Dear Friends,
Over the past two weeks I have flown from Tucson to Florida, then to Denver, and back to Tucson. With 10 hours total flying time plus many hours sitting in airports, I’ve enjoyed lots of time contemplating the great work Archaeology Southwest does.
One thing this organization has accomplished is to emphasize the importance of place—sites, landscapes, and traditional cultural properties. Places are really important for human health at individual and communal levels. I thought about place in Florida, Colorado, and Arizona. And I’m saddened by how similar those once-distinct places have become when seen through the American consumerist lens. Chain restaurants serve the same food wherever you go. Bookstores sell the same bestsellers, with only a shelf or two dedicated to regional titles. Trains, planes, automobiles, and buildings have climate-control systems that mean we can go through life not knowing, via sights, sounds, and smells, where we actually are.
We are everywhere and nowhere, all at once. The interior of Tampa’s airport could be Denver’s or Tucson’s, for all I know. The only real difference I saw was an oversized flamingo sculpture that hinted at a tropical environment outside somewhere.
I always take a window seat when I fly. The Earth is my movie; the only streaming I need is the land below me, streaming by at 550 mph. On my final flight, from Denver to Tucson, I sat on the right side of the plane. It was crystal clear coming out of Denver, so I saw ski resorts in the Rocky Mountains and the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado’s San Luis Valley. I saw the Colorado Plateau in New Mexico and flew over Reserve, New Mexico, where I have done archaeological research for 15 years.
Then, on final approach into Tucson, I saw our beloved San Pedro Valley east of Tucson. The San Pedro is a foundational place for Archaeology Southwest because of work we did there in the 1990s. It is a sacred landscape. It is a traditional cultural property, and ancestral homeland to several Tribal nations. It is also the closest thing to a pristine riverine ecosystem within hundreds of miles of Tucson. And it is now irreparably scarred.
Pattern Energy has begun construction of the SunZia power transmission line in two sections of the San Pedro. Archaeology Southwest is now party to a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Tohono O’odham, and the San Carlos Apache. That lawsuit seeks to stop ongoing construction until the Bureau of Land Management completes the legally mandated studies necessary to protect landscapes and cultural properties like those of the San Pedro. We are in the thick of the litigation right now.
I first visited the San Pedro only a few short weeks ago and learned that it really is a special place, unique to southern Arizona. Unlike any other. And, therefore, worthy of preservation. Friends, when I saw the graded transmission pads clearly visible from the air, I gasped. I swore. I grabbed my phone and took a photo, which I now share with you. Somewhere, someone, is calling this progress. I see nothing but travesty. These scars stand as testimony to the continuing American experiment that will destroy all that is unique in our natural and cultural worlds. It’s really quite sad.
Until next week,
Stephen E. Nash
President & CEO, Archaeology Southwest
Experiencing the Lunar Standstill on Fajada Butte
In the newest installment of Scott Thybony’s Canyon Commentary, he recounts a trip he took to Chaco Canyon National Historical Park in New Mexico with a team of scientists. Their destination was the top of a massive butte where ancient astronomers once observed the heavens using rock art carved into the stone. Scott and the team braved a rock climb and bone-chilling cold to record a lunar phenomenon that only happens once every two decades. KNAU (NPR) | Read more or listen now »
Architecture of Pueblo Ancestors
In places such as Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon and Wupatki, you can still see the standing architecture built by the ancestors of present-day Pueblo tribes. The construction of these villages includes natural materials such as quarried rock and flagstone, soil mortars, and hundreds of thousands of wooden beams. Some of these materials were gathered at great distance, requiring detailed planning, and enormous efforts of physical labor to harvest and transport. … One can imagine living inside these places. Illuminated by flickering fire or dusty sunrays, scented of mud and wood, enveloped by insulating masonry walls. Lyle Balenquah for Earth Notes (KNAU/NPR) | Read more or listen now »
NPS’s Plan to Stabilize Spruce Tree House
While the National Park Service has identified a plan to allow Spruce Tree House at Mesa Verde National Park to be stabilized and reopened to the public, funding for the work has not yet been identified. The popular attraction, which houses the third-largest cliff dwelling in the park in western Colorado, with 130 rooms and eight kivas, has been closed to the public since October 2015 because of concerns that layers of sandstone could peel away from the arch at any time and fall on bystanders below. Spruce Tree House may be seen, however, from an overlook near the Chapin Mesa Museum. National Parks Traveler | Read more »
Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps Empowers Next Generations
For the last several years, Shonto Greyeyes of the Diné (Navajo) Nation has made his living in some of the Southwest’s most sought-after landscapes—from the Red Rock District in Sedona, Arizona, to Utah’s Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Greyeyes got his start doing river restoration for Coconino Rural Environmental Corps, based out of Flagstaff, Arizona. Following his time at Coconino, he moved north to work in Montana before returning to the Southwest to lead high school conservation crews in Williams, Arizona, intern at the Red Rock Ranger District, and lead adult crews in Grand Staircase for the Arizona Conservation Corps. He now serves as a program coordinator for the Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps. Cecilia Curiel for Western Confluence | Read more »
Wheelchair-Accessible National Parks
Fortunately, many of the best national parks in the USA have taken steps to ensure that they are accessible to all visitors. Recently, AgingInPlace.org analyzed America’s national parks to determine the most wheelchair-accessible national parks in the USA, which EcoWatch also expanded upon, helping visitors who use wheelchairs or mobility aids choose US national parks with wheelchair accessibility. Stephen Hanson in The Travel | Read more »
Continuing Coverage: Proposed Kw’tsán National Monument
The six-passenger Cessna took load after load of tribal members and other interested people over the Colorado River Valley in Imperial County, California, to see Indian Pass, Picacho Peak and the nearby Picacho Peak Wilderness, the Colorado, and glimpses of trails, sleeping and prayer circles and an occasional geoglyph that hasn’t yet been ground to death under the wheels of ATVs and RVs. “Seeing it all at once helped me see how the area relates to our culture and how it’s important to all tribes in the area,” Elan said. Elan’s dad, Quechan Council Member Donald Medart, was just as thrilled as his son to see ancestral sites from the air. “It’s all part of our story from when we came from Avi Kwa Ame.” If the Quechan and other tribes in the Colorado River Valley and southern Nevada succeed in their quest to create not one but two new national monuments, the Chuckwalla and the Kw’tsán, they will not only be able to see their ancestral trails and sites, they’ll be able to direct their future. Debra Utacia Krol for the Arizona Republic | Read more »
The Antiquities Act and the Major Questions Doctrine
The Supreme Court’s recent decision in West Virginia v. EPA, 142 S. Ct. 2587 (2022), announced the arrival of the major questions doctrine, a substantive canon of construction that bars agencies from resolving questions of “vast economic and political significance” without clear statutory authorization. … First, this Note contends that the major questions doctrine must apply to the President, addressing a recent circuit split on that issue. Second, this Note explains why the major questions doctrine may function to bar the elimination of national monuments, taking as a case study President Trump’s elimination of the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. Notably, given the history of the statute and the textual authorization to create monuments, the major questions doctrine is far more likely to bar the elimination of a national monument than the creation of one. Samuel Buckberry Joyce in the Stanford Environmental Law Journal | Read now (open access) »
Podcast: O’odham Oidag
Maegan Lopez (Tohono O’odham) is from the village of Wecij Oidag (New Fields) on the Tohono O’odham Nation near the southern border. She is a gardener and Cultural Outreach Liaison for Mission Garden located at the base of “A” mountain along the Santa Cruz wash. Maegan shares memories of her childhood, as early as four years old helping water the plants with her grandfather Albert Lopez (bat) who was a dedicated gardener and loved caring for his oidag (garden). Continuing the cultural and educational experiences she was taught as a child and throughout her upbringing Maegan found a place that helped center and ground her. Finding familiarity at Mission Garden, she now has been there for five years and enjoys working with the community. Cultivating Indigenous Voices (KXCI) | Listen now »
UPDATE: Revised Dates for Preservation Archaeology Field School (Tucson AZ and Silver City NM)
Now June 19–July 30. Our curriculum highlights the goals, ethics, and practice of Preservation Archaeology, which integrates research, education, preservation, and engagement with Indigenous and local communities. Students will research and catalog collections from the NAN Ranch, a large Classic Mimbres period pueblo in the Mimbres Valley excavated by the Texas A&M University summer archaeological field school from 1978 to 1989 and now housed at the Western New Mexico University (WNMU) Museum. Archaeological survey experience on the NAN Ranch provides essential field training and contextualizes museum collections research, and experimental archaeology gives us additional insights into how the items in museum collections were made. The field school begins in Tucson, Arizona, where students take part in a three-day orientation to the principles of Preservation Archaeology at Archaeology Southwest and the University of Arizona. The remainder of the program takes place at WNMU in Silver City, New Mexico. Archaeology Southwest | Learn more »
