Dear Friends,
Today opens National Native American Heritage Month. In acknowledgment, Archaeology Southwest will be highlighting new and archival material throughout the month, as will the Save History project and the Respect Great Bend campaign.
In the “new to you” category is next Tuesday’s Archaeology Café, “Ancient Domestication of the Four Corners Potato: Archaeology, Sex, and Genetics.” Lisbeth Louderback will discuss a truly remarkable food resource:
“The memories of Diné and Hopi elders reveal the Four Corners potato (Solanum jamesii) to be an ancient food and lifeway medicine, once collected from the wild and grown in now faded gardens, diminished over the last century by drought and displaced by potatoes from elsewhere. We will present the latest evidence gathered during a 10-year, collaborative study that addresses use, transport, and manipulation by ancient people. Mating experiments, genetic sequencing, and food remnants on manos and metates have revealed a convincing story of this fascinating plant species.”
Be sure to sign up (free!) and join me in the virtual audience next Tuesday.
Let us know about other events you’d like to share with the Preservation Archaeology Today friends.
President & CEO, Archaeology Southwest
Banner image: Alistair Bitsoi
The Fate of Belongings Taken from Wounded Knee
One afternoon earlier this year, Wendell Yellow Bull received a call from a longtime friend with word of a troubling discovery. Objects from one of the most notorious massacres of Native Americans in U.S. history were in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History, his friend said. Some of them appeared to be children’s toys, including a saddle and a doll shirt. … Nicole Santa Cruz for ProPublica | Read more »
In Defense of Museums
Museums have been the focus of devastating critiques lately. … Much of the criticism is warranted. Many natural history museums have origins in deeply problematic colonial collection, extraction, and display practices. The institutions helped develop and present racist interpretations of human evolution and diversity that perpetuated the egregious politics of White European supremacy. One columnist recently argued that as “an artifact of a lost culture,” museums should be shuttered. Stephen E. Nash for SAPIENS | Read more »
Interview: Progress and Process at the Peabody Museum
A recent letter from U.S. senators and members of the Senate’s Committee on Indian Affairs requested an update on Harvard’s processes and pace of repatriation under NAGPRA. The Peabody responded with an in-depth description of the Museum’s policies and methods, including the assessment that strong support by the University’s administration and the doubling of NAGPRA-dedicated staff over the past year have greatly sped the Peabody’s rate of repatriation. To gain a greater understanding of the Peabody’s progress and processes regarding NAGPRA, the Gazette recently sat down with Matthew Liebmann, chair of the Peabody’s Faculty Committee, Peabody Professor of American Archaeology and Ethnology, and chair of Harvard’s Department of Anthropology; Kelli Mosteller, executive director of the Harvard University Native American Program; and Jane Pickering, the William and Muriel Seabury Howells Director of the Peabody Museum. Nicole Rura in the Harvard Gazette | Read more »
Position Announcement: Archaeological Records Specialist (Tucson AZ)
The position is a 1.0 full-time equivalency (FTE) university staff position within the Collections Division of the Arizona State Museum (ASM), University of Arizona (UA), reporting to the Archaeological Records Office (ARO) manager. The position assists in the administration and implementation of the Arizona Antiquities Act (AAA; A.R.S. 41-841 et seq.), and ensures compliance with all related policies and procedures outlined by state and federal laws and Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) rules. The incumbent will process, manage, curate, and facilitate access to archaeological site and project records in the ARO. Using archaeological records held in the ARO and other ASM offices, they will conduct research on behalf of clients in CRM archaeology. Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona | Learn more »
November Subscription Lectures (Santa Fe NM)
Nov. 6, Jon Ghahate (Laguna/Zuni), A Native Perspective on the 1680 Pueblo Revolt; Nov. 13, Bonnie Baxter, Is Great Salt Lake Disappearing? Canary in the Coal Mine; Nov. 20, Eric Blinman, Baskets to Pots in the Upper San Juan; Nov. 27, Eric Blinman, Anti-Chaco in the Upper San Juan. Southwest Seminars | Learn more »
Nov. 2 Online Event: Conceptualizing the Past: The Thoughtful Engagement of Hearts and Minds
With Elaine Franklin and Jon Ghahate. Public education has been an important part of Crow Canyon almost before Crow Canyon was Crow Canyon. Dr. Edward Berger began conducting experiential education programs in the Cortez area for his Denver area students in the 1960s. These programs focused on the study of archaeology and American Indian history in the region and were grounded in the authentic engagement of students. In 1974, Berger purchased the original 80 acres of land where the Crow Canyon Campus now sits to give these programs a home. This webinar looks at the 40 plus year history of education at Crow Canyon since its genesis in Berger’s “Crow Canyon School” and looks at the way programming is evolving in the present to reach new audiences and be relevant to the concerns of 21st-century learners. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center | Learn more and register (free) »
REMINDER: Nov. 7 Online Event: Ancient Domestication of the Four Corners Potato: Archaeology, Sex, and Genetics
With Lisbeth Louderback. The memories of Diné and Hopi elders reveal the Four Corners potato (Solanum jamesii) to be an ancient food and lifeway medicine, once collected from the wild and grown in now faded gardens, diminished over the last century by drought and displaced by potatoes from elsewhere. We will present the latest evidence gathered during a 10-year, collaborative study that addresses use, transport, and manipulation by ancient people. Mating experiments, genetic sequencing and food remnants on manos and metates have revealed a convincing story of this fascinating plant species. Archaeology Café (Archaeology Southwest) | Learn more and register (free) »
Nov. 8 In-Person (Durango CO) and Online Event: A Different Way to Understand Community: A Closer Look at the Velarde Valley of New Mexico
With Patrick Cruz. Patrick is a PhD student in archaeology with the University of Colorado and the Assistant Collections Manager for Archaeological Research Collections at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe. He is also a member of Ohkay Owingeh, a Tewa speaking Pueblo community in northern New Mexico. His interests are in the pre-contact American Southwest, particularly in the events that led up to the abandonment of the Four Corners region at the end of the 13th century and its consequences as they involve the northern Rio Grande region of northern New Mexico. San Juan Basin Archaeological Society | Learn more »
Nov. 20 In-Person (Tucson AZ) and Online Event: Bell Rocks and Megaphones: Discoveries of sounds coupled with petroglyphs in Ancestral O’odham (Hohokam) ritual landscapes
With Janine Hernbrode. Distributed amidst the petroglyphs at three of the largest Ancestral O’odham (Hohokam) petroglyph sites in Southern Arizona are assemblages of boulders that resonate when struck producing distinct bell-like sounds. The visual traces of sound-making on large bell rocks and adjacent bedrock indicate they were not only chimed with percussion strikers to resonate with sound but were also abraded with a grinding motion to produce sound volumes. Some of the bell rocks investigated also appear to have been roughly shaped or pecked to resemble animal heads, an indication of the boulders being an object accorded animacy and of having “voice.” Many of these boulders have petroglyphs and use-wear evidence consistent with usage during pre-contact times. The program also includes a previously unknown co-occurrence of specific Ancestral O’odham (Hohokam) imagery and landscape features that produce a megaphone-like effect at three petroglyph sites near Tucson. Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society | 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. Thanks!