Dear Friends,
Tuesday, May 27, was a rollercoaster, whipsaw day for those of us who support the myriad efforts to protect places that are important to Indigenous culture, history, and ecology.
Midday, within minutes of each other, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals delivered significant and consequential decisions that will have repercussions on two amazing landscapes well into the future.
The SCOTUS decision focused on Chí’chil Biłdagoteel (Oak Flat), a sacred Apache religious space roughly 70 miles east of Phoenix, Arizona, wherein Resolution Copper seeks to build a copper mine. The 9th Circuit decision focused on the SunZia Transmission line that Pattern Energy is building through the San Pedro Valley in southeastern Arizona.
The SCOTUS ruling is tragic. Apache Stronghold is nonprofit community organization based in San Carlos, Arizona, that consists “of individuals who come together in unity to battle continued colonization, defend Holy sites and freedom of religion.” They sued to stop Resolution Copper from mining Oak Flat on the basis of religious freedom, because the place is used for coming-of-age and other ceremonies.
The court rejected that appeal, which means construction of the mine will likely move forward. A culturally important and ecologically stunning landscape will ultimately be replaced by a two-mile wide crater, tailing ponds, the attendant environmental damage caused by copper mining. The harm to Apache culture will be even greater. Archaeology Southwest will continue its support of the Apache Nations in the effort to preserve their sacred spaces. Click here and here to learn more.
Moving on to better news, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled in support of the plaintiffs Tohono O’odham Nation, San Carlos Apache Tribe, Center for Biological Diversity, and Archaeology Southwest and against the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Pattern Energy.
(In early 2024, Pattern Energy began construction on the SunZia transmission line through the San Pedro Valley of southeastern Arizona, sending electricity from New Mexico to California. It is now nearly complete.)
Three 9th Circuit Court judges ruled unanimously that our 2024 claim, in which we argued that BLM violated both the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and Administrative Procedures Act, was properly and timely filed. (Last year, BLM and Pattern Energy successfully argued that we missed a statutory deadline and the District Court of Arizona agreed with them. Hence our appeal.)
The 9th Circuit Court’s decision remands our case back to the District Court for Arizona and forces it to hear and then rule on the merits of the case, not just procedural matters. It also advises the District Court to instruct BLM to assess the San Pedro Valley as a traditional cultural property, which they have as yet failed to do. In our view, that failure means that BLM violated NHPA while they allowed Pattern Energy to build the transmission line.
As Vice President of Preservation & Collaboration John Welch said, “the SunZia victory is an auspicious and potentially consequential win.” John and the rest of the Archaeology Southwest team will continue the legal fight in support of the Tohono O’odham Nation, the San Carlos Apache Tribe, and other Tribal Nations for whom the San Pedro is an important place. Click here for more (and see below).
As the old adage goes, you win some and you lose some. But this is no time to celebrate. We will press on in the practice of Preservation Archaeology in collaboration with Tribal Nations, conservation and ecological support groups, and you, dear reader.
Until next week,
Steve Nash
President & CEO, Archaeology Southwest
Banner image: Oak Flat, John Welch
US Archaeology’s Imperiled Future
Federal layoffs and grant terminations threaten efforts to understand and preserve the nation’s past. “We are getting cut off at the knees,” said one archaeologist. … American archaeologists face a diminished, uncertain future. Over the last few months, government support for archaeological research, preservation and museums has been largely scaled back. Archaeology and cultural heritage staff have been fired, federal agencies engaged in field and collections work have been gutted, and projects have been mothballed or canceled in all three major employment sectors: academic, private and government. Franz Lidz for the New York Times | Read more »
NSF Cuts Visualized
The National Science Foundation, which funds much of the fundamental scientific research at American universities, is awarding new grants at the slowest pace in at least 35 years. The funding decreases touch virtually every area of science … Aatish Bhatia, Irineo Cabreros, Asmaa Elkeurti, and Ethan Singer in the New York Times | See the infographics and read the analyses »
Continuing Coverage: A Win in the SunZia Case
The Tohono O’odham Nation, the San Carlos Apache Tribe, Archeology Southwest, and the Center for Biological Diversity won a major court decision Tuesday when a federal appeals court reinstated their lawsuit challenging construction of the SunZia high voltage transmission line through the culturally sensitive San Pedro River Valley. The federal court now must consider the tribes’ argument that the federal government failed to properly consult with them on a historic property designation for this area. Tohono O’odham Nation and San Carlos Apache Tribe (joint press release) | Read more »
Southern Arizona tribes will have another chance to challenge the construction of a transmission line through their ancestral homeland after the Ninth Circuit found the trial judge dismissed it based on the wrong standards.
