Thank You for Commenting

Unprecedented Number of Comments Submitted on Behalf of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante
Organizations in Utah announced Tuesday that Americans across the country submitted more than 500,000 comments on the future of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. This outsized response carries a clear message that rings as true today as it did one year ago, when President Trump illegally eliminated more than 2 million acres from these two Monuments. The groundswell of support shows that Americans from coast to coast are as fired up now as they were on Day 1 about the loss of protection for these cultural, historic and scientific treasures. http://bit.ly/2QfjPGE – Conservation Lands Foundation

Overview of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante Situation, One Year Later
“You have a huge experience of human history out here,” says Lyle Balenquah, a Hopi archeologist and river guide who has watched dozens of seasons come and go in the Bears Ears region. For the past 20 years, Balenquah has been helping the National Park Service (NPS) interpret cultural and paleontological sites and promote indigenous perspectives of U.S. land. Reducing protection of the area will compromise new and old artifacts and fossils, he worries, as only about 5 percent of the region has been properly surveyed thus far. “We’re talking 12,000 years [of history] or more here, and it’s all important.” http://bit.ly/2Qad9tn – Boulder Weekly

Close to the anniversary of the Trump administration’s reduction of Bears Ears National Monument, a former president of the Society for American Archaeology discussed some of the archaeological findings in the area and the reduction’s effects. Bill Lipe spoke at the Utah State University Museum of Anthropology on Thursday afternoon as part of the Anthropology Lecture Series. http://bit.ly/2Qb2G0F – Herald Journal

Union of Concerned Scientists’ New Report, “Science under Siege,” Includes American Archaeology
During the first two years of the Trump administration, Secretary Ryan Zinke and his political team have unleashed constant—and ongoing—attacks on science, from sidelining the work of the agency’s own scientists to systematically refusing to acknowledge or act on climate change. These actions have far-reaching and serious implications for our health, the environment, and the future of our public lands. http://bit.ly/2QgOCD7 – Union of Concerned Scientists [SAT editors’ note: at this link you may download the report or view a brief, yet very informative slideshow of events.]

Interior Loses Important Anthropologist
America’s cultural heritage hold blueprints for how to navigate our current world, says Marcy Rockman, who for seven years served as the climate change adaptation coordinator for cultural resources at the National Park Service (NPS). “Human memory is relatively short, so our cultural heritage are the things that remember for us or that help us remember the things that have happened,” she explains. http://bit.ly/2Q9wqei – Grist

Profile of a Whistleblower
[Will] Russell planned to tell the Camp Verde residents as much. Black had other ideas. Shortly before Russell’s turn to speak, the parks director leaned over his shoulder and told him to assure the crowd that developers would not discover anything of historical significance when they started digging trenches for pipes and breaking ground for parking lots. Russell ignored Black’s order. “She was standing with her arms folded, glaring at me.” http://bit.ly/2Qcy12Z – Phoenix New Times

SHUMLA Documents Deterioration of Rock Art
Even though the images were deteriorated, Kirkland was able to reproduce dozens of human, animal, and enigmatic figures spanning nearly the entirety of the shelter wall. In the proceeding years since Kirkland’s documentation his renderings have served as the primary record of the Red Monochrome pictographs preserved at Seminole Watering Hole. Shumla documented Seminole Watering Hole in 2018, and we were interested in assessing how much the pictographs had deteriorated since Kirkland produced his watercolor renderings. Using gigapanoramas and DStretch enhancements, we are able to identify imagery Kirkland illustrated that is no longer visible, and begin assessing how much the rock art at Seminole Watering Hole has deteriorated in the past 90 years. http://bit.ly/2Qf0rcA – SHUMLA

AZ Supreme Court Rules in Snowbowl Case
The Hopi Tribe has lost a legal battle against snowmaking on the San Francisco Peaks where tribal members made frequent pilgrimages to gather plants and water for ceremonial use long before a ski resort existed. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Thursday the tribe’s emotional, spiritual and cultural connection to the Peaks doesn’t establish a special category of harm under a claim that artificial snow made with reclaimed wastewater causes a public nuisance. http://bit.ly/2Qdzvu5 – Arizona Daily Sun

Building on the Pueblo Farming Project
The Research Institute at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center is proud to be teaming up with the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office on a new collaborative project that will look at what can be learned from ancient maize recovered from Ancestral Pueblo archaeological sites. The project, Developing a Comprehensive Database of Archaeological Maize for Colorado and the Greater Southwest, will build off the experience of the highly-successful Pueblo Farming Project–a decade-plus collaboration between Crow Canyon and the Hopi tribe that examined traditional Hopi corn cultivation techniques to help understand ancient farming in the Mesa Verde region of southwest Colorado. http://bit.ly/2QchXhD – Research Institute at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center