Editorial Opportunity: SAA Archaeological Record
The Society for American Archaeology welcomes letters of interest and proposals by prospective future editors or groups of coeditors for the SAA Archaeological Record (tSAR) for a term from May 2025 through May 2028. First launched in 2001, tSAR is a full-color magazine/newsletter that includes articles, commentary, news, columns, opinions, images, obituaries, and reports of SAA committees, task forces, and interest groups. It is published five times per year (January, March, May, September, November). The editor or coeditors of tSAR have the opportunity and editorial freedom to develop a vision for the magazine, to shape the contents and composition of each issue, and to invite contributions on themes and topics deemed of interest and importance to the SAA and the broader archaeology community. The magazine does not use traditional peer review. This position places you at the center of the activities and concerns of the membership of the SAA and the larger community and allows you to engage with a wide variety of interesting people, projects, and ideas. Society for American Archaeology | Learn more »
REMINDER: Feb. 29 Online Event: Environmental Justice at the Moral Terrains of Environmental Heritage
With Robert Figueroa. Considering two distinct cases of Indigenous recognition, both involving World Heritage sites and National Parks, and both involving environmental justice in unique contexts of environmental identity and Indigenous struggles, this presentation addresses the entanglement of settler identities of Australia and the United States. To what extent may the environmental heritage of Indigenous peoples be compromised regarding robust participation, political recognition, cultural reconciliation, and genuine (anti-colonial) collaborative research? Considering both cases, this presentation considers the relationships between settler-colonial cultures and Indigenous people as these pertain to environmental heritage: inclusive of respect for cultural identity, dependency upon tourism industry, the politics of the knowledge industry, and the management discrepancies between worldviews. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center | Learn more and register (free) »
March Subscription Lectures (Santa Fe NM)
March 4, John Horning, A Voice for the Voiceless: 30 Years of Service for the Wild; March 11, John Shea, The Unstoppable Human Species. Southwest Seminars | Learn more »
March 1 and 2 In-Person Class (Camp Verde AZ): Archaeology of Sedona and the Verde Valley
With instructor Ken Zoll. This course is an expansion of the program that the VVAC conducts for the Road Scholar Program of Northern Arizona University. Fees are $35 for VVAC Members, or $50 for non-VVAC members. Verde Valley Archaeology Center | Learn more »
March 2 In-Person Event (Bisbee AZ): Women on the Border
Authors Dr. Katie Benton-Cohen and Dr. Larisa Veloz will hold a question and answer session to discuss the profound contributions of women in shaping the Arizona borderlands. The event, hosted by the Naco Heritage Alliance, will be held at 2:00 p.m. at the Warren Peace Cafe on Arizona Street. Shar Porier in the Herald Review | Learn more and register (free) »
REMINDER: March 5 Online Event: Tres Hornos: Experimental Archaeology of Earthen Ovens
With Jun Sunseri. Everyone’s ancestors cooked with earth in one form or another. As a participant-observer and experimental archaeologist, Jun Sunseri has found that the construction and use of such features are not only important aspects of his research, but also serve as the foci of social experiences that bring people together through labor and food. Archaeology Café (Archaeology Southwest) | Learn more and register (free) »
March 6 In-Person Event (Tucson AZ): Chaco, Mimbres, and Paquime
With Dr. Stephen LeBlanc. Chaco Canyon and Paquime (Casas Grandes) are both world heritage sites. Between them lies the unique Mimbres culture. For over 50 years the relationships between them have produced many theories, but little consensus. Recent information strongly suggests that the terminal dates for Chaco and Mimbres ca. AD 1130 are very near the initial date for the founding of Paquime, thus changing how they might have been related. A new synthesis provides insights into the links among these three cultures. Arizona State Museum | Learn more »
March 9–10 In-Person Event: Tucson Festival of Books
Come say hello to Archaeology Southwest and Hands-On Archaeology expert Allen Denoyer at booth 261. And so many of our partners and friends will have booths, as well! We are looking forward to meeting you, and Allen has lots to share. Tucson Festival of Books | 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!