2024
26
Mar
ASU Works with Tribal Reps to Fulfill NAGPRA Obligations
Dear Friends,
As I mentioned in a previous note, I always take window seats while flying so I can watch the landscape below as we cruise along. On Thursday, March 21, I had a window seat from Tucson to Denver. I almost wish I hadn’t; what I saw made me sick to my stomach.
As you can see from...
more
2023
09
May
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...
more
2022
18
Oct
Interior Proposes to Revamp NAGPRA
Dear Friends,
Pursuing Preservation Archaeology often leads me to interesting new topics and places, such as regenerative agriculture.
That interest got a big boost over a month ago, courtesy of Dax Hansen, owner of Oatman Flats Ranch on the lower Gila River. He held a meeting in Phoenix to sh...
more
2022
06
Sep
Capturing Day-to-Night in Bears Ears
Dear Friends,
A week from today, the bill to establish a Great Bend of the Gila National Conservation Area (H.R. 8719) will have a hearing before the House Natural Resources Committee in Washington, DC. It will be heard along with two other bills (H.R. 8108, Advancing Tribal Parity on Public Land...
more
2022
14
Jun
Ceremonial Items Returned to Yaqui Community
Dear Friends,
I am blessed to work with an incredible staff at Archaeology Southwest. They are super-smart, they are very good at what they do, and I learn a great deal from interacting with and just listening to them.
This week a number of us have been kicking around a tough problem. Stewing,...
more
2022
15
Mar
Respect the Great Bend of the Gila
Dear Friends,
Tucson has a magnificent Festival of Books that returned in-person on the University of Arizona mall last weekend. Archaeology Southwest had a booth, and I spent the afternoon in near-constant conversation with many people who are avidly pursuing knowledge, insight, entertainment,...
more
2022
22
Feb
From Opportunistic Acquisition to Strategic Stewardship—A Day of Service at the Gillespie Narrows Preserve
John Welch, Director, Landscape and Site Preservation Program
Jaye Smith, Volunteer, Landscape and Site Preservation Program
(February 22, 2022)—The Gillespie Narrows Preserve, located in the north section of the Great Bend of the Gila region, has been on Archaeology Southwest’s radar since ...
more
2021
27
Oct
Ethics and DNA Studies of Human Remains
Dear Friends,
The beautiful white egrets wading in irrigated fields just outside of the historical community of Buckeye were welcome omens as Skylar Begay and I headed out to the Great Bend of the Gila on Tuesday morning.
We had spent the night at the Gila River Indian Community’s impres...
more
2021
13
Jul
Indigenous Astronomy in the National Parks
Dear Friends,
The pace has slowed a bit recently as the summer vacation season thins the number of colleagues who are in the office or available for the next Zoom call.
That’s OK.
Especially since I’ll be one of those vacationers next week. Like throngs of Arizonans, I’m off to ...
more
2021
27
Apr
Protecting Cultural Landscapes on Federal Lands in the Southwest
Dear Friends,
A former politician and current television pundit, who shall not be named here, recently stated that America owes little to Native Americans.
Among the extensive bodies of Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge and information said pundit is ignorant of, he sure missed our l...
more
2020
29
Dec
Archaeology Southwest Welcomes Wyss Fellow Skylar Begay
Begay’s two-year commitment as Tribal Outreach Fellow will support
National Conservation Area campaign in southern Arizona
Tucson, Ariz. (December 29, 2020)—Archaeology Southwest is pleased to welcome Skylar Begay for a two-year fellowship made possible by a generous grant from the Wyss Founda...
more
2020
09
Apr
Focus on the Field Crew: Keahna Owl
Aaron Wright, Preservation Archaeologist, with Keahna Owl
(April 10, 2020)—Last week I explained some of the accomplishments we’ve had on the Lower Gila River Ethnographic and Archaeological Project (LGREAP) during the 2019–2020 field season. Those accomplishments aren’t limited to the ...
more
Show More