Dear Friends,
This week, I bring greetings from northern New Mexico! Yesterday, I drove my favorite blue highways through southeastern Arizona and west-central New Mexico, to ultimately arrive in Albuquerque and then Santa Fe for a couple days’ work with the Department of Cultural Affairs.
On that drive, I passed through some places and landscapes that are near and dear to Archaeology Southwest’s heart, soul, and origins.
There is our beloved San Pedro Valley just east of Tucson, which I viewed from I-10, and where we continue to dispute routing of the SunZia power transmission line. Vice President of Preservation and Collaboration John Welch has been leading that effort. It is great to have him back in the office after a summer of in-person teaching at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia.
I turned northbound on US 191 through the Safford Valley, home to a stretch of the Gila River that we love so much, and which is also home to the archaeologically confusing Salado phenomenon, on which Vice President of Research Jeff Clark and others have published so extensively.
I admired the dramatic setting of the tiny town of Mule Creek, New Mexico, where Preservation Archaeologist Karen Schollmeyer and others ran our archaeological field school for so many years before relocating to Cliff and Silver City.
I then proceeded north on US 180 to pass through Reserve, New Mexico, where I have been working for nearly 15 years. Some old friends welcomed me for a short visit.
Leaving Reserve, I set my sights on Cibola County toward Quemado, and then El Malpais National Monument, after which I merged right on I-40 in Grants to make my final descent into Albuquerque, where I had dinner with our newest board member Tony Chapa. Tony is an old friend and an accomplished archaeologist in the federal sphere who is always good at providing abundant belly laughs.
Speaking of El Malpais National Monument, I hope you will join us on Tuesday, October 7, at 6:00 p.m. MST, for the first lecture of our 2025–2026 Archaeology Café series entitled Tread: The Where, Why, and How of Trails and Foot Travel. Preservation Archaeologist and New Mexico Program Director Paul Reed will discuss “A Very Special Landscape: Trails and the Lava Fields of El Malpais National Monument.”
If you can join us in person, we will be in the Corona Room of our historic Bates Mansion office complex; enter at 300 N Ash Alley, Tucson (85701). If you can’t join us in person, please join our live Zoom broadcast! (Either way, we’re asking you to register in advance, for free, just to keep track of numbers.) If you can’t do Zoom, check our YouTube channel shortly thereafter—we will post a quality video version of the lecture filmed by our extraordinary videographer Victoria Rendón.
Until next time,
Steve Nash
President & CEO, Archaeology Southwest
Banner image: El Malpais National Monument by John Kuehnert, courtesy NPS
Celebrate Public Lands Day This Saturday, September 27
Join us for National Public Lands Day on September 27, 2025! Since 1994, this annual event on the fourth Saturday of September has been the nation’s largest single-day volunteer effort. Last year, over 130 national parks hosted events with 7,600 volunteers donating an impressive 41,500 hours of service. All national parks that charge an entrance fee will offer free admission to everyone on September 27, 2025, in celebration of National Public Lands Day. National Park Service | Learn more »
In 2024, the Bureau of Land Management hosted 132 events—more than any other federal agency! Approximately 9,149 volunteers came out from across the nation to lend a hand. These volunteers contributed nearly 54,406 hours of service worth over $1.6 million back to BLM-managed public lands. For all NPLD events, BLM works to make sure volunteers have everything they need to get down to the business of beautifying YOUR public lands. Tools, safety equipment, and materials needed for each year’s projects are furnished by the BLM. Bureau of Land Management | Learn more »
Join us for a special screening of the AZPM original documentary “Southwestern Gems: Our Desert National Parks,” followed by an engaging panel discussion on the importance of preserving public lands and how you can get involved through local volunteer opportunities. Panelists include: Robert Steidl, PhD, Professor of Natural Resources and Wildlife Conservation & Management Program Chair, University of Arizona; Cam Juarez, Community Engagement Director, Saguaro National Park; Kris Gade, PhD, Director, Pima County Conservation Lands and Resources. Hosted by Tony Paniagua. Free and open to the public. AZPM/University of Arizona | Learn more »
Defend the Public Lands Rule
The Public Lands Rule guides the Bureau of Land Management to consider conservation, recreation, cultural resource protection, and sustainable use alongside development by providing long overdue guidance for the agency to make smart, science-based decisions about where and how different uses are permitted on the 245 million acres it stewards.
