269-4475 with questions.

Reminder: Rumble on the Rim July 27
Though 2019 marks the Grand Canyon’s centennial as a national park, it has been home to indigenous people for millennia. Branching off from his annual Rumble on the Mountain held in Flagstaff, Tewa/Hopi musician and event organizer Ed Kabotie is bringing a variety of speakers and performers to Grand Canyon National Park’s Shrine of the Ages from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. July 27. The event is free and open to both visitors and residents at the park. The event will combine presentations and performances that collectively tell an indigenous history of Grand Canyon. “The purpose of all Rumble events is to raise awareness of the plight of the people and lands of the Colorado Plateau.” Kabotie said. http://bit.ly/2LpN0UC – Grand Canyon News

Thank you to Jasmine Kidwell for contributing to today’s edition.

We’re happy to help get the word out, but we’re not mind readers! Please submit news, book announcements, and events at this link for consideration: https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/submit-to-sat/

Questions? sat-editor@archaeologysouthwest.org