Dear Friends,
The Cooper’s Hawk—whose silent but powerful blow to the back of my head I described here last week—has not gotten much friendlier. Being a “friend of birds” at heart, I have become aggressively defensive.
I enclose a photo of my protective gear: a hard hat—with enhanced eyes on the back—and my Osprey backpack with a shiny pie pan taped to it. And I carry a fast-open umbrella.
Thus far, we each doubt the other’s sanity, but we are both still alive. (Who knew how crazy life could get…?)
Returning to the world of sane birds, on Tuesday (yesterday), the proofs of the avian archaeology edition of Archaeology Southwest Magazine were approved for printing. I saw the proofs, and they were beautiful. The team of guest editors, contributors, and our content editor and designer have truly outdone themselves.
An important item in today’s newsletter is the position announcement for an Executive Director to lead the Santa Cruz Valley Heritage Alliance. Beginning in 2003, Archaeology Southwest played a strong supporting role in the team advocating for the establishment of the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area (SCVNHA), which was approved by Congress in 2019. The Alliance is the local coordinating entity for the SCVNHA, which “honors and celebrates the natural environment, cultural traditions, historic places, and working landscapes of the watershed of the Santa Cruz River in Pima and Santa Cruz counties in southern Arizona.”
Until next week. Stay well and watch the skies above you—at all times!
President & CEO, Archaeology Southwest
Banner image: Work is underway on the second room of the Preservation Archaeology Field School’s replica adobe room block.
Register Now for the 2022 Pecos Conference
August 11–14 at Rowe Mesa NM. Each August, archaeologists gather under open skies somewhere in the southwestern United States or northwestern Mexico. We set up a large tent for shade, and then spend three or more days together discussing recent research, problems of the field, and the challenges of the profession. The Pecos Conference is open to all and remains an important and superlative opportunity for students to meet with professional archaeologists on an informal basis to learn about the profession, gain access to resources and to new research opportunities, and to test new methods and theories related to archaeology. This year’s conference is subject to cancellation due to worsening fire or COVID-19 conditions. If cancelled, registration will be refunded (excluding the transaction fee). Pecos Conference Committee 2022 | Learn More and Register >>
Position Announcement: Executive Director, Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area
The Executive Director is the key leader and manager of Santa Cruz Valley Heritage Alliance, Inc., which is the local coordinating entity for the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area, designated in 2019. The current annual budget is approximately $300,000 with anticipated growth in the next two years. The Executive Director is responsible for implementing the strategic priorities of the board of directors and managing the day-to-day operations of the organization. Responsibilities include developing and managing programs in accordance with annual National Park Service task agreements and other grant contracts, coordinating implementation of the management plan, organizing monthly board meetings and trainings, coordinating with the Treasurer on monthly bookkeeping and financial reports, developing annual budgets, coordinating fundraising efforts, and increasing public awareness of the organization and the NHA. Santa Cruz Valley Heritage Alliance | Learn More >>
June 15 Webinar: National Heritage Areas: Past, Present, Future
Join the Living Landscape Observer for a conversation with Alan Spears, Senior Director of Cultural Resources in the Government Affairs department of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), and Sara Capen, Executive Director of the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area. The program will explore what makes the National Heritage Area model unique and how its emphasis on partnerships and collaboration can inform the future of preservation and conservation. Living Landscape Observer and the George Wright Society | More Information and Zoom Registration >>
BLM to Host Public Meeting with the Bears Ears Monument Advisory Committee
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Monticello Field Office and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Manti-La Sal National Forest will host a virtual public meeting of the Bears Ears National Monument Advisory Committee on June 29 and 30, 2022, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. During the meeting, the committee will discuss and provide input on Bears Ears National Monument management. Planned agenda items include an overview of the upcoming planning efforts, specifically resource conditions and trends, uses, activities and preliminary alternative management strategies in the Bears Ears National Monument. The Bears Ears National Monument Advisory Committee is a citizen-based committee consisting of up to 15 members representing interests in the local community and monument values. Registration is required. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management | Learn More >>
Video: HCN Live! Lessons from Bears Ears
Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk joined High Country News to talk about what was learned from the tug-of-war over the Bears Ears region in Southern Utah. A former chairwoman of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Lopez-Whiteskunk has been a forceful advocate for protecting Bears Ears and is an expert on how tribes and land management agencies can work together to heal Western landscapes. High Country News | Watch Now >>
New Protections for Sacred Lands surrounding Mount Taylor
The more than 84 square miles (218 square kilometers) includes grassland, rugged mesas and part of the Mount Taylor Traditional Cultural Property, which is on the state register of historic places due to its significance to Native Americans in New Mexico and Arizona. Generations before the ranch became privately owned, people from surrounding Native American communities would make pilgrimages to the area and its timber, wildlife and plants provided sustenance beyond the ceremonial ties. The dormant volcano, now covered with ponderosa pine and other trees, also served as a lookout with notable lines of sight to distant mountain ranges to the east. Tribal leaders say some of the pilgrimage trails are still evident. Susan Montoya Bryan in the Washington Post | Read More >>
Tree Rings and Megadroughts
Recently, with the increasing intensity of anthropogenic climate change, the topic garnering more of my attention is dendroclimatology. This fascinating science uses tree rings to reconstruct ancient precipitation, temperature, and other climatic variables. Unlike various instruments for tracking weather, tree rings provide researchers with a record going back hundreds or even thousands of years. That is why tree rings make me nervous: The long-term picture these markers paint about megadroughts and climate change in the western U.S., where I live, is deeply troubling. Stephen E. Nash for SAPIENS | Read More >>
Podcast: Traditional Knowledge and Climate Change
Science Moab talks with Ann Marie Chischilly, Executive Director at the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP). In addition to the advocacy work she does at the national and international level, Chischilly works with ITEP to address climate change in Tribal communities and works in academia to Indigenize higher education. Science Moab | Listen Now >>
A transcript is also available at that link.
