Dear Friends,
I write to you aboard a flight to my beloved hometown, Chicago.
I’m headed back to the Field Museum, where I worked from 1997 to 2006, to engage in discussions with their new curator of North American archaeology about collaborating on a field- and collections-based project focused on ancient Mogollon sites located near Reserve, New Mexico, in the west-central part of the state. Preservation Archaeologist Karen Schollmeyer, who has directed Archaeology Southwest’s field school for many years, will join me there.
Given that Archaeology Southwest is based in Tucson, near fantastic archaeological collections curated by regional museums, including the Arizona State Museum, you may wonder why I want to collaborate with a Chicago institution. The answer is three-fold.
First and foremost, the Field Museum curates the Southwestern archaeology collection amassed by Paul Sidney Martin during a 43-year career from 1929 to 1972. I catalogued Martin’s collection as a postdoctoral research specialist in the late 1990s and have been working on it, off and on, ever since. There are more than 100,000 unanalyzed artifacts from the Reserve, New Mexico, area curated in Chicago. In the interest of Preservation Archaeology, I believe we have an ethical responsibility to analyze these collections.
The second reason is historical. Chicago is where the American public was introduced to (an admittedly romanticized) conceptualization of the American Southwest. That introduction occurred during the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, which was held in Jackson Park and along the Midway on the South Side, a stone’s throw from my childhood home.
In addition to having an entire building dedicated to the then-fledgling discipline of anthropology, Arizona, Colorado, and other Southwestern states had their own buildings that included archaeology. The Colorado building even had a full-sized, walk-through replica of Mesa Verde’s Cliff Palace! I’m still fascinated by the Columbian Exposition, which may be familiar to you as the setting for Erik Larson’s bestselling work The Devil in the White City.
Finally, I have to confess: The third reason I want to develop a collaborative project in Chicago is the food. I love Tucson’s Mexican and Indigenous cuisines, which are so good that UNESCO designated Tucson the first City of Gastronomy in North America, and I still dream of my old comfort foods from Harold’s Chicken Shack (note 1 from Kate: Do your homework and KNOW how to order your chicken if you are at a southside location), Al’s Italian Beef, and Calumet Fisheries, as well as the ubiquitous Chicago-style hot dogs and tavern-cut pizza (note 2 from Kate: Steve was gonna go easy and say “deep-dish pizza,” but as an editor and fellow southsider, I couldn’t let that stand).
It will be great to spend a day in conversation with old and new colleagues at the Field Museum. It will be great to revisit the Martin Collection after so many years. And it will be even better to consider the possibilities for a new, ethically grounded project that will include collaboration with Tribal Nations whose ancestors lived in the mountains of western New Mexico many centuries ago. And hopefully we will have the opportunity to create comfort-food memories of New Mexico green chile for our potential students!
Until next time,
Steve Nash
President & CEO, Archaeology Southwest
Precontact Yup’ik Place Badly Impacted by Typhoon Halong
The remnants of Typhoon Halong spared Quinhagak much of the home damage seen in other villages. But the storm earlier this month caused massive beach erosion, scouring off up to 60 feet of land in some places and upending the Nunalleq archaeological site, the world’s largest trove of pre-contact Yup’ik cultural treasures.
The storm’s destruction unburied a trove of artifacts, sending some out to sea and scattering others along the remade shoreline. In recent days, people in Quinhagak have engaged in what Rick Knecht—the archaeologist who has been leading the project since 2009—calls “rescue archaeology,” picking up pieces that in some cases have survived being tossed more than a mile by the surf.
Being on the beach is “like visiting a friend in a hospital that’s been in a terrible accident,” Knecht said. “You’re happy to be there, but [it’s] hard to look at.” Michelle Theriault Boots for Anchorage Daily News | Read more »
Utah Volunteers Help Steward Ancestral Places during Shutdown
Since the federal shutdown began on Oct. 1, Grand County volunteers with the Utah Cultural Site Stewardship Program have staffed busy trailheads and checked assigned sites—helping protect archaeological resources while many federal staff are furloughed.
