Fingerprints Show Chaco Potters Were Male and Female

New Research: Fingerprints Show Chaco Potters Were Male and Female
In the Pueblo communities of New Mexico and Arizona, pottery is a skill that is traditionally passed down from grandmothers and mothers to younger women of the community. This custom was thought to have ancient origins, and archaeologists believed about a thousand years’ worth of ceramics were crafted primarily by women in what is now the southwestern United States. But a new study of pottery at Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico, the center of early Ancestral Pueblo culture 800 to 1,200 years ago, shows men and women were getting their hands dirty at almost equal rates. http://bit.ly/2MrmmMk – Smithsonian

Data Show Recent U.S. Protections Rollbacks Are Largest in Nation’s History
America’s reputation as an international conservation leader is under threat in the wake of unprecedented rollbacks, according to the most comprehensive effort yet to track the erosion of protected wilderness areas and national parks around the world. The report, published on Thursday in the journal Science, found that the pace of proposed rollbacks in the US has accelerated, with 90% having taken place since 2000. Nearly all of those proposals (99%) were associated with industrial-scale development projects, including infrastructure construction and oil and gas extraction. The report specifically calls out Donald Trump’s downsizing of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, the largest protected area reductions in US history, as highlighting “the increasingly uncertain future of US PAs [protected areas]”. http://bit.ly/2MtB0CY – The Guardian

Researchers also identified an “alarming” acceleration in efforts to roll back laws that were meant to protect land and water, not just in the United States, but all around the world. Across the globe, there have been at least 3,700 rollbacks of laws that protected natural land across more than 3,000 areas, some of which had been protected since 1872, the study found. That removes 519,857 square kilometers (more than 200,000 square miles) of protected lands around the globe. The study found 78% of the rollbacks happened in the last eight years. In the United States, 90% occurred since 2000. In Brazil, 84% took place since then. https://cnn.it/2Mvs6Vl – CNN

Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears Are “Landscapes in Limbo”
Steve Bloch, the legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, a plaintiff in two of the cases challenging Trump’s actions, says the limbo created by the president’s orders is already causing harm. “There’s clearly a lot of uncertainty there about what people can and cannot do,” Bloch said. “And I think that uncertainty is to the detriment of the objects. So if it’s fossils or cultural resources or simply, you know, wildlife, the wilderness resource that’s there are all being eroded away.” http://bit.ly/2MvnMp7 – Salt Lake Tribune

National Trust for Historic Preservation Releases 2019 List of 11 Most Endangered Places
Each year, America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places sheds light on important examples of our nation’s heritage that are at risk of destruction or irreparable damage. Over 300 places have been listed in its 32-year history, and in that time, fewer than 5 percent of listed sites have been lost. The 2019 list includes a diverse mix of historic places across America that face a range of challenges and threats, from climate change to inappropriate development to neglect and disuse. http://bit.ly/2MJ0mgj – National Trust for Historic Preservation

Scattered throughout the expansive mesa tops and rolling valleys between Bears Ears and Canyons of Ancients National Monuments lies a rich cultural landscape now recognized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of ‘America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places’ in 2019. Friends of Cedar Mesa has worked diligently to protect this imperiled cultural area, one that preserves human history dating back to the Archaic period, and welcomes the National Trust’s acceptance of our organization’s nomination of this important region. The unprotected lands recognized by the National Trust are home to the densest archaeology in the United States currently open to oil and gas drilling. http://bit.ly/2MuaXLC – Friends of Cedar Mesa

Commentary: Preservation Archaeology, Perpetuity, and Climate Change
“Archaeology Southwest is a human-focused, science-based enterprise. We have a responsibility to our members and supporters to engage with the current science related to archaeology and to carefully consider how to honor our commitments to ‘in perpetuity protection’ of archaeological sites. How are those responsibilities affected by changing climate, social conditions, and economic conditions in the near and the more distant future?” http://bit.ly/2JPrZBX – William H. Doelle at the Preservation Archaeology blog

Continuing Coverage: Greater Chaco in the News
In May, the 10th District U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the Bureau of Land Management had failed to consider cumulative water use when it allowed drilling in the Chaco region, therefore violating federal environmental law. Yet the agency continues to issue new drilling permits, in defiance of the court’s decision. The court’s ruling concerns the BLM’s Farmington Field Office’s 2003 resource management plan for the San Juan Basin, a 10,000-square-mile geological bowl replete with natural gas, oil and coal. The plan gave the preliminary go-ahead to 9,942 natural gas wells, drilled vertically, primarily in the northeastern corner of the office’s jurisdiction, far from Chaco Culture National Historic Park. But several years after the plan came out, “fracking” — the horizontal drilling and multistage hydraulic fracturing used to extract oil and gas from shale formations — arrived in the San Juan Basin. http://bit.ly/2Mvt0Bd – High Country News

