Dear Friends,
Beginning January 8, I attended the Archaeological Institute of America’s (AIA) annual meeting in San Francisco. That was my first AIA meeting, ever.
I have long been familiar with AIA, and many of you might be, too. AIA organizes International Archaeology Day, sharing in-person, online, and hands-on opportunities with the general public across the world. A few years ago, I had the honor of being selected as a speaker in AIA’s National Lecture Program, and I hope to get some of our fantastic speakers from Archaeology Southwest into that program in the near future.
AIA’s long history began with its inaugural meeting in Boston in 1879. In 1880, it sponsored Adolph Bandelier’s field research across the American Southwest, during which Bandelier and his team investigated many sites that are important to archaeologists and have always been culturally significant to Indigenous people.
In 1906, AIA was instrumental in the passage of the Antiquities Act. It also received a formal charter that year from the US Congress. In 1907, it established the School for American Archaeology in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which continues today as the School for Advanced Research.
Over its long history, AIA has focused on Mediterranean, and particularly Classical, archaeology. Those domains aren’t my specialty, and we archaeologists who work in the Americas have many other professional organizations to network among, including the Society for American Archaeology and myriad regional societies.
That said, it was interesting to interact with a group of professional archaeologists who share similar concerns but work in totally different contexts. (See, for example, the ISAC and AIA talks listed below.)
Brian Daniels of the University of Pennsylvania Museum took over as President of AIA at the annual business meeting. Remarkably, he is only the second archaeologist working in the Americas to serve as AIA president in its 147-year history! Brian and I have worked on many cultural heritage preservation and museum issues together over the years. He and I had a great time talking about possible collaborations between AIA and Archaeology Southwest.
We’ll see what develops, or not. But those 48 hours in San Francisco reminded me that the epic sweep of humanity is indeed mighty cool to behold, and it is fun to dream.
Until next time,
Steve Nash
President & CEO, Archaeology Southwest
Banner image: Skylar Begay
Commentary: “What Does Time Immemorial Really Mean?”
Recently, while reading a draft of a story by another writer for this magazine, I tripped over a familiar phrase: time immemorial. If you read (or write) Indigenous affairs journalism, it comes up a lot. As in Indigenous cultures have been here since time immemorial—I’ve seen it so often it disappears into the wallpaper, an invisible cliché. But this time, I realized I had questions. Why do Indigenous affairs writers—myself included—rely on this phrase so much? B. ‘Toastie’ Oaster for High Country News | Read more »
Archaeology Café Welcomes Vance Holliday Feb. 3
Join us in person or via Zoom—info at the link! Holliday will discuss “Tracking the First Americans.” Recent research in White Sands National Park supports interpretations that human tracks found there date to 23,000 to 21,000 years ago.
The tracks are the oldest in the Americas in one of the oldest archaeological sites in the Americas. The new investigations also show that people were walking across a floodplain within a few hundred meters of a large lake and wetland complex that offered a wide range of plant and animal resources. Archaeology Café (Archaeology Southwest) | Learn more »
Ancestral Pueblo Water Conservation
Ancestral Puebloan peoples developed ingenious methods to collect, store, conserve, and utilize water. Their survival in the arid Southwest depended on an intimate understanding of rainfall cycles, seasonal streams, and natural catchments, which they adapted into sustainable systems for agricultural and home uses. Carrie Cannon for KNAU (NPR), read by Melissa Sevigny | Read more or listen now »
Exhibition Announcement (Flagstaff AZ): Katsintithu-Katsina Dolls
The Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA) has opened a new installation of Hopi katsina dolls as it announced a reduced Sunday admission price for northern Arizona residents throughout 2026.
The first installation in the “Katsintithu-Katsina Dolls” exhibit will open Jan. 10, with a focus on carving styles and how the dolls developed from educational toys into an art form. Navajo-Hopi Observer | Read more »
Publication Announcement: ‘A Mark by Any Other Name’
Wright, Aaron M., and John R. Welch. “‘A Mark by Any Other Name . . . ’: Reconciling Historical and Descendant Terms and Concepts for Indigenous Petroglyphs and Pictographs.” American Antiquity, 2026, 1–22. Read more (open access) »
Publication Announcement: Millions of Gifts for the Gods
Jonathan E. Reyman, Millions of Gifts for the Gods: The Feather Distribution Project, University Press of Colorado, 2026. | Learn more »
Publication Announcement: New Issue of Archaeology Southwest Magazine Is on Press!
Shameless plug from Kate, co-editor of this PAT newsletter and editor-in-chief of the magazine:
Archaeology Southwest Magazine Vol. 37, No. 2, “More than a Pet: Exploring Canine Cultural Histories in North America” is on press and soon headed to mailboxes and our online bookstore.