“From day one, we have had volunteers eager to get out into the field, check on their assigned sites, and spend additional donated time talking with the public at popular trailheads and cultural resource locations,” said Lexi Little, coordinator for the Utah Cultural Site Stewardship Program, in an Oct. 15 interview. …
“It is important to remember that all cultural resources are connected to living peoples,” said Little. “Nothing is abandoned or forgotten, and it should be visited as such.” Moab Sun News | Read more »
Continuing Coverage and Commentary: Interior Is Failing to Conserve National Parks
…[In] our combined 90 years of professional work on national parks, we have never seen such a direct assault on the mission, public servants and resources of the National Park Service. Assault after assault on the agency will have a cumulative impact: the firing of employees, threats of retribution, closure of park support offices, budget proposals that would cut the entire operation by one-third, and the clearly stated goal of transferring over hundreds of small parks to the states. And now the parks are being left wide-open to vandalism as well. The current Interior Secretary has demonstrated a failure to “conserve for future generations” and proven that the Interior Department is no longer worthy of the public’s trust that their national parks will be protected. Jonathan B. Jarvis and T. Destry Jarvis in High Country News | Read more »
Continuing Coverage, Commentary, and Historical Overview: Erasing American History as Told by Public Lands and Waters
These places—and others like them across the country’s national parks, monuments, wildlife refuges, sanctuaries, and more—are indispensable to America’s national identity.
Yet through a series of orders changing names of public places, censoring historical exhibits, and reducing access to public areas, the Trump administration is erasing the multicultural and multiracial stories of the people who built and shaped this country—stories that are meant to be permanently enshrined by national public lands and waters. Through a multipronged strategy that includes pushing for changes in school curricula and censoring museum exhibits, the Trump administration is attempting to erase nonwhite history. No corner of the country is safe from this purge, not even sacred public lands and waters. The Trump administration’s actions denigrate the idea that public places are for everyone. Angelo Villagomez, Sam Zeno, and Gianna Sala at the Center for American Progress | Read more »
Indigenous Artists Make Digital Good Trouble at the Met
Imagine traversing the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s American Wing—the 75 galleries, the grand and sunlit atrium of Charles Engelhard Court—and watching its static paintings come to life, superimposed with the words and images of Indigenous Americans who populated the depicted landscapes long before they were painted. This Monday, October 13, on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, 17 Native artists staged a still-ongoing, unsanctioned digital intervention at the museum, using augmented reality (AR) to layer their own work atop the wing’s 19th-century paintings.
Curated by filmmaker and curator Tracy Renée Rector and an anonymous Indigenous curator who funded the project, and developed collaboratively with design lab Amplifier, ENCODED: Change the Story, Change the Future questions who is uplifted and memorialized in American history—who is American, really? —and what might happen when Indigenous artists reclaim space for themselves. Monica Uszerowicz for Hyperallergic | Read more »
Two Binghamton Anthropologists Honored as World’s Top Scientists
Twenty-nine Binghamton University researchers have been honored for their work by a Stanford University study that looks at the impact of scientists worldwide. The recently released ranking identifies current faculty who were among the top 2% of all researchers in 2024. The Stanford research, published annually, creates a database of the most cited scientists across 22 scientific fields and 174 subfields. This methodology results in rankings for more than 236,000 top scientists. Chris Kocher for BingUNews | Read more »
Congratulations to Archaeology Southwest board member Ruth Van Dyke for this prestigious recognition!
New Map from the Grand Canyon Trust
Cartographer-great Stephanie Smith has done it again! The Grand Canyon Trust’s 2025 map of national monuments, national parks, national forests, plants, landmarks, and animals across the Colorado Plateau, which includes parts of northern Arizona, southern Utah, southwest Colorado, and northwest New Mexico is now available to download [for noncommercial use]. Grand Canyon Trust | See the map »
Apply to Be Part of Arizona’s Heritage Preservation Youth Council
It is the State Historic Preservation Office’s (SHPO) sincere pleasure to be a part of the launch of the inaugural Year of the Arizona’s Heritage Preservation Youth Council (HPYC). Student leaders will work within their communities to identify and preserve the places that are important to our heritage.