Despite receiving overwhelming public support (92% of all public comments submitted were in favor of its implementation), the Trump administration has announced its intent to rescind the Public Lands Rule. If that happens, the agency will lose essential tools to restore degraded lands, safeguard intact ecosystems, and respond to the growing pressures of drought, wildfire, and climate change—not to mention opening the door for industry to further exploit public lands and waters. Act Now for Public Lands Coalition | Take action »
Rep. Gosar Introduces Legislation to Nullify Two AZ National Monuments
Environmental groups blasted legislation submitted by U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar on Wednesday attempting to nullify two national monuments in Arizona, including Ironwood Forest National Monument just northwest of Tucson.
A Republican who represents Arizona’s 9th Congressional District—a large district along the east bank of the Colorado River, which includes part of the west Phoenix metro area and Bullhead City—Gosar is also seeking to undo Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument created by President Joe Biden in August 2023. Paul Ingram for the Tucson Sentinel | Read more »
Continuing Coverage: National Park Service Ordered to Censor Exhibits
The Trump administration has ordered several National Park Service sites to take down materials related to slavery and Native Americans, including an 1863 photograph of a formerly enslaved man with scars on his back that became one of the most powerful images of the Civil War era. …
At several other national parks, the Trump administration has ordered the removal of signs and other materials that state that the land once belonged to Native American tribes, according to one of the people briefed on the matter. Maxine Joselow for the New York Times | Read now »
Continuing Coverage: Pueblo Leaders in DC to Defend Chaco Protection Zone
“This is your nation’s capital,” Santo Domingo Pueblo Lt. Gov. Raymond Aguilar Jr. said. “Chaco Canyon is our nation’s capital.” In addition to Aguilar, leadership from the Pueblos of Santa Ana, Picuris, Cochiti, Zia, Tesuque, Acoma, Santo Domingo and Laguna attended the news conference with U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, as well as U.S. Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández and Melanie Stansbury, all Democrats, outside of the U.S. Capitol. …
[Senator] Heinrich again called upon Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to personally visit the site. “Come out, see this with your own eyes,” Heinrich said. “Walk these grounds, meet with the people whose identities are so intricately connected to this place before you make a decision about its future.” Danielle Prokop for Source NM | Read more »
New Mexico to Offer Free Archaeological Training for State Residents
The Office of Archaeological Studies (OAS) in partnership with the New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA), is launching the New Mexico Archaeology Field Training Program, a new educational and workforce development initiative for aspiring archaeological field professionals.
Funded by the New Mexico Legislature in 2025, this statewide pilot program offers immersive, hands-on training designed to prepare participants for employment on professional archaeological projects. The program is open to permanent New Mexico residents and will run from September 2025 through early 2026. Participation is free of charge, and applicants are eligible for travel support and paid field experience. New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs (press release) | Read more »
State Archaeologist Shares Overview of Nebraska Archaeology
… And then just the sheer number of village sites that we have associated with ancestral Pawnee people, ancestral Omaha, ancestral Otoe Missouria people, we typically refer to as the Central Plains tradition, those village sites that dot central and eastern Nebraska all along the major drainages, the Platte River, the Republican River. Those sites are really fascinating, and that kind of ties into one of the more important aspects of our work, of being collaborative and working with Native nations, working with other groups. We’ve done a lot of work with Pawnee Nation and the Otoe Missouria, the Iowa Tribe of Nebraska and Kansas and looking at those sorts of sites and using oral traditions and their histories to help us better understand how these folks were living, what these sites really mean, and that sort of thing. Dave Williams interviewed by Dale Johnson for Nebraska Public Media | Read more or listen now »
Publication Announcements
The SAA Archaeological Record, September 2025, Volume 25 Number 4 | Read now (opens in an online e-reader) »
Editor’s note: Archaeology Southwest’s field school is one of several featured in Alex W. Barker’s article “Changing the Curriculum with Curation-Based Field Schools,” beginning on page 8.