A three-judge panel found Tuesday that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s “final agency decision” in approving the 550-mile wind energy transmission line was its 2023 notice to proceed with construction, not the 2015 approval of the route as the defendants argue. So, the plaintiffs’ 2024 lawsuit didn’t fall outside the six-year window for a National Historic Preservation Act claim. Joe Duhownik in the Tucson Sentinel | Read more »
Analysis and Commentary: Voters Oppose Downsizing National Monuments
New polling from Data for Progress finds that a majority of likely voters nationwide (59%) say they have visited a U.S. national monument. This includes 58% of Democrats, 61% of Independents, and 58% of Republicans, highlighting the broad appeal of national monuments. … When informed that the Trump administration is considering shrinking the size of six national monuments, a strong majority of voters (68%) are opposed to the move. This includes overwhelming majorities of Democrats (83%) and Independents (74%), as well as a plurality of Republicans (49%). Catherine Fraser, Grace Adcox, and Lew Blank at Data for Progress | Read more »
Podcast: Save the Boundary Waters, Join the National Wilderness Coalition
What does it take to protect one of the most visited, and most threatened, wilderness areas in America? Executive Director of Save the Boundary Waters, Ingrid Lyons, joins us to talk about the fight to defend Minnesota’s beloved Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from dangerous copper mining proposals and the broader movement to reinvigorate wilderness advocacy nationwide. Specifically: The growing momentum behind the National Wilderness Coalition, and why wilderness needs a bigger, more inclusive tent; What’s at stake with HR 978 and the urgent fight to protect hard-won safeguards for the Boundary Waters; How you can take action and why public pressure still works The Wild Idea | Listen now »
Would You Have Won Final Jeopardy This Past Monday?
The category was UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Answer: The first 12 sites added to the list 1978 included Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado & this site 500 miles to the north. The Jeopardy Fan | Check your answer (in the form of a question!) »
Publication Announcement: Checklist of Pottery Types for the Tonto National Forest
Wood, J. Scott, 2025. Checklist of Pottery Types for the Tonto National Forest: An Introduction to the Archaeological Ceramics of Central Arizona, 4th ed., Arizona Archaeological Society. Nonmembers can purchase at Amazon »
June In-Person Lectures (Santa Fe NM)
June 2, Matthew Liebmann; Echoes of Conquest: Bells, First Contacts & New Mexico Resistance, 1539–1680; June 9, Kelsey E. Hanson, Painting for Rain: Technologies of Chromatic Prayer in Chaco Canyon; June 16, Steve Simms, First Peoples of Great Salt Lake: A Cultural Landscape from Nevada to Wyoming; June 23, John R. Welch, Fortresses of the Upper Salt River, Arizona; June 30, Philippe S. Cohen, Our Global Backyards: Field Stations and Marine Labs. 6:00 p.m., Hotel Santa Fe. $20 at the door. Southwest Seminars | Learn more »
REMINDER: May 30 Online Event: Great Houses for Whom?
With Robert S. Weiner. What were Great Houses, how were they used, and what do they tell us about the Indigenous history of the Four Corners from 800-1200 CE? In this talk Dr. Robert Weiner will offer a new interpretation of Great Houses as temples, drawing on diverse lines of evidence of cognitive science, cross-cultural comparison, and oral traditions of Diné and Pueblo people. Dr. Weiner is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows at Dartmouth College, where he is also a Lecturer in the Department of Religion. 8:00 p.m. EDT. Aztlander Magazine of the Americas | Zoom link »
June 12 Online Event: Rethinking the Origins of Horse Domestication and Its Impact on the Ancient World
With William Taylor. The domestication of the horse is widely understood as one of the most significant events in human history – with horse transport linked to drastic changes in ecology, communication, culture, ceremony, and even the very structure of societies across the ancient world. But, how did this transformative relationship between people and horses first emerge? New discoveries from archaeological sciences are overturning long-held assumptions about the timing and process of the first domestication, revealing a process that was far more rapid – and far more disruptive than previously understood. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center | Learn more and register (free) »
June 16 Online Event: Aztec Conquest of the Toluca Valley
With Angela Huster. When the Spanish collected Native historical accounts of the preconquest Toluca Valley for a series of 16th-century court cases, the Triple Alliance-Aztec conquest of the region, a generation earlier, featured prominently in local narratives. The Toluca Valley, immediately west of the Aztec heartland in Central Mexico, was not one of the growing empire’s first conquests, but it was one of the first times that the state had to incorporate an ethnically and linguistically different population. This presentation gives an overview of the region’s archaeology and a look at the effects of Aztec rule on the commoner majority of the population, based on the results of two recent projects in the area. Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society | Learn more and register (free) »
June 19 Online Event: Beyond Any One Scholar’s Expertise: The Story of the Safford Valley Grids Archaeology Project
With William Doolittle and James Neely. They headed a project that investigated expansive tracts of rock-bordered grids north of the Gila River in the Safford Valley that had mystified archaeologists and others for nearly a century. Third Thursday Food for Thought series (Old Pueblo Archaeology Center) | Learn more and register (free) »
Remember to send us notice of upcoming events and webinars, tours and workshops, and anything else you’d like to share with the Friends. Thanks!