In 2026, the Council will launch with nine students hailing from around the State. Council members will hone their leadership skills through development of messaging and service projects. The HPYC is a student-organized and student-led and represents a unique opportunity to learn about the state’s history, engage with policy-makers and ensure the future of the places that matter. AZ SHPO | Learn more and apply »
Publication Announcements
Chris Loendorf, Douglas R. Mitchell, Laurene G. Montero, and Barnaby Lewis (2025). S’edav Vaa’aki and the O’Odham: Sonoran Desert Farmers and Canal Builders. Available at the S’edav Vaa’aki Museum | Learn more »
Kessler NV, Benson EM, Pauketat TR, Kirk JD, Therrell MD (2025) Age and origin of a Cahokian wooden monument at the Mitchell site, Illinois, USA. PLoS One 20(10): e0333783. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0333783. Read more (open access) »
REMINDER: Oct. 29 In-Person Event (Tucson AZ): Mimbres Far from the Heartland
With Pat Gilman. Pat and Linda Gregonis will discuss Pat and Mary Whisenhunt’s new book Mimbres Far from the Heartland: Identity at the Powers Ranch Site of East-Central Arizona. 6:00 p.m., Tumamoc Hill Boathouse, 1675 W. Anklam Rd. Note: Street parking is available on Anklam, or the lot on the corner of Anklam and Silverbell. There is no event parking available on Tumamoc Hill. The Southwest Center | Learn more »
REMINDER: Oct. 30 Online Event: Through a Zuni Lens
With Carrie Heitman and Octavius Seowtewa. The team has spent the last three years making two short documentary films about archaeological and ethnographic collections removed from the Pueblo of Zuni and taken to the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. The films feature Zuni artists, religious leaders, and knowledge keepers, and follow members of the Zuni Cultural Resource Advisory Team on their travels to Washington, D.C. to reunite with ancestral belongings. The films ask: What was lost in the taking? And what can be regained by sharing A:shiwi (Zuni) histories of connection? During this presentation you will see the 15-minute public film followed by a commentary and Q&A with Octavius and Carrie. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center | Learn more and register (free) »
REMINDER: Oct. 30 Online Event: O’Odham Pottery: Prehistoric, Historic, and Contemporary Native American Ceramic Production in the Phoenix Basin
With Linda Morgan and Katrina Soke. Within the last three decades, Native communities in the United States have taken on the management of their own archaeological resources, including the establishment of Cultural Resource Management Departments. These developments have resulted in increased interactions between archaeologists and Native people, which has led to a better understanding of indigenous material culture, especially more recent remains, which for obvious reasons are more concentrated within extant Native American reservations, such as the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC). This presentation discusses research by the GRIC Cultural Resource Management Program (GRIC-CRMP), focusing on their recent contributions to the indigenous ceramic analysis process. Amerind Museum | Learn more and register (free) »
Nov. 4 In-Person and Online Event: Following Their Footsteps: Indigenous Geography and the Anza Expedition of 1775–1776
With Aaron Wright. Spanish colonialism succeeded in part by co-opting Indigenous knowledge, resources, and infrastructure—including methods for navigating difficult and dangerous terrain unfamiliar to the colonizers. A prime example is the 1775–1776 overland expedition led by Captain Juan Bautista de Anza, launched to claim and colonize San Francisco Bay, then a remote harbor in Alta California critical to trade between Asia and Spain’s expanding presence in the Americas. In recognition of the expedition’s 250th anniversary, this presentation shares findings from recent archaeological investigations that reveal how the expedition relied on an established Indigenous trail network to successfully traverse the Sonoran Desert—arguably the most challenging segment of the five-month, 1,200-mile journey. Archaeology Café (Archaeology Southwest) and the Anza Trail Foundation | Learn more about attending in person or by Zoom »
Nov. 11 In-Person Event (Scottsdale AZ): Southwest Rock Imagery
With Aaron Wright. Instead of just asking what the petroglyphs mean, Dr. Wright will look at how they were used by the people who created them hundreds of years ago. This free Sonoran Speaker Series talk will explore the common threads and unique regional qualities of petroglyphs throughout the Southwest. Come discover how these amazing artworks were important to their creators and what they can teach us about our desert’s past. 6:00 p.m., Valley of the Sun J, 12701 N Scottsdale Rd. Desert Foothills Land Trust and Valley of the Sun J | Learn more and register (registration free but required) »
Nov. 14–15 In-Person Event (Tucson AZ): AAHS Used Book Sale
The book sale supports the Arizona State Museum library and is one of their primary sources of funding. This year, we have received a large collection of books from retiring University of Arizona professors, including many on archaeozoology, human evolution, animal behavior, and Neolithic Europe. As always, we have a great selection of Southwest and world archaeology, Native American ethnology and culture, as well as books of general interest. Please join us and support the ASM library while enhancing your reading. Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the lawn in front of the Arizona State Museum (1013 E. University Ave). All remaining stock will be 1/2 price on Saturday from 12 to 3 p.m. Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society (AAHS) | Learn more »
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!