Dear Friends,
Last week Archaeology Southwest staff had a glorious 10-hour field trip along the San Pedro River. It was pretty much a perfect day.
Before I head to the Society for American Archaeology’s annual meeting in Chicago this week, I want to share with you another field day from January of this year.
The following words provide context for that journey:
“To be Indigenous is to belong to the land through time and through tradition.”
Those words by Yaqui legal scholar Rebecca Tsosie close out a compelling video about Pee-Posh elder Arnie Bread Sr. Arnie lives in a district of the Gila River Indian Community just a few miles from the junction of the Salt and Gila Rivers.
Arnie knows Pee-Posh history, and both his mother and grandmother were accomplished Pee-Posh (Maricopa) potters. Prior to 1840, Pee-Posh lived farther west along the Gila River, and on that fine January day, Arnie reconnected with some of those ancestral places.
“On and Of the Land,” a short documentary on that visit, is now available on the Respect Great Bend website and YouTube channel.
Arnie’s is just one story related to the Great Bend of the Gila. Explore the Respect Great Bend website to learn more. And there will be more footage of Indigenous perspectives on this significant cultural landscape posted to the website as the campaign to permanently protect it gains momentum.
Until next week,
President & CEO, Archaeology Southwest
Banner image: Cottonwoods over the San Pedro, Skylar Begay
Chaco Protection Zone Comment Period Extended
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is extending the public comment period by 30 days for the proposed Federal mineral withdrawal surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park to allow for additional input on the proposal. The comment period will now end on May 6, 2022. In addition to the comment period extension, two public meetings are scheduled to receive oral comments. Bureau of Land Management (press release) | Learn More >>
The new meetings come following a request by Jerome Lucero, the former governor of Zia Pueblo and the current vice chairman of the All Pueblo Council of Governors, during a February meeting. During that meeting, Lucero emphasized the importance of having the opportunity for Native people to provide spoken comments rather than just written comments. He also asked that there be a meeting in the Rio Grande corridor so that it will be easier for Pueblo people to attend. Hannah Grover in the NM Political Report | Read More >>
Santa Clara Pueblo Enters into Agreement with Bandelier National Monument
Santa Clara Pueblo and Bandelier National Monument have entered into a new agreement that will allow collaboration between the Pueblo and the Monument on a variety of projects in the coming years. Members of Santa Clara and Bandelier staff celebrated the agreement with a signing ceremony Friday at the Santa Claran Hotel in Española. Gov. J. Michael Chavarria of Santa Clara Pueblo and Superintendent Patrick Suddath of Bandelier praised the agreement as a substantial step toward greater partnership between the National Park Service (NPS) and the Tribal Nations that have ancestral and traditional ties to the Monument. Los Alamos Daily Post (NPS announcement) | Read More >>
Continuing Coverage: Haaland Visits Castner Range
Local advocates seeking to protect Castner Range got a boost when Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland visited El Paso Saturday. … U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, and the Castner Range Coalition hosted Haaland on her first visit to El Paso as secretary. Haaland said the Department of the Interior is committed to improving access to nature, especially in communities of color, and supporting local conservation efforts. The Castner Range Coalition calls on President Joe Biden to designate the area as a national monument. “I could feel the rich history and culture that surrounds this community,” Haaland said. Martha Pskowski in the El Paso Times | Read More >>
Watch a short video from the Center for Western Priorities on the cultural and natural values the Castner Range holds >>
Two Pioneering Female Archaeologists
Hannah Marie Wormington and Cynthia Irwin-Williams grew up in a time when women were banned from some anthropology classrooms, yet they forged successful careers and set examples as supportive and inspiring leaders. Stephen E. Nash for SAPIENS | Read More >>
Digital Antiquity at the SAAs
The 87th Annual Society for American Archaeology (SAA) meeting will be starting this week and Digital Antiquity staff will be in attendance, participating in a variety of forums and poster sessions other events in rainy Chicago! Digital Antiquity staff will also be on hand at Exhibit Hall booth #103 throughout the week, so be sure to stop by with any tDAR or digital curation related questions, learn more about the SAA/Center for Digital Antiquity Good Digital Curation Agreement, enroll in our raffles to win some great prizes, or just stop by to say hi! Digital Antiquity | Learn More >>
