Southwest Archaeology Today for June 25, 2007

Archaeology Making the News – A Service of the Center for Desert Archaeology

– ASU Field School Excavating Pueblo Site Near Truth-or-Consequences NM: Students digging into the past are uncovering their own future at an Arizona State University archaeological site in southwestern New Mexico.The group, 10 undergraduate students from universities across the country who are supervised by four ASU graduate students, is spending five weeks unearthing parts of a 13th century Native American pueblo village several miles outside of the community of Truth or Consequences.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0622digsite0622.html

– Name Change for Mesa Southwest Museum: The Mesa Southwest Museum will likely get a name change this fall to reflect its enterprise as a showcase of natural and cultural history and boost its attendance. A City Council committee and the city staff recommended that the 30-year-old institution, which is already one of downtown Mesa’s biggest draws, be christened the Arizona Museum of Natural History.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/0621mr-namechange0622.html

– Cell Phones and Native Voice, the Citizen Storytellers Project: A groundbreaking outreach project will train more than two hundred Native Americans to produce their own two-minute documentaries using video-enabled cell phones . At workshops in ten sites around the country, participants will work together to produce stories about their own traditions, experiences and history. The films will be distributed via a mobile cell phone network and available to cell phone users throughout the country. The short documentaries will also be presented on the We Shall Remain Web site using a Google map interface, and offered as vodcasts (downloadable video pieces). (Thanks to Brian Kenny for submitting this link.)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/project/index.html

-Phoenix Cemetery to be Preserved: After a fight to preserve it, and years of neglect, a century old Phoenix cemetery is deemed historic. This week, the Phoenix Historic Preservation Commission voted to preserve the cemetery.
http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/soteloheardcemetery06202007-CR.html

– O’odham Families Claim New Border Wall Construction Impacts Ancient Burials: Members of a traditional Indian nation spanning the Arizona-Mexico border are complaining that work to put up a new barrier to secure the border has desecrated an ancient burial ground.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/f611 – Yahoo News

– Hopi Perspectives on Water to be Highlighted at the Museum of Northern Arizona: Born in 1951 in the Hopi village of Hotevilla on Third Mesa, Victor Masayesva Jr. carries the unique visual symbols of life on the Hopi mesas in his heart and mind — the vast sunrises and sunsets, harvesting and storage of corn crops, sacred rituals and dances and desert storms that bring rain to a parched landscape.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/8ik4 – Arizona Daily Sun

– Preservation is Economic Development: For the Gila River Indian Community, economic development is about a lot more than building for the future. It’s a chance to preserve the past. The community has invested some of its newfound wealth in reinvigorating traditional practices in farming, arts and crafts and language.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/92041?source=rss&dest=STY-92041

– Gila River Indian Community Links to the Ancient Hohokam: The Gila River Indian Community traces its roots to the prehistoric Hohokam Indians, who migrated to the Gila River region near present-day Phoenix around 300 B.C.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/92045?source=rss&dest=STY-92045

– Discovery Channel’s “Mythbusters” Take an Experimental Archaeology Approach to the Study of Projectile Points: With the help of Discovery Channel MythBusters Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, two University of Wyoming archeologists pledged to find out about the arrowhead’s significance to ancient cultures.
http://www.physorg.com/news101738390.html

– San Francisco Bans Internment of the Dead: The last remaining exceptions to San Francisco’s ban of the dead are a few old Spanish-colonial tombs at the Mission Dolores, a federal military cemetery in the Presidio, and a tiny columbary in the Richmond district, left after the Odd Fellows’ graveyard around it had been evacuated. Efforts have been made in recent years to establish a new pet cemetery in the city, row after row of small markers to show the passing of dogs and cats and domesticated parrots. But human interment remains illegal for residents.
http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=5917

– Arizona Awards in Public Archaeology Announced: The Governor’s Archaeology Advisory Commission (Commission) is pleased to announce the recipients of their 2007 Awards in Public Archaeology. This year, the Commission received 18 nominations for worthy individuals and programs in all six of the award categories, making the selection process especially difficult and prompting the Commission to award multiple awards in four categories! The award recipients reflect a variety of valuable heritage preservation and education efforts all around the state of Arizona. The following entities received awards: Professional Archaeologist: Dr. William Doelle, Tucson, AZ. Avocational Archaeologist – Walter “Dutch” Duering, Phoenix, AZ & Jerome Ehrhardt, Sedona, AZ. Site Stewards: Terry and Kathy Robbins, Prescott Valley, AZ & Richard Davis, Ajo, AZ Tribal Preservation & Archaeology: Vernelda Grant, San Carlos, & Chris Coder, Camp Verde, AZ. Program/Public Sector: Pueblo Grande Museum, Phoenix, AZ. Program/Private Sector: The Archaeology Conservancy, Albuquerque, NM & SunCor Development Company, Tempe, AZ. The awards were presented in conjunction with the Governor’s Historic Preservation Honor Awards on June 14, 2007, at an award ceremony that was part of the Historic Preservation Partnership Conference held in Prescott, AZ.