Podcast: Protecting the Sonoran Desert
Brian Powell, currently a Parks Superintendent with Pima County’s Natural Resource, Parks and Recreation Department, has spent the past two decades working to understand and protect biodiversity in the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona. In 2007, he was tapped by Maeveen Behan to develop a biological monitoring program for Pima County. In this interview, Powell describes efforts leading to the county’s innovative approach to preserving open space, starting in the late 1990s—the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. This was a time of fast-paced housing development, particularly on Tucson’s northwest side, and environmentalists were pushing for stronger controls on growth. This interview is the first in a two-part series focusing on conservation in Southern Arizona. Journal of the Southwest Radio | Listen Now >>
Video: The Elk Ridge Community in the Mimbres Pueblo World
In this May 19 presentation, Professor Barbara Roth discussed data from archaeological fieldwork she directed at Elk Ridge and surrounding sites. She explored how and why Elk Ridge played such a prominent role in the northern Mimbres Valley, factors which probably included irrigation agriculture and raising of turkeys for their feathers. Third Thursday Food for Thought (Old Pueblo Archaeology Center ) | Watch Now >>
Video: Millennium on the Meridian
Steve Lekson: In this May 23 presentation, I shared my research published in a study linking the sequential Southwestern U.S. capitals of Chaco Canyon (850–1125), Aztec Ruins (1110–1280), and Paquime (Casas Grandes, 1250-1450), along a north-south alignment, or the “Chaco Meridian.” Subsequent research extends the importance of the Meridian back to 500 CE and forward to 1600 CE: for the six archaeological periods in that 1100-year span, the largest and more important sites for each period were located on or very near that north-south line. What does that mean? In 2015, I published an expanded “Chaco Meridian” that attempted to answer that question. Aztlander | Watch Now >>
Dispatches from the Preservation Archaeology Field School
Karen Schollmeyer (Director), They’re Baaaack, 2022 Edition >>
Avy Henrikson (University of Evansville), The First Three Days >>
Stephan Wallace (University of Texas at El Paso), Unit 463 >>
Ian Youth (Washington University in St. Louis), 50 Acres in Two Days >>
Elie Stenson (Case Western Reserve University), Melodies, Harmonies, and Community >>
In-Person Events with the Preservation Archaeology Field School (Cliff NM)
June 9: Gary Huckleberry, The Value of Geoarchaeology in Studying the Past >>
June 15: Ashleigh Thompson, Save History: The Importance of Protecting Archaeological Sites from Looting and Vandalism >>
June 20: Ben Pelletier, Migration, Exchange, and the Movement of Redware Technology >>
June 25: 2022 Student Archaeology Fair >>
New Book Honors Life and Work of Linda Cordell
Linda S. Cordell: Innovating Southwest Archaeology, published by the Museum of New Mexico Press, pays tribute to Linda Cordell’s research and work which contributed to a greater understanding of Ancestral Pueblo life in the Southwest. Contributors to this volume in memory of Dr. Cordell are established scholars and influential Southwest archaeologists. Chapters cover diverse topics of interest to Cordell and offer a broad view of the Southwest as seen through the influence of one extraordinary individual. Museum of New Mexico Press (press release) | Learn More >>
Publication Announcement: The Backwoods of Everywhere
The Backwoods of Everywhere, by R. E. Burrillo. Torrey House Press, 2022. Learn More >>
R. E. Burrillo is a Research Associate of Archaeology Southwest. Upcoming events on his book tour >>
Publication Announcement: Communities of Ludlow
Communities of Ludlow: Collaborative Stewardship and the Ludlow Centennial Commemoration Commission, edited by Fawn-Amber Montoya and Karin Larkin. University Press of Colorado, 2022. Learn More >>
REMINDER: June 9 Webinar: Altered Landscapes
With Michael Namingha. Michael Namingha’s (Tewa/Hopi) Altered Landscapes series are abstract, photography-based works that juxtapose geometric shapes in bright neon colors against black-and-white aerial landscapes from the Four Corners region. The compositions are mounted to shaped plexiglass, creating the illusion of three-dimensional works. Altered Landscapes addresses the environmental impact of the oil industry around New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon, a national historic park sacred to the ancestral Puebloans, and the Black Place, Navajo Nation’s Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center | More Information and Zoom Registration >>
June 12 Webinar: Rock Imagery of Bears Ears National Monument
With Wanda Raschkow. Raschkow will provide an introduction to the rock imagery of southeastern Utah with a focus on the resources of Bears Ears National Monument. The imagery spans the Archaic, Ancestral Pueblo, and historical Ute, Navajo, and Pioneer periods, including Civilian Conservation Corps inscriptions. San Diego Rock Art Association | More Information and Registration >>
June Subscription Lectures (In-Person, Santa Fe)
June 13, Sean Dolan, Learning from Obsidian. June 20, David Grant Noble, Vietnam Passages, 1962–1963. June 27 (new date), Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, Women of Bears Ears. Southwest Seminars | Learn More >>
Southwest Seminars Archived Lectures
Southwest Seminars has a collection of over 100 archived live video lectures from past presenters in four themed topical areas: Ancient Sites, Ancient Stories (anthropology/archaeology), Voices from the Past (history), Native Culture Matters (Indigenous), and Mother Earth, Father Sky (natural and environmental sciences). The video library is pay-per-view and access is simple and easy. Southwest Seminars | 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.