2024
06
Mar
Tribal Leaders: Clean Energy Projects Aren’t Always Clean
Dear Friends,
On Monday, March 4, the Washington Post published “‘On stolen land’: Tribes fight clean-energy projects backed by Biden,” an article by climate and environment reporter Maxine Joselow.
The first half of the piece focuses on our beloved San Pedro Valley and the effort by s...
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2022
12
Jul
The Significance of Cooperative Land Management
Dear Friends,
I’m back in Tucson after a week in the Poconos. Lots of good family time, and even a few birds I’m not used to seeing around Tucson—Eastern Bluebirds, Savannah Sparrows, and Yellow Warblers.
Flying on airplanes used to be a wonderful time to settle into a window seat and ma...
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2022
21
Jun
Tribes, BLM Sign Historic Agreement for Managing Bears Ears National Monument
Dear Friends,
The lengthy timeline of emotional events related to Bears Ears National Monument settled into a very positive place this past Saturday. An even better future is on that horizon.
The five Tribes of the Bears Ears Commission signed an Inter-Governmental Cooperative Agreement with t...
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2021
14
Dec
Ancient Indigenous Farming Strategies as Climate Solutions
Dear Friends,
Two shots and a booster. Everyone at the Southwest Seminars in-person lecture I gave on Monday evening in Santa Fe met those criteria—including me. And we were masked and socially distanced. (I did remove my mask for my presentation.)
I opened my talk by thanking the audien...
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2021
20
Oct
Time for Healing and Justice at Bears Ears
Dear Friends,
For almost 40 years, I have lived in a house that overlooks a desert wash in Tucson. Tonight, as I was driving north from downtown Tucson toward home, the full moon was just topping the ridge of the mountains.
I was struck anew by the incredible beauty of this desert that kee...
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2021
28
Sep
Human Footprints at White Sands Support Much Earlier Peopling of the Americas
Dear Friends,
Happy (belated) autumnal equinox!
Bats are one of my favorite seasonal markers. They double the pleasure sugar water provides.
My bat friends are nectar feeders from Mexico—Mexican Long-Nosed and Mexican Long-Tongued bats.
In the morning, freshly stocked with sugar ...
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2021
07
Sep
The Future of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante
Dear Friends,
I spent a good bit of this Labor Day weekend doing background reading for a talk I am scheduled to give in mid-November.
It’s a talk about Preservation Archaeology, and one topic will be Bears Ears National Monument.
It turns out I have more than 500 files of Bears Ears-rela...
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2021
24
Aug
NEW REPORT: Former DOI Secretary, Pueblo of Acoma’s Governor, Preservation Group Discuss Impact of Broken Federal Oil & Gas System on West’s Cultural Resources
Paper from Archaeology Southwest highlights need for overhaul
of the federal oil & gas leasing system
*** Read the paper here — listen to the press call here ***
Washington, D.C. (August 24, 2021)—Today, Archaeology Southwest released a new paper on the impact of the federal government’...
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2021
04
May
Continuing Coverage: Vandalism at Birthing Rock
Dear Friends,
I’m finally home after wrapping up our Archaeology Café season tonight. I’m really pleased with the presentation Samuel Fayuant and I gave. We’ll share the video in next week’s edition.
But now it’s late, and the empty page is a challenge. Especially after I emptied my...
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2021
23
Mar
BLM and BIA Push on Plans That Threaten Greater Chaco
Dear Friends,
Debra Haaland is now our new Interior Secretary. Here’s a short video in which she sends a first-day-on-the-job greeting to Interior staff. It made me feel good. Enjoy.
Haaland and her team have a mighty—and mighty challenging—agenda. Interior needs to rebuild and mobil...
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2021
09
Feb
Help Stop Crimes against History on Tribal Lands
Dear Friends,
Are you under 30? Do you have children or grandchildren who are under 20? (My grandkids are 6 and 8.) I ask because anyone younger than 20 or 30 years old should live at least another half-century. And there is a lot of uncertainty in those next 50 years.
Yes, as promised, I am r...
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2020
27
Oct
Extensive Pleistocene Trackway Preserved in White Sands National Park
Dear Friends,
It’s 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday evening. I just arrived home, fed the cats, fed myself, and sat down to write about my long, satisfying day out on the land. I'm glad that I first read the lengthy interview with Bruce Babbitt, one of the articles that follows. Bruce Babbitt’s story h...
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