Indigenous Art Exhibition at Yale Challenges History and Perception

Indigenous Art Exhibition at Yale Challenges History and Perception
“Place, Nations, Generations, Beings,” a somber and moving display of two centuries’ worth of Native American artworks at the Yale University Art Gallery, comes with a conventional list of acknowledgments plus an unconventional headliner: Its three curators, two of them indigenous, took care to thank the show’s 92 objects first: “Thank you,” they write, in an accompanying book, “for allowing us to visit with you, hold you, and speak to you. Thank you for teaching us.” Unconventional, that is, to anyone but an indigenous person, for whom the pieces are infused with a spirit of creation, conferring on them a life as real as our own. Museum makers — white, settler, European-descended — always saw art as something to be admired and protected, not to be touched. They — native, constant, deeply tied to the land — make art to be used, handled, and held, every object with a purpose, honored as living things. http://bit.ly/3atrZS5 – Boston Globe

National Register Declines Nomination Comprising 199 Rock Art Sites near Moab, Utah
The project culminated with the submission of a massive packet of material — nominating 199 sites on about 180,000 acres of public land for listing on the National Register of Historic Places — to the National Park Service last March. After initially approving the petition, which placed all the sites under a single listing, the service’s Keeper of the National Register withdrew the nomination, potentially squandering thousands of hours of hard field work by volunteers organized by the Bakers and the Bureau of Land Management. To organize the nomination, the BLM relied on a streamlined “multiple property” process that it had successfully used to put hundreds of sites along Utah’s famed Nine Mile Canyon in Carbon and Duchesne counties under group listings in 2012 and 2014, according to Josh Loftin, spokesman for the Utah Department of Heritage and Arts. But with recent changes in leadership, the park service wants the sites documented differently in a kind of bureaucratic bait and switch that could delay the sites’ listing for years. http://bit.ly/2RE8RIz – Salt Lake Tribune

Bears Ears National Monument Advisory Committee to Meet February 25, 26
The Bureau of Land Management Monticello Field Office will host the second Bears Ears National Monument Advisory Committee meeting from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 25, and from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 26 at the Hideout Community Center, 648 S. Hideout Way in Monticello. Agenda items for the meeting include reviewing the Bears Ears National Monument Management Approved Plans and Record of Decision, identifying and discussing next steps for implementation-level planning, seeking MAC input and recommendations on implementation-level plans, and other issues as appropriate. The public is welcome to attend and observe the meeting and will be given an opportunity to address the MAC each day. http://bit.ly/2NLOIis – Moab Times-Independent

Shaine Gans Takes Helm at Southwest Colorado Canyons Alliance
A local archaeologist and educator has been named executive director of Southwest Colorado Canyons Alliance. Shaine Gans will lead the nonprofit, which focuses on environmental work, education and archaeological stewardship as a friends group for Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. https://the-journal.com/articles/164940 – The Journal

Webinar Opportunity, Crow Canyon Archaeological Center
Tune in Friday, January 24, at 6:00 p.m. (MST), as we host a live webinar featuring Dr. Kyle Bocinsky, Director of the Research Institute at Crow Canyon. Join us for an engaging conversation about shifting climates and their impact on Southwestern cultures, past, present, and future. Follow the link to register. https://4454pp.blackbaudhosting.com/4454pp/Climate-and-Culture-Online-Seminar

Job Opportunity, Cochise College, Sierra Vista AZ
The Instructor of Anthropology/Archaeology is responsible for the instruction of courses in the areas of Anthropology, Archaeology and related courses for majors and non-majors district-wide. Full time faculty members are professional educators with the primary responsibility of providing a quality instruction for a diverse student population and performing instructional duties and responsibilities in accordance with the philosophy, mission, policies and procedures of the college. http://bit.ly/2TKkPTz