Congratulations to Ramenofsky and Schleher
Drs. Ann Ramenofsky (UNM Associate Professor Emerita) and Kari Schleher (UNM Anthropology Alumna) were awarded the best 2018 Anthropology/ Archaeology book by The New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. Their volume, The Archaeology and History of Pueblo San Marcos: Change and Stability, was published by UNM Press in November 2017. http://bit.ly/2QgdhaP – University of New Mexico Anthropology

Commentary: Celebrating Winter Solstice at the Gateway to Bears Ears
The monument issue is not yet resolved, and may not be for some time to come, although a recent procedural victory for the plaintiffs and the even-more-recent election of a Native American majority in the San Juan County Commission bode warily well. Nor, for that matter, is the mammoth petroglyph issue fully resolved, and it probably never will be—serious academics stopped paying attention around 2012, yielding the floor to avocational speculators and others. It just wouldn’t be San Juan County if controversy went away altogether. But when the bonfire erupts in Bluff every winter, spirits are always high, solidarity prevails, and that’s what the midwinter festival is—and always has been—really about. http://bit.ly/2Q8C9RA – R. E. Burrillo via Preservation Archaeology blog

Holiday Celebration at Mesa Verde National Park
Join Mesa Verde National Park staff for a holiday celebration on Thursday, December 13, from 5:00 p.m to 9:00 p.m. We are excited to be offering something new this year. The park will be lighting a selection of archeological sites that can be viewed while driving along the six-mile Mesa Top Loop Drive. Night sky viewing opportunities will be offered at the Far View Center. Refreshments will be available at the Far View Terrace patio. Planning is still taking place, but more information will be available two weeks prior to the event. Entrance to the park will be free after 5:00 pm the day of the event. Please dress warmly and bring a flashlight. Note: The Chapin Mesa Historic District Loop, including park headquarters and Spruce Tree House, will not be open during the event. http://bit.ly/2Qebu63 – Mesa Verde National Park

Holiday Celebration at Tonto National Monument
Join Tonto National Monument to celebrate the festive season at the 3rd Annual Luminary Event on Saturday, December 15 from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. Hike the Lower Cliff Dwelling Trail with glimmering luminaries to light your way. The trail will close to uphill hiking at 8:00 p.m. Bring water, a flashlight or headlamp, warm clothing, and closed-toed shoes. This event is free and open to the public. http://bit.ly/2Qb1xGq – Tonto National Monument

Book Announcement: New Perspectives on Mimbres Archaeology
New Perspectives on Mimbres Archaeology: Three Millennia of Human Occupation in the North American Southwest. Edited by Barbara J. Roth, Patricia A. Gilman, and Roger Anyon. http://bit.ly/2rsR5eg – University of Arizona Press

Hands-On Archaeology Opportunities, Tucson AZ
Ancient technologies expert Allen Denoyer is offering two workshops in December, on the 15^th and 22^nd and in 2019 through April. Visit the link to see when he’ll be teaching a technology you’ve always wanted to try—making stone tools, hafting knifes, working with shell and stone to make jewelry, making bone tools, making atlatls, and more. https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/events/category/class/

Lecture Opportunities, Santa Fe NM
Southwest Seminars Presents Dr. Larry Loendorf, Anthropologist and Archaeologist of the Intermountain West; President, Sacred Sites Research, Inc.; Co-Author, Ancient Visions: Petroglyphs and Pictographs of the Wind River and Bighorn Country, Wyoming and Montana; Author, Thunder and Herds: Rock Art of the High Plains; Recipient, Distinguished Service Award, American Rock Art Research Association; who will give a lecture Rock Art and Horses at 6:00 p.m. on December 10 at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the annual Mother Earth Father Sky Lecture Series held to honor The New Mexico Environmental Law Center. Admission is by subscription or $15 at the door. No reservations are necessary. Refreshments are served. Seating is limited. Contact Connie Eichstaedt at tel: 505 466-2775; email: southwestseminar@aol.com; website: southwestseminars.org

The School for Advanced Research (SAR) is pleased to share exciting new developments on one of North America’s most influential archeological sites in the next Creative Thought Forum lecture. Anna Sofaer and her collaborators at the Solstice Project, Richard Friedman and Robert Weiner, present Chacoan Astronomy, Cosmography, Roads, and Ritual Power: Insights into the Chaco World Using New Technologies, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 24 at the James A. Little Theater in Santa Fe. http://bit.ly/2QcQf4E – Los Alamos Daily Post

Please submit news, book announcements, and events at this link for consideration: https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/submit-to-sat/

Questions? sat-editor@archaeologysouthwest.org