2017
01
Jan
Bears Ears, Gold Butte Designated National Monuments
Bears Ears, Gold Butte Designated National Monuments
Rising from the center of the southeastern Utah landscape and visible from every direction are twin buttes so distinctive that in each of the native languages of the region their name is the same: Hoon'Naqvut, Shash Jáa, Kwiyagatu Nukavachi, Ansh...
more
2016
21
Nov
Protests at Standing Rock: A Model for How We Might Protect the Chaco Landscape?
Protests at Standing Rock: A Model for How We Might Protect the Chaco Landscape?
Protesters in North Dakota have made headlines for months with their prolonged opposition to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The thousands of protesters include representatives from Native American trib...
more
2016
13
Nov
Can National Monuments Be Dissolved?
Can National Monuments Be Dissolved?
As his presidential tenure winds down in the coming weeks, Barack Obama is expected to decide whether to designate some proposed national monuments, including Bears Ears in Utah and two others on Utah's borders with neighboring states. But Donald Trump's surpris...
more
2016
24
Oct
Notes from a Field Season at Aztec North
Michelle Turner, PhD Student, Binghamton University Department of Anthropology
(October 24, 2016)—The first time I heard about Aztec North was in the summer of 2013. I was a field intern at Crow Canyon, having just finished my first year of graduate school. One day, Shanna Diederichs took us al...
more
2016
23
Oct
Federal Government Announces New Review of Fracking near Chaco Canyon
Federal Government Announces New Review of Fracking near Chaco Canyon
The federal government announced Thursday that it will study the potential effects of drilling on public and tribal lands near Chaco Culture National Historical Park in the San Juan Basin, an area that is one of the state’s larg...
more
2016
09
Oct
Native Tribes Decry Utah Public Lands Initiative as a Corporate Land Grab
Correction: Carrie Heitman Is Leading Chaco Research with Assistance from NASA
In the September 25, 2016, issue of Southwest Archaeology Today, I miscredited an article about NASA's involvement in Chacoan Research to John Kantner, when in fact the project is the effort is being directed by Carrie ...
more
2016
18
Sep
Don't Blame the Salt at Chaco?
Research Finds Salt Infiltration Was Not a Problem at Chaco Canyon
Various salt compounds found deep in the soil of New Mexico’s desert may be the key to understanding how crops were cultivated in ancient Chaco Canyon – despite the backdrop of what seems an otherwise arid and desolate landscape...
more
2016
14
Aug
Oil and Gas Industry Group Sues BLM for Taking the Time to Preserve the Chaco Landscape
Oil and Gas Industry Group Sues BLM for Taking the Time to Preserve the Chaco Landscape
Representatives of the oil and gas industry are upset with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for not holding quarterly lease sales for drilling on public lands. On Thursday, the Western Energy Alliance, a De...
more
2016
08
May
Former Utah State Archaeologist Kevin T. Jones Makes the Case for a Bears Ears National Monument
Former Utah State Archaeologist Kevin T. Jones Makes the Case for Bears Ears National Monument
Looting is a regular occurrence in the Bears Ears region and, according to archaeologists who patrol the area, is on the increase. First protected by the Antiquities Act and later by other statutes, herita...
more
2016
25
Apr
New Mexico Park Visitation Rises
Paul F. Reed, Preservation Archaeologist
(April 25, 2016)—The latest statistics show a dramatic increase in visitation to National Park Service (NPS) parks and monuments in New Mexico, for March 2016.
Several factors may be responsible for the uptick, including a promotional push by the Park Ser...
more
2016
27
Mar
BLM Defers on Fracking Leases near Chaco Canyon
BLM Defers on Fracking Leases near Chaco Canyon
Yesterday, the Bureau of Land Management deferred for the third time the sale of three oil and gas lease parcels and approximately 2,122 acres of federal mineral estate on Navajo allotment lands in the Greater Chaco region. A broad coalition of local...
more
2016
06
Mar
Navajo Nation Archaeology Conference Focused on Partnerships
Navajo Nation Archaeology Conference Focused on Partnerships
The ways Navajo people and non-Navajo people relate to the archaeology of the Four Corners region served as the center of discussion during Friday's Navajo Nation Archaeology Meeting in Shiprock. The theme for the meeting was "Cultural...
more
Show More