Training Opportunity, Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project, Alcalde NM
Are you interested in archaeology, petroglyphs, history, and hiking? Join the MPPP volunteer docent program! Our tour program brings over 1,000 visitors a year from all around the country to the Wells Petroglyph Preserve on Mesa Prieta, a 181-acre preserve containing over 10,000 petroglyphs! Come to our docent training on March 20. https://www.mesaprietapetroglyphs.org/docent-training.html

Tour Opportunity, Ventana Cave, Southern AZ
Excavations directed by archaeologists Emil Haury and Julian Hayden at Ventana Cave on the Tohono O’odham Nation uncovered evidence for about 10,000 years of human occupation, including cave paintings. Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s February 15 “Rock Art and Archaeology of Ventana Cave” car-caravan tour departs from Tucson at 6 a.m. and from Eloy at 7 a.m. Reservations and $45 donation prepayment due by 5 p.m. February 12: 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org. http://bit.ly/30HJytf

Tour Opportunity, Crow Canyon Archaeological Center
Guided by Zuni tribal member and archaeologist Dan Simplicio and bird mentor Kristi Dranginis, we’ll immerse ourselves in Zuni cosmology and the secret knowledge of birds. These perspectives reflect a sophisticated level of knowledge and practice that predate modern management systems and contribute to our understanding of the world around us. Group size is limited to 14! Program is based out of the Sunrise Springs Resort in Santa Fe, NM; May 12–18, 2020. Cost varies by occupancy. Register online or contact us at 800-422-8975, ext. 457; travel@crowcanyon.org. https://www.crowcanyon.org/index.php/2020-travel-seminars/birds-of-the-pueblo-world

Lecture Opportunity, Santa Fe NM
Southwest Seminars Presents Jack Loeffler, Bioregional Aural Historian, Producer, Writer, Sound Collage Artist and Musician; Recipient, New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts; Author, Adventures With Ed: A Portrait of Abbey; Survival Along the Continental Divide; Healing the West: Voices of Culture and Habitat; Musica de los Viejitos; Headed Upstream: Interviews with Iconoclasts; and Headed Into the Wind: A Memoir; ‘With the temperament of Santa Claus and the tenacity of a Badger, Jack reveals his compassion and concern for Southwestern traditional cultures and their respective habitats in the wake of Manifest Destiny’. Jack will look back on his remarkable life and work on January 27 at 6:00 p.m. at Hotel Santa Fe. Admission for this public talk is by subscription or $15 at the door. No reservations are necessary. Refreshments are served. Seating is limited. Contact Connie Eichstaedt, tel: 505 366-2775; email: southwesteminar@aol.com; website: southwestseminars.org

Lecture Opportunity, Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, Coolidge AZ
On January 29, Casa Grande Ruins will host Madeleine Ostwald for a lecture titled “Native Bees of the Sonoran Desert.” The program begins at noon in the Casa Grande Ruins visitor center theater at 1100 W Ruins Drive. https://www.nps.gov/cagr/index.htm

Lecture Opportunity, Phoenix AZ
On February 11, at 7:00 p.m., please join us for a presentation on “The Gila: River of History” by Gregory McNamee, author of Gila: The Life and Death of an American River. He will present a biography of this vital resource from its birth 70 million years ago to the present, drawing on many sources including Native American stories, pioneer memoirs, and the writings of modern naturalists. Pueblo Grande Museum, 4619 E. Washington Street. https://www.azarchsoc.org/phoenix

Lecture Opportunity, Tucson AZ
Anthropologist Elizabeth Eklund presents “Living with the Canals: Water, Ecology, and Cultural Memory in Banámichi, Sonora” for Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s February 20, 6-8:30 p.m. Third Thursday Food for Thought dinner at Karichimaka Restaurant, 5252 S Mission Rd, Tucson. Banámichi’s canal system modernized after 1930 may have been derived from ancient people’s irrigation works as suggested by a petroglyph boulder that may depict Ópata Indian canals and fields. No entry fee. Guests may purchase their own dinners. Reservations required by 5 p.m. February 19: 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo. http://bit.ly/38tWoOk

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