Preservation Archaeology Today

Preservation Archaeology Today (PAT) is a free, weekly e-mail news digest. In addition to sharing regional archaeology news, events, opportunities, and publications, PAT connects readers with news and commentary on U.S. public lands policy, global heritage protection and preservation, and the peopling of the North and South American continents. Review our submission guidelines here.

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Banner image: Paul Vanderveen

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New National Monument Honors Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley

Dear Friends, Yesterday, President Biden signed a proclamation to establish the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument in Mississippi and Illinois. Till’s brutal 1955 murder helped galvanize the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. This marks the fourth time President Bide...

Chaco Hearing News

Dear Friends, I have just three short paragraphs to share this week. Monday afternoon brought rain—lots of it—to Tucson. There’s good reason to believe that the Akimel O’Odham and Tohono O’odham deserve our thanks for this wonderful gift of rain. To understand why, I recommend you wa...

Chaco Protection Zone Controversy Heads to U.S. House

Dear Friends, Our apologies for not warning you that we had to take off the July 4th holiday week. Kate and I have been working intently for a long time on the upcoming issue of Archaeology Southwest Magazine. I had worked through the Fourth on the magazine, and Kate had gotten expected but sad n...

White Mountain Apache Perspectives on Protection and Healing at Ancestral Sites

Dear Friends, For the past two weeks, our neighborhood Cooper’s Hawks were a source of unease in the early mornings. Although my wife and I are yet unscathed, my neighbor was bloodied by his hawk encounter. This morning I looked out to see one of the fledged Cooper’s Hawks in the palo verd...

Interactive Map: Proposed Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument

Dear Friends, This week began with Juneteenth—its third celebration as a federal holiday. Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery. Would that the proclamation in Texas on June 19, 1865, had also marked the end of racism. Our friends at Emergence Magazine present a powerful essay titled �...

Interior Puts Chaco Protection Zone in Effect for the Next 20 Years

Dear Friends, We took a week off. It was a nice break, but the pace of events seems to have accelerated. I’m keeping this note brief, because there is a LOT you will want to read in today’s issue. But first, two personal notes. My local Cooper’s Hawks, whose two youngsters will soon be f...

Position Announcement: Preservation Archaeologist (Northern New Mexico)

Dear Friends, The month of May has been unusually kind to us Sonoran Desert dwellers. Here in Tucson, we actually broke the 100-degree mark in late April. But we haven’t returned there throughout May. Even on the “warmer” days, the evenings cool off, meaning we wake up to wonderful early mo...

Keep It Grand!

Dear Friends, Tuesday morning Paul Reed sent me a brief email. He wrote that he had packed up the last few things from the office he has had at Salmon Pueblo Museum for the last 23 years. I feel like there needs to be a much grander celebration of the amazing partnership that Archaeology South...

Creating a Living Land Acknowledgment

Dear Friends, Skylar Begay first worked for Archaeology Southwest in February 2019 as a field crew member on Aaron Wright’s Lower Gila Ethnographic and Archaeological Project (LGREAP). Although Skylar—who is Diné (Navajo), Mandan and Hidatsa—had worked on maintenance tasks at archaeologica...

New Mexico Delegation Reintroduces Chaco Cultural Heritage Protection Act

Dear Friends, My COVID has been dispatched! I’m back at work. Thanks to the many who sent kind words of support. Friday is the day that the cyberSW team and the Tribal Working Group await with anticipation. Applications for the Native American Fellow are due. Although there is still a bit of...

All My Relations: A Model for Tribal Collaboration

Dear Friends, I’m going to mention three colors and share a couple thoughts about each. Black. That is the color of my mood as I continue to deal with COVID. The Paxlovid Rebound is a real thing, and it found me. Green. That’s what chlorophyll does to both the bark and the tiny leaves o...

Continuing Coverage: Tucson’s Birthplace Returned to Tohono O’odham Nation

Dear Friends, More than three years into the pandemic, one of the current COVID variants finally cornered me. Last Friday, I tested positive. This morning, a few hours before this note landed in your inbox, I finished the Day-5 doses of Paxlovid. Yesterday, I spent over an hour reading a lo...

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