2024
10
Jun
Celebrating the First Anniversary of the Greater Chaco Land Withdrawal
Paul F. Reed, New Mexico State Director
Preservation Archaeologist
(June 10, 2024)—On the one-year anniversary of the administrative withdrawal of Federal lands in the 10-mile zone around Chaco Canyon to protect its cultural resources from oil & gas drilling, I reflect on this hard-won victo...
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2023
07
Nov
Chaco Short Wins Emmy
Pueblo leaders at Chaco Canyon. Left to right: Randall Vicente (Governor, Acoma Pueblo); Michael Chavarria (Governor, Santa Clara Pueblo); and Octavius Seowtewa (cultural leader, Zuni Pueblo). This is a still from the Emmy-winning short documentary “Protecting Chaco's 10-Mile Zone,” produced by ...
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2021
02
Nov
Lifeways of the Little Colorado River
Dear Friends,
“It’s impolite to talk behind someone’s back” is a phrase I’ve heard since I was a youngster. (Let’s not talk about how long ago that’s been…)
So I guess I’m going to be impolite today.
Skylar Begay, who began his work with Archaeology Southwest in Janu...
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2019
26
Feb
Public Lands and Repatriation in the News
Congress Passes Major Public Lands Package
“This robust, landmark package illustrates that it is possible for political agreement when it comes to caring for the country’s public lands that have natural, cultural and historic significance. The conservation gains in the bill are substantial, pro...
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2018
10
Jul
How to Honor Sacred Native American Sites: A Guide for Visitors
How to Honor Sacred Native American Sites: A Guide for Visitors
Lyle Balenquah is a Hopi archeologist and river guide who spends a lot of time in Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument. Compared to many other national parks and monuments, Bears Ears is relatively unregulated, with few rangers to pro...
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2018
19
Jun
Chaco Canyon's Agricultural Potential Reappraised
New Appraisal of Agricultural Potential in Chaco Canyon
Discussions of agricultural feasibility and its impact on local population levels at Chaco Canyon have been heavily influenced by studies of soil salinity. A number of researchers have argued that salinized soils severely limited local agricul...
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2018
01
May
Shocking Reversal on Chaco-Area Drilling Case
Shocking Reversal on Chaco-Area Drilling Case
Environmentalists were shocked and dismayed this week after a federal court rejected their claims against oil and gas development near Chaco Canyon, N.M., just weeks after the judge partially sided with them. Judge James Browning issued an opinion Monda...
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2018
08
Apr
Archaeology Southwest Is off to the SAA Meetings in Washington, DC
Bears Ears in DC: Two Forums
Bears Ears, the Antiquities Act, and the Status of Our National Monuments, an SAA President-Sponsored Session, takes place Thursday, April 12, from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the SAA in Washington, DC. (Registered attendees only.) The paneli...
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2018
19
Feb
Early Agricultural Era Macaw Discovered in Chihuahua
INAH Reports Mummified Macaw Found in Northern Chihuahua
For a long time, the archaeological site of Paquimé, in Chihuahua, was the only pre-Hispanic site in northwest Mexico where remains of macaws were discovered in cultural contexts, but in 2016, residents of the Avendaños ejido in San Francis...
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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...
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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 ...
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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...
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