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 of parcels in southeastern Utah’s canyon country, Wyoming sage grouse territory and Native American ancestral homelands in New Mexico. Even as public land advocates scoff at the idea of broad transfers of federal land to states and private interests, this less-noticed conveyance continues unabated. http://bit.ly/2DU5ViV – High Country News

Bears Ears Is Open for Drilling, but Demand Appears Low
The window opened Friday for oil, gas, uranium and coal companies to make requests or stake claims to lands that were cut from two sprawling Utah national monuments by President Trump in December —but there doesn’t appear to be a rush to seize the opportunities. http://bit.ly/2DXMeql – MSN News

Archaeology Southwest’s Bill Doelle Comments on the Shash Jáa National Monument and Indian Creek National Monument Act (H.R. 4532)
It is profoundly insulting to Native American tribes—sovereign Nations—that this bill is being positioned as creating “the first tribally managed national monument.” In fact, this bill falls far short of that mark. The five tribes of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition celebrated the proclamation by President Obama on December 28, 2016 (Presidential Proclamation 9558) of Bears Ears National Monument, even though it fell short of their goal to establish a 1.9-million-acre national monument by some 350,000 acres. http://bit.ly/2FHLqq4 – Archaeology Southwest

BLM Discards Master Leasing Plans That Sought to Promote a Compromise bewteen Energy Development and Cultural Preservation 
Two things of importance happened this week with implications for protection of the Greater Chaco Landscape. First, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Farmington Field Office and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Gallup Office released their alternatives for the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and amendment to the Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the Mancos-Gallup Shale development. Second, BLM (Washington D.C. office) announced the end of the Master Leasing Plan (MLP) policy, along with other policies in place since 2010. http://bit.ly/2GHeVts – Archaeology Southwest

Ute Mountain Utes Decry Tribal Member’s Testimony on Bears Ears
The Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Council has rejected congressional testimony made by a tribal member supporting a bill to replace Bears Ears National Monument with two smaller monuments. Suzette Morris spoke in favor of House Resolution 4532 in front of the House Committee on Natural Resources on Jan. 9. She is a Ute Mountain tribal member from the White Mesa reservation community in southeastern Utah. http://bit.ly/2GLrqnJ – Durango Herald

Tucson’s Archaeology Café: Meet Archaeology Southwest as We Feature a Discussion on Tumamoc Hill
On Tuesday, February 6, 2018, Paul and Suzy Fish will join Bernard Siquieros for Archaeology Café (Tucson) to discuss Tumamoc Hill: More than a Place for a Good Hike. A landmark of downtown Tucson, Tumamoc Hill rises 700 feet above the western edge of the Santa Cruz River. Today the location of a desert research center and numerous transmission antennae, as well as a popular place for modern Tucsonans’ daily hikes, it has been an important place in the lives of Tucson inhabitants for at least 2,000 years. We meet at The Loft Cinema (3233 E. Speedway Blvd) at 5:30 p.m. The program begins in theater 1 at 6:00 p.m. You can pick up your free tickets from The Loft Cinema box office anytime the day of the Café. (Limit two tickets per person; 375 total seats.) This program is made possible, in part, by The Smith Living Trust and Arizona Humanities. http://bit.ly/2GoE6B7 – Archaeology Southwest

LIDAR Reveals Extensive Maya Settlements
Researchers have found more than 60,000 hidden Maya ruins in Guatemala in a major archaeological breakthrough. Laser technology was used to survey digitally beneath the forest canopy, revealing houses, palaces, elevated highways, and defensive fortifications. The landscape, near already-known Maya cities, is thought to have been home to millions more people than other research had previously suggested. http://bbc.in/2EbzqQP – BBC

Spanish Colonial Academy
This Texas Archeological Society (TAS) Academy for Feb. 17-18, 2018, will complement San Antonio’s tricentennial celebration! The Academy will introduce Spanish Colonial archeology to registrants through a series of lectures with hands-on activities and a detailed manual. It will be held at the River House in the Steve’s Homestead in the historic King William District of San Antonio. At least one walking tour of a nearby Spanish Colonial site will be part of this TAS Academy. Registration for all current TAS members is $100 for the two-day workshop that includes lunches and a manual. Non-members must first join TAS in order to enroll and participate. Go to www.txarch.org for more infroamtion. Deadline for registration is Feb. 3.

Lecture Opportunity – Santa Fe
Southwest Seminars Presents Dr. Richard Feldman, M.D., Former Indiana State Health Commissioner and Board Member, Eiteljorg Museum of the American Indians; Director, Eiteljorg Museum Totem Pole Project former member, Board of Trustees, Indiana Historical Society; Amateur Historian and Author, Home Before the Raven Caws who will give a lecture Mystery of the Golden Hill Totem Pole on Feberuary 12 at 6pm at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the Ancient Sites Ancient Stories lecture series held to honor Native American Rights Fund and its fight to preserve Bears Ears National Monument in support of all tribes who hold it sacred. Admission is by subscription or $15 at the door. No reservations are necessary. Refreshments are served. Seating is limited. Contact Connie Eichstaedt 505 466-2775; email: southwest seminar@aol.com; website: southwestseminars.org

Lecture Opportunity – Taos 
The Taos Archaeological Society is pleased to present Lay Powell, archaeological field illustrator and artist with deep roots in New Mexico’s prehistoric landscape. Lay is now with a special survey team that is recording newly acquired lands surrounding the Petrified Forest National Park. He will be lecturing on Rock Art in the Petrified National Park in Northeastern Arizona on Tuesday, February 13, 2018 at 7 pm at the Kit Carson Electric Board Room, 118 Cruz Alta Road, Taos. Contact Rebecca Quintana, 575-770-7460 for questions or further information.

Lecture Opportunity – Tucson
Doug Hocking gives a free presentation Cochise and Bascom, How the Apache Wars Began for Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s February 15, 6-8:30 p.m. “Third Thursday Food for Thought” dinner at El Molinito Mexican Restaurant, 10180 N. Oracle Rd., Oro Valley, Arizona. In 1861, Lieutenant George Bascom demanded Chiricahua Apache leader Cochise return the abducted boy Felix Ward (Mickey Free). Over 14 days, 70 soldiers confronted 500 Apaches in the rescue till cavalry intervened, ending in hostages slain on both sides. No entry fee. Guests may purchase their own dinners. Reservations required before 5 p.m. February 14: 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org.

Thanks to Cherie Freeman to contributing to this issue of the SAT newsletter.