Hanson, Kelsey E., Kathleen Barvick, Rebecca Harkness, Evan Giomi, Scott G. Ortman, and Barbara J. Mills, 2025. From Exclusive to Inclusive: The Changing Role of Plaza Spaces in the Ancestral Pueblo World (AD 800–1550). American Antiquity 90(3):508–529. Read now (open access) »
Editor’s note: The authors used existing data from the cyberSW database to create new information that has since been added.
Position Announcements
The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology (MMA) at the University of New Mexico (UNM) seeks an NAGPRA Collections Associate to assist the Sr. Collections Manager for Archaeology in all aspects of NAGPRA documentation and compliance for archaeological collections. We seek an enthusiastic professional with knowledge or education in the field of archaeology and familiarity with the material culture of the U.S. Southwest. University of New Mexico | Learn more »
The Supervisor, Cultural Programs is responsible for the professional administration of Coronado Historic Site in Bernalillo, New Mexico, and Jemez Historic Site in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. They are charged with carrying out the mission and strategic goals of the Historic Sites Division and of the Department of Cultural Affairs. The position oversees all aspects of day-to-day operations at the site including admissions, interpretive programing, fundraising, partnership development, cultural resource management, and public outreach. State of New Mexico | Learn more »
The Supervisor, Cultural Programs is responsible for the professional administration of Los Luceros Historic Site in Alcalde, New Mexico. They are charged with carrying out the mission and strategic goals of the Historic Sites Division and of the Department of Cultural Affairs. The position oversees all aspects of day-to-day operations at the site including admissions, interpretive programing, fundraising, partnership development, cultural resource management, and public outreach. State of New Mexico | Learn more »
September In-Person Lectures (Santa Fe NM)
Sept. 29, Wayne Ranney, A Virtual River Trip in Grand Canyon. $20 at the door. Southwest Seminars | Learn more »
Sept. 25 Online Event: The Radical Comparative Politics of Ancient Northwest Mexico
With Matthew Pailes. Pailes will present a review and interpretations of recent research in Northwest Mexico. This region is often invoked to explain the sudden arrival or disappearance of social movements, populations, or materials better known from the ancient American Southwest. Thanks to decades of work by Mexican and international archaeologists we can now begin to place Northwest Mexico in its rightful place in continental scale narratives. Doing so provides surprising insights into the diversity of political organization across these related regions. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center | Learn more and register (free) »
REMINDER: Sept. 27 Online Event: One Sherd at a Time: Seriating Ceramics from Paloparado
With Hunter Claypatch. The archaeological site of Paloparado in present-day Santa Cruz County, Arizona was excavated in the 1950s by Amerind’s Charles Di Peso. Although fundamental for reconstructing the occupational history of the Arizona-Sonora borderlands, the excavation was conducted with little prior knowledge of regional ceramics or culture chronology. Dr. Claypatch, a ceramicist who has worked extensively with pre-Colonial pottery on both sides of the U.S. and Mexico border, applied ceramic insights that were unknown in the 1950s to conduct a systematic reanalysis of Paloparado’s pottery. Coupled with previously unpublished site data, his research reconstructs the site’s occupational history and demonstrates the presence of largely unmixed pre-1150 CE archaeological deposits in Paloparado’s houses. Amerind Museum | Learn more and register (free) »
Oct. 2 Online Event: Montezuma Castle National Monument: Recent Research & Insights from America’s Best Preserved Cliff Dwelling