Video: On and Of the Land
Pee-Posh elder Arnie Bread Sr. and his family spend a day exploring part of his ancestors’ traditional homelands in the Great Bend of the Gila (6:48). Respect Great Bend | Watch Now >>
Video: Hidden Cities, Ancient Pueblos
With Steve Lekson. Two millennia before Chaco Canyon, some of the earliest monuments in the Americas were constructed in the lower Mississippi valley. Monumental earthworks – pyramids, platforms, effigies, enclosures – continued to be built from 1000 BCE right up to the arrival of the Spanish, from Iowa to the tip of Florida. Some were enormous: Pyramids as large as almost anything in Mexico. Many are mysterious: serpent effigies, geometric enclosures large enough to surround a modern golf course. This talk will compare monumental building in the ancient Southeast and Southwest – particularly in light of differing regional traditions in their archaeological study. Hisatsinom Chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society and Crow Canyon Archaeological Center | Watch Now >>
Publication Announcement: Policy Implications of the Apache Nation’s 1852 Treaty
John R. Welch (2022), “United States shall so legislate and act as to secure the permanent prosperity and happiness of said Indians”: Policy Implications of the Apache Nation’s 1852 Treaty, International Indigenous Policy Journal 12(4). Download Now (open access) >>
REMINDER: March 31 Webinar: Diné/Navajo Resistance to US Indian Commissioner John Collier’s Livestock Reduction Program, 1939–1959
With Jennifer Denetdale. This presentation examines sociologist Solon Kimball’s reports on Navajos in conversation with Milton Snow’s in the aftermath of the livestock reduction in the 1930s and into the 1940s. US Indian Commission John Collier intended to rehabilitate Navajo land by offering Navajos the beneficent of Western technical and agricultural knowledge to improve the land and to revitalize the economy, which had been heavily dependent on livestock raising. This presentation showcases how investigations such as Kimball’s worked in tandem with Snow’s photographs to justify US intrusions to remake Navajo life. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center | More Information and Zoom Registration >>
REMINDER: April 5 Webinar: A Rafter of Burials
Rachel Burger (Logan Simpson) will discuss “A Rafter of Burials: Sapa’owingeh Turkey Interments.” Rachel will describe a room at Sapa’owingeh pueblo that was dedicated to the disposal of turkey remains and share what this room reveals about Tewa social institutions and practices at the village during the Classic period. Archaeology Café (Archaeology Southwest) | More Information and Zoom Registration >>
April 7 Webinar: The House of the Cylinder Jars: Room 28 in Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon
With Patricia Crown. In 1896, excavations in Room 28 in Pueblo Bonito made several extraordinary finds: 173 whole ceramic vessels, including 112 Chacoan cylinder jars, as well as hundreds of ornaments and copper objects. After discovering residues of cacao in cylinder jars in 2009, Dr. Crown supervised the re-excavation of Room 28 in 2013 to examine the stratigraphy, collect datable materials, and determine when and why the room burned. In this talk, Patricia will describe the results of this re-excavation, which helps us understand how the jars were used in the cacao-drinking ritual and why the room was set on fire. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center | More Information and Zoom Registration >>
April 8 Webinar: The Southwest North American Region—A Political Ecology of Cultures and Hegemonies
You are cordially invited to attend the inaugural Bazy Tankersley Southwest Laureate Lecture, to be given by Dr. Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez, Regents Professor and Founding Director Emeritus of the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University. The Southwest North American Region is an intricate weave of peoples, places, and cultures. Trade and the struggle for control of the region’s economy, lands and waters have profoundly marked its historical geography from the Prehispanic period to the present. Vélez-Ibáñez will offer an in-depth analysis of these processes, drawing on the insights of his nearly 50-year career in cultural anthropology and as a native of the México-US Borderlands. Southwest Center (University of Arizona) | More Information and Zoom Registration >>
Job Opportunity, National Wildlife Refuge System, Sherwood OR
This position is an Archeologist, GS-0193-11, working in Sherwood, Oregon for the Region 1, National Wildlife Refuge System’s Cultural Resources Branch. Department of the Interior, US Fish and Wildlife Service (USAJOBS) | Learn More >>
Remember to send us notice of upcoming webinars and Zoom lectures, tours and workshops, and anything else you’d like to share with the friends.