The Navajo Nation president, Pueblo tribal leaders and New Mexico elected leaders advocated for the protection of cultural and historical sites sacred to many tribes as they visited Chaco Culture National Historical Park with the interior secretary. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and New Mexico Pueblo tribal leaders met with U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt May 28. “This is about preserving our teachings and our way of life for indigenous people. In addition to that, we are encouraging more studies to be conducted to assess the impacts of oil and gas drilling on the health and safety of our people who reside in the area and on the environment,” Nez said. “There are many stories and teachings that our people have passed down for generations — it serves as a foundation for the identity of our people.” http://bit.ly/2MtId5U – Navajo-Hopi Observer

Repatriation at Wesleyan University
When students walk into Exley Science Center, they’re usually going to class or heading to the Science Library. Some may descend to the building’s basement, which houses a few classrooms, storage rooms, and a maze of dimly lit hallways. What most students are unaware of, though, is that Exley’s basement is also home to Wesleyan’s collection of Native American remains and funerary objects, a collection that Wesleyan amassed through purchases from indigenous tribes and donations of items stolen by 19th-century missionaries. Now stored in a blessed, cedar-lined room, these objects had been spread across campus until finally settling in Exley’s basement in the early 2010s. Under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), they must now be returned to the descendants of their former owners. But with systemic barriers to repatriation on all sides and the departure of Wesleyan’s NAGPRA coordinator in January, there are now more obstacles to repatriation than ever. http://bit.ly/2Mvnf6B – Wesleyan Argus

Repatriation at Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History
But what happens when the question of ownership comes into the equation? What happens when the countries and communities from which objects originate ask for their objects back? Recently, as the museum has become embroiled in debates around restitution and repatriation, the Peabody has had to grapple with these exact questions and, by extension, its greater identity as a museum. http://bit.ly/2MsOxuo – Yale Daily News

Right around the Corner…the 2019 Pecos Conference!
This year’s Pecos Conference, August 8–11, 2019, will be located high up in the pines in beautiful Cloudcroft, New Mexico. Come share your ideas with colleagues and friends at the oldest conference dedicated to Southwestern Archaeology! More detailed information is available on the conference website, https://www.pecosconference.org/, and updates will be posted as soon as they are available.

Feedback Requested: Archaeology Café
Whether you attend in person, participate through our Facebook live feed, or watch the recorded videos through our website or YouTube channel, the Archaeology Café team at Archaeology Southwest wants to hear from you. Please complete our 7-minute survey by June 30, 2019, to be entered into a drawing for one of three free, year-long memberships to Archaeology Southwest. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/arch_cafe

Job Opportunity, Grand Canyon Tribal Program Manager
The employee in this position will serve as the primary contact between Grand Canyon National Park management and the 11 culturally identified or traditionally associated American Indian tribes of the surrounding area. As the Tribal Program Manager, you will: Develop and maintain effective working relationships with the affiliated Tribes and serves as the Superintendent’s representative in establishing agreements and implementing cooperative programs; sServe as the primary park contact on issues related to implementation of federal laws related to tribal consultation and relationships; establish and maintain effective dialog with tribal governments and communities in the Grand Canyon region. https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/535554700

Lecture Opportunities at the Preservation Archaeology Field School, Cliff NM
The public is invited to a month-long series of lectures at the headquarters of the Archaeology Southwest/University of Arizona field school, 8179 Hwy 180 W, Cliff NM 88028. Look for the cream building with blue portable toilets on the north side of Hwy 180 just east of Shields Canyon Road and the highway yard. This is 2.2 miles west of the 180-211 junction in Cliff. All presentations will begin at 7:00 p.m. https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/events/

June 7, Jeffrey Ferguson, Southwestern Archaeology, Nuclear Reactors, and the MURR Laboratory
June 12, Kelsey Hanson, Behind the Scenes at El Morro: Collaborative Efforts to Rewrite National Register Listings
June 18, John Welch, Where Have All the Peaceful Farmers Gone? Later Prehistoric Tactical Sites of the Upper Salt River Watershed
June 23, Karen Adams, Ancient Plant Domestication and Plant Management in the U.S. Southwest
June 27, Maxwell Forton, Shield Rock Art of Tsegi Canyon
July 1, Allen Denoyer, The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly Mule Creek Obsidian

Lecture Opportunity, Santa Fe NM
Southwest Seminars Presents Jimmy Santiago Baca, Recipient, American Book Award for Poetry and Recipient, Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature; Screenwriter, Blood In, Blood Out; and Founder, Cedar Tree, Inc., who will give a presentation on his latest books, When I Walk Through That Door I Am and Laughing in the Light at 6:00 p.m. on June 10 at Hotel Santa Fe as part of the Voices From the Past Lecture Series held annually. Admission is by subscription or $15 at the door. No reservations are necessary. Refreshments are served. Seating is limited. Contact Connie Eichstaedt at tel: 505 366-2775; email: southwestseminar@aol.com; web: southwestseminars.org

Editors’ Note: Dr. Dennis J. Stanford passed away on April 24, 2019. Dr. Stanford was an archaeologist and the Curator of Archaeology and Director of the Paleoindian Program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.

We’re happy to help get the word out, but we’re not mind readers! Please submit news, book announcements, and events at this link for consideration: https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/submit-to-sat/

Questions? sat-editor@archaeologysouthwest.org