Here’s an introduction to the issue, with audio from myself and guest editor R. E. Burrillo. Read or listen now »
Here’s a reel on Instagram, where you should follow Archaeology Southwest for timely updates, gorgeous visuals, and more. Check it out »
End January–All February In-Person Lectures (Santa FE NM): Evenings with Tom Chavez
Historian and author Tom Chavez is a former director of The Palace of the Governors Museum and a former executive director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center. 1/26, Spanish Explorers & Settlement: Adobe Cities, Columbian Dream, A Missionary Field (held at Hotel Santa Fe); 2/2, Spanish Colonial Period: An Island in the Wilderness: Native Resistance, Accommodation, Nefarious Events, Survival (held at La Fonda on the Plaza, Coronado Room); 2/9, Mexican Period: Wedding Day; When Paco Met Horatio Alger; Santa Fe & Old Spanish Trails; Mountain Men, Texas Invasion (held at Santa Fe Woman’s Club Auditorium, 1616 Old Pecos Trail); 2/16, Territorial Period: Virgin and the Dynamo; Time of Adjustment, Cowboys/Indians, Civil War; Quest for Statehood; 2/23, Statehood Period: War, Art & Literature, Science and the Bomb. $20 at the door of $75 for the series of 4 presentations. Southwest Seminars | Learn more »
TODAY, Jan. 21 Online Event: Constructing Canine Lives: Isotopic Evidence for the Social Roles of Dogs in the Maya Lowlands
With Claire Ebert. 8:00 p.m. ET. Voice of the Ancient Americas series (Mike Ruggeri’s Aztlander) | Zoom link to watch »
Jan. 28 Online Event: NAGPRA as a Path to Healing and Reciprocity
With Danyelle Means (Oglala Lakota). Means’s presentation reframes NAGPRA not as a legal obligation but as a vital opportunity for healing, reciprocity, and relationship-building between archaeologists, museums, and Indigenous communities. Drawing from Indigenous perspectives, the talk explores how NAGPRA challenges institutions to move beyond compliance and toward practices rooted in respect, sovereignty, and shared stewardship. By centering Native voices and experiences, this session invites the audience to consider how honoring ancestors and returning cultural items can transform the field into one of accountability, trust, and long-term collaboration. Archaeological Institute of America | Learn more and register (free) »
Jan. 28 In-Person (Chicago IL) and Online Event: The Grave Robber
With Tim Carpenter and Kiersten Neumann. Tim Carpenter—former head of the FBI’s Art Crime Team and now Managing Director of Argus Cultural Property Consultants—joins Kiersten Neumann, ISAC Museum Curator, for a moderated conversation about The Grave Robber, followed by audience Q&A.
In The Grave Robber, Tim Carpenter recounts one of the most extraordinary and unsettling cases in the history of art theft. Over the course of five decades, a lone graverobber accumulated an illicit trove of over 42,000 artifacts—including nearly 500 ancestral remains—from cultures across the globe, including Native American, Chinese, Egyptian, Iraqi, and others, carefully looted from sacred burial sites and cultural heritage locations.
This riveting account of a stolen past and the quest to make it right is a story of healing, responsibility, and the importance of preserving history for future generations. * Registration is for both in-person and online; a link to stream the program online via Zoom will be circulated by email the day of the event. A recording will later be posted on ISAC’s YouTube page. Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures | Learn more and register (free) »
Feb. 12 Online Event: Our Elder Brother Dwells There
With David Martinez. Learn about I’itoi, Elder Brother, who taught O’odham how to live well in their desert homelands. Learn where his home, his kih, is located, according to oral tradition. Most importantly, learn about how the symbol of this home, I’itoi kih, started appearing in O’odham baskets more than a century ago. What does it all mean? Amerind | Learn more and register (free) »
Register Now: Oct. 14–17 Paleoamerican Odyssey
The Center for the Study of the First Americans invites you to participate in a three-day examination of the first people to explore and settle the Americas at the end of the last Ice Age. This conference is for everyone—archaeologists, avocational archaeologists, Quaternary scientists, students, and anyone interested in archaeology. This will be the largest gathering of First Americans researchers since Paleoamerican Odyssey 2013! Held at the Santa Fe Convention Center. Texas A&M University | Learn more »
Video Channel Roundup
Catch up on some presentations we might’ve missed, too! A simple click on any of the links to the YouTube channels of our Partners and Friends should catch you up. (And please do let us know if your channel isn’t in this list but should be.)
Albuquerque Archaeological Society
American Rock Art Research Association
Amerind Foundation
Archaeology Southwest
Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society
Arizona State Museum
Aztlander
Bears Ears Partnership
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA
Crow Canyon Archaeological Center
Grand Canyon Trust
Grand Staircase Escalante Partners
Mesa Prieta Petroglyphs Project
Mission Garden (Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace)
Museum of Indian Arts and Cultures
Museum of Northern Arizona
Old Pueblo Archaeology Center
Pacific Coast Archaeological Society
San Diego Archaeological Center
School for Advanced Research
SHUMLA Archaeological Center
The Archaeological Conservancy
Verde Valley Archaeology Center
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!