Dear Friends,
Today’s note comes with my thanks to Linda Vossler, Archaeology Southwest’s Amazing Office Manager. Linda sent our staff a reminder email that our monthly staff lunch this Friday—which we are so fortunate and grateful she organizes—will be catered by the San Xavier Co-op: “The lunch will be all vegetarian and includes ciolim (cholla bud) tamales, tepary beans, squash, and a cholla-bud green salad with a saguaro-seed citrus vinaigrette.”
Needless to say, I am very much looking forward to gathering with our staff and savoring these Sonoran Desert foods!
Linda also encouraged us to check out the Co-op’s website. I’m particularly impressed with their mission.
This meal will be a good transition for us. We start a new Archaeology Café series on October 3 that focuses on traditional foods and foodways. The season’s title is “Nourishing Body, Soul, and Earth.”
Plan to join us online for the seventeenth (17 th!) season of Archaeology Café. We’re also excited that three of the programs will be held in person at the Loft Cinema in Tucson (as well as online).
Hope there is something delicious ahead in your week,
President & CEO, Archaeology Southwest
P.S. News bulletin from Chaco Culture National Historical Park, 9/12/23: Due to the current heavy rains and storm system expected throughout this week, travel into Chaco Culture NHP is not recommended at this time. The south road (Highway 57) is currently impassable; the north road (CR 7950) is extremely slick and muddy, with standing water up to 2 feet deep in places. There are also several cars currently stuck on the north road as well. Call us for current updates or for additional information: 505-786-7014.
Banner image: Paul Vanderveen
All Pueblo Council of Governors in DC to Advocate for Chaco Protection Zone
The All Pueblo Council of Governors (APCG) that represents 20 Pueblos is sending a delegation to Washington, D.C. on Monday, September 11, 2023, to meet with congressional representatives and other federal officials to voice their opposition to a House bill that aims to undo the Department of the Interior’s recent Public Land Order 7923 that prevents new oil and gas development on public lands around the Greater Chaco Canyon. The House bill, H.R. 4374, the “Energy Opportunities for All Act,” was introduced by Republican Representatives Eli Crane and Paul Gosar of Arizona. Levi Rickert in Native News Online | Read more »
Commentary: “Don’t sacrifice sacred lands to the oil industry”
H.R. 4374 presents a false choice: economic prosperity through mineral extraction but at the expense of our sacred sites and shared cultural landscape. It falsely claims the withdrawal will harm the Navajo allottees’ existing oil and gas payments, while sidestepping the enormous environmental and health impacts already affecting those local communities. The recent lawsuit filed by Navajo individuals against the state of New Mexico, alleging violation of their constitutional rights due to oil and gas development, attests to this. Echoing this message are the Navajo people supportive of the withdrawal, depicted in the testimony provided by Mario Atencio, vice president of the Torreon/Starlake Chapter of the Navajo Nation, at the hearing on H.R. 4374. The pivot by the Navajo Nation disregards their long history of engagement and foundational work with the Pueblos to preserve these lands. The turnabout not only betrays our collective cultural heritage, but also erodes the trust and unity of the coalition that fought so hard to protect Chaco. Mark Mitchell, Chair, All Pueblo Council of Governors, in The Hill | Read more »
Call to Action: Support Common-Sense Reforms to Oil-Gas Leasing on Public Lands
We and our coalition partners commend the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Department of the Interior, and the Biden administration for proposing common-sense reforms to oil and gas leasing on our federal public lands. Preservation Archaeologist Paul F. Reed urges, “Reform of BLM’s oil-gas leasing rules is way overdue across the American West. Please join Archaeology Southwest in supporting this important evolution of BLM policy.” Here’s why: Today’s federal oil and gas program is antiquated. Many rules that govern the system are decades-old and prioritize oil and gas over important uses such as hunting, fishing, biking, hiking, and other everyday activities. These necessary reforms help fix this broken program by establishing a fair return for taxpayers and ensuring our public lands are better managed for all uses. Archaeology Southwest | Learn more and comment today »
Interior Announces First Grant Awards to Indian Youth Service Corps
