2018
02
Mar
Greater Bears Ears as Borderlands
Today’s post is by our friend and frequent contributor R. E. Burrillo, who co-edited, with Benjamin A. Bellorado, the new issue of Archaeology Southwest Magazine, “Sacred and Threatened: The Cultural Landscapes of Greater Bears Ears,” released today.
R. E. Burrillo, SWCA Environmental Cons...
more
2018
04
Feb
The Great Public Lands Sale
The Great Public Lands Sale
Next month, hundreds of corporate representatives will sit down at their computers, log into something called Energynet, and bid, eBay style, for more than 300,000 acres of federal land spread across five Western states. They will pay as little as $2 per acre for control...
more
2018
28
Jan
New Oil and Gas Leases on Chaco Landscape Open for Bid March 8
Despite Protests, Oil and Gas Leases on 4,500 acres of Greater Chaco Will Go up for Bid on March 8
The Bureau of Land Management is under fire from over 100 protests filed in response to a planned sale of oil and gas leases on nearly 4,500 acres of government-owned land in Western New Mexico known ...
more
2018
14
Jan
More on the Fight for the Antiquities Act
More on the Fight for the Antiquities Act
Trump’s decisions have set the table for the most dramatic legal fight over the Antiquities Act since the Supreme Court unanimously upheld President Theodore Roosevelt’s 1908 designation of the Grand Canyon National Monument in 1920. So, how did we get ...
more
2018
07
Jan
DNA Studies Further Exploring the Origins of Native America
DNA Studies Further Exploring the Origins of Native America
The story of how Homo sapiens spread from Africa to the rest of the world is a tangled epic, full of false starts and dead ends. Yet perhaps nowhere is the puzzle more difficult than in the Americas, two landmasses divided from the rest ...
more
2017
26
Dec
Abusing Places of the Past Is a Violation of Human Rights
Abusing Places of the Past Is a Violation of Human Rights
For many archaeologists, one of the darkest moments in memory was the destruction of the fourth and fifth-century Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban in 2001. That tragedy was later eclipsed by ISIS’s destruction of Baghdad museum artifac...
more
2017
10
Dec
We Are Headed to Court
President Announces Plan to Reconfigure National Monuments
President Trump formally reconfigured two big national monuments in southern Utah on Monday, shrinking them by more than 2 million acres and establishing five smaller units within them — a public lands declaration unlike any ever made by...
more
2017
08
Dec
Chaos and the Swamp—a perspective from an airplane
Bill Doelle, President & CEO
(December 8, 2017)—The last few days have been more chaotic than most for me. On Monday, while I was flying east to Washington, DC, President Trump was making good on his promise to Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, (illegally) slashing more than 1.1 million acres fro...
more
2017
06
Dec
BROAD COALITION SUES TO STOP TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S UNLAWFUL DISMEMBERMENT OF THE BEARS EARS NATIONAL MONUMENT
For Immediate Release
December 6, 2017
CONTACTS: See list below
Archaeology Southwest Stands with Coalition to Defend Bears Ears in Court
(Washington, D.C.)–A broad coalition of Native American, conservation, and historic preservation organizations, outdoor industry, scientists, and ou...
more
2017
03
Dec
The President Is Expected to Announce Cuts to Our National Monuments Today
President Plans to Cut Crucial Areas from Two of Our National Monuments
Two of the nation’s most scientifically significant landscapes — the Kaiparowits Plateau and Cedar Mesa — could be largely stripped of hard-won protections when President Donald Trump appears in Utah on Monday to announce...
more
2017
26
Nov
Are We About to Forget America's Best Idea?
Are We About to Forget America's Best Idea?
Since President Trump assumed office, the government has taken what some historians are calling an “unprecedented” approach to the protection of U.S. land. This summer, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke reviewed and suggested modifying 10 national monume...
more
2017
05
Nov
The President Could Save Bears Ears
Editorial: The President Could Save Bears Ears
The president told Sen. Orrin Hatch Friday that he’s going to shrink Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, “For you, Orrin.” He’s not doing so for the American people. America needs what the Bears Ears can offer: “power...
more
Show More