Montezuma Castle National Monument was established in 1906 to protect and preserve Montezuma Castle, one of North America’s best preserved cliff dwellings. Despite this early designation, little was known about the site until recently. Since 2010, National Park Service archaeologists, along with a diverse group of partners, have worked together to better understand the site by studying its architecture and archaeology. This presentation will highlight the results of these studies and how they are being interpreted to the public. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center | Learn more and register (free) »
Oct. 7 Online and In-Person Event (Tucson AZ): A Very Special Landscape: Trails and the Lava Fields of El Malpais National Monument
With Paul F. Reed. The cultural landscape of El Malpais National Monument holds great significance for Indigenous groups of the Southwest. Within this amazing landscape lie many kilometers of specially constructed trails that allow access to remote parts of the area. In this presentation, Paul will paint a picture of this phenomenal geography and the trails that connect it. Archaeology Café (Archaeology Southwest) | Learn more and register for online » | Learn more about attending in person »
Oct. 10–11 Online and In-Person Event (Tucson AZ): AAC’s 2025 Conference
AAC’s annual fall conference will be held in Tucson at Archaeology Southwest (and online!) on Friday, October 10, and Saturday, October 11. This year’s theme is “Updates from Southern Arizona and Sonora.” Presentations will take place on Friday with field trips and workshops geared toward students taking place on Saturday. Arizona Archaeological Council | Learn more and register »
Oct. 11 Tour (Marana AZ): Hohokam and Historic Archaeological Sites
With Allen Dart. Dart will lead participants to the Yuma Wash and Bojórquez-Aguirre Ranch archaeological sites in Marana, Arizona. Investigations of these sites encountered archaeological features and artifacts of an ancient Hohokam village and a turn-of-the-20th-century Mexican-American cattle ranch. Meet at 3:00 p.m. in front of the Wheeler Taft Abbett Sr. Library, 7800 N Schisler Dr, Marana. Reservations and $20 donation prepayment are required by October 8. Old Pueblo Archaeology Center | Learn more »
Oct. 13 Is Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Albuquerque: Join the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center as we commemorate and celebrate the resilience of the Indigenous People of the Western Hemisphere. On this day we honor the past, celebrate the present, and build a future where Indigenous Voices are heard and respected. Learn more »
Phoenix: Our mission for Indigenous Peoples Day Rise and Thrive Nite Market is to empower grassroots collaborations by providing space, access, and inclusion, showcase tribal and Indigenous communities through curated family-friendly and VIP events, raise funds to support collective impact, and build a solidarity economy in Downtown Phoenix. Learn more »
Oct. 16 Online Event: Malinche, Hernán Cortés, and the Origins of Indigenous-Spanish Relations
With Michael Brescia. In this presentation, “Reconstructing the Biographies of Culture and Power in Conquest Mexico,” Brescia will examine the lives of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and his Indigenous interpreter and mistress Malintzin (“La Malinche”). Third Thursday Food for Thought Series (Old Pueblo Archaeological Center) | Learn more and register (free) »
Oct. 25 In-Person Event (Dragoon AZ): Our Elder Brother Dwells There: How I’itoi Kih Moved from Mountain Peak to Basket Design
With David Martínez. Come and learn about O’odham culture and history in a fun and educational day at Amerind’s 14th Annual Autumn Fest. This year Amerind celebrates the history, culture, and arts of the O’odham with scholarly talks, music, artist booths, food, and more. In his Autumn Fest lecture, Professor Martinez will discuss I’itoi, Elder Brother, who taught O’odham how to live well in their desert homelands. Learn where his kih (home) 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. $10 per vehicle fee. Amerind Museum | Learn more »
Save the Date: Oct. 2026, Paleoamerican Odyssey Conference to Convene in Santa Fe NM
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!