The Department of the Interior today announced nearly $3.5 million in 2023 Indian Youth Service Corps (IYSC) grants to eight projects involving more than 20 Tribes and Tribal organizations. These are the first awards for the IYSC, established by Secretary Deb Haaland as a partner-based program designed to provide Indigenous youth with meaningful, Tribally led public service opportunities to support the conservation and protection of natural and cultural resources through construction, restoration, or rehabilitation of natural, cultural, historic, archaeological, recreational or scenic resources. Participants will receive a mix of work experience, basic and life skills, education, training and mentoring. US Department of the Interior (press release) | Read more »
Commentary: Archaeological Tropes That Perpetuate Colonialism
Two Indigenous archaeologists from the U.S. Southwest shed light on how “abandonment” and other common archaeological terms continue to cause harm. They offer insights into how to rewrite narratives of the past. Nicholas C. Laluk and Joseph Aguilar in SAPIENS | Read more »
Audio: Let’s Talk about Repatriating Native American Remains
With Megan Kamerick (host), Mary Hudetz (ProPublica), Polly Nordstrand (MIAC), Theresa Pasqual (Pueblo of Acoma), Kari Schleher (Maxwell Museum), and Carla Sinopoli (Maxwell Museum). On [this episode of] Let’s Talk New Mexico we’ll explore the use of Native American remains for academic purposes and the challenge of getting remains returned to their homelands, and we want to hear your thoughts. Is it moral to use Indigenous remains for research? What about if the remains are destroyed in the process? When, and how, should they be returned to their tribal communities? KUNM (public radio) | Listen now »
Publication Announcement: Standards for Museums with Native American Collections
Today, the School for Advanced Research (SAR) and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) announced the release of the Standards for Museums with Native American Collections (SMNAC), a comprehensive document to help museums clarify and strengthen their roles as stewards, and improve the museum field as a whole with regard to Native American peoples, communities, and cultural items. SMNAC grew out of a presentation made by Dr. Deana Dartt, a Coastal Band Chumash museum scholar, curator, and principal at Live Oak Consulting, at the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (ATALM) conference in 2017. Her presentation pointed out the need for change and resulted in the development of these standards by a core group of individuals in collaboration with SAR, in consultation with AAM, and with input from 70 museum professionals working with Native collections. …The SMNAC is currently available as a free download. SAR and AAM | Learn more »
Position Announcement: Executive Director and Ethnographer (Nonprofit)
Living Heritage Research Council (LHRC) is looking for an Executive Director & Ethnographer/Cultural Anthropologist to run LHRC’s daily operations and assist with and/or direct ethnographic research and Tribal Consultation projects within the cultural resource management/heritage field. These projects are predominately working with Tribal Nations in the southwest United States. In addition to serving as LHRC’s Executive Director, LHRC seeks an individual also capable of serving as an Ethnographer to assist the project Principal Investigators with running current ethnographic and Tribal Consultation projects and who would be already capable of and/or interested in growing into independently running ethnographic fieldwork trips, managing ethnographic and Tribal Consultation projects, and serving as a Principal Investigator for ethnographic research. Living Heritage Research Council | Learn more (opens as a PDF) »
September Subscription Lectures (Santa Fe NM)
Sept. 18, Debra Martin, Violence and Masculinity in Small-Scale Societies; Sept. 25, Severin Fowles, Wolves and Spanish Colonial Predation. Southwest Seminars | Learn more »
REMINDER: Sept. 14 Online Event: Prospect Hill: Enslavement and Freedom from Mississippi to Africa
With Dr. Shawn Lambert, Jessica Fleming Crawford, and Dr. James Andrew Whitaker. In 2011, The Archaeological Conservancy purchased the Prospect Hill Plantation preserve in south Mississippi. During the 1840s, a group of approximately previously enslaved African-Americans were sent as settlers from Prospect Hill to Sinoe County, Liberia. This history links Mississippi and Liberia and is the context for a research project at both Prospect Hill and Liberia. This project will use archaeological surveys and excavations to uncover material culture to better understand the lives of the people at Prospect Hill who became settlers to Liberia. The objective is to collect data concerning their material culture and to analyze this data to ascertain cultural, economic, political, and social patterns that will later be compared in a separate study using surveys and excavations at settlement sites in Sinoe County, Liberia. The project has begun with a week of public outreach and public participation in archaeological excavations at the site. The Archaeological Conservancy | Learn more and register (free) »
REMINDER: Sept. 14 Online Event: Being Fremont in the Uinta Basin
With Elizabeth Hora. Over 1,000 years ago, the Fremont lived in the Uinta Basin; like those in the Four Corners area at the same time, these people farmed and gathered into large village sites unlike any the region had experienced before. But unlike in the Four Corners, who these people were and what their society was like is still murky. Recent research into these questions suggests that two linguistically distinct peoples made their way into the Uinta Basin and that the ways they coped with the fickle northern Utah climate may have colored their interactions with not only the natural world, but with each other. By examining the depictions of Fremont people on rock imagery, Public Archaeologist Elizabeth Hora is learning more about who these people were, how they organized amongst themselves, and what war and peace among the Fremont may have been like. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center | Learn more and register (free) »
REMINDER: Sept. 18 In-Person (Tucson AZ) and Online Event: Marjorie F. Lambert’s Contributions to Southwest Archaeology
With Shelby Tisdale. In the first half of the twentieth century, the canyons and mesas of the Southwest beckoned and the burgeoning field of archaeology thrived. Among those who heeded the call, Marjorie Ferguson Lambert became one of only a handful of women who not only left their imprint on the study of southwestern archaeology and anthropology but flourished. In-person at 1064 E Lowell St., 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society | Learn more and register for online attendance (free) »
REMINDER: Sept. 21 Online Event: The Historical George McJunkin Reimagined through His Archaeological Sites
With Brian Kenny. Cowboy George McJunkin discovered the Folsom archaeological site proving humans were in the Americas 10,000 years ago. Archaeologists only verified his find after he died. The archaeology and history of McJunkin himself helps assess his importance in history. Third Thursday Food for Thought series (Old Pueblo Archaeology Center) | Learn more and register (free) »
Sept. 22 In-Person Event (Durango CO): Weaving Demonstration and Film Showing
With Venancio Aragon, Diné textile artist. Aragon will present a weaving demonstration at 3:00 p.m. in room 170 in the southwest corner of the Fort Lewis College (FLC) Art Department/Fine Arts Building. Enter the building either from the front, or, closer to Room 170, from the back. Aragon will also will speak briefly Friday evening at 7:00 p.m. in the FLC Student Union Ballroom to introduce the screening of Cloudy Ridge Production’s “Overshoot and Collapse in the Ancient Four Corners.” The film showing is free and open to the public as part of History Live. The Diné perspective plays an integral part in the film and features Venancio’s clear outlook. San Juan Basin Archaeological Society and Fort Lewis College | Learn more »
Oct. 3 Online Event: Tame or Wild? Emergent Ranching Cultures of Spanish Colonial Pimería Alta
With Nicole Mathwich. This talk will explore the emergent animal husbandry culture in the Pimería Alta through the first introduction of livestock to the region through the Spanish mission system (1687–1833). Mathwich compares and contrasts faunal bone from five mission sites from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, and then we’ll go deeper into the site of Mission Guevavi and examine how levels of ferality were strategically employed at the mission. Archaeology Café (Archaeology Southwest) | Learn more and register (free) »
Oct. 7 Tour (Tucson and Marana AZ): Yoeme (Yaqui Indian) Communities
With historian Felipe Molina (Yaqui). This car-caravan tour of cultural sites will begin at Santa Cruz River Park ramada, 1317 W Irvington Rd, Tucson. The tour will visit places in Tucson and Marana that were settled historically by the Yoeme including the 39th St. Community (Barrio Libre), Pascua, Yoem Pueblo, and former settlements. Reservations and $35 donation prepayment due by 5:00 p.m. October 4. Old Pueblo Archaeology Center | Learn more (opens as a PDF) »
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. Thanks!