2021
06
Apr
GAO Releases Report on Improving Response to Crimes against Native American Cultural Resources
Dear Friends,
Being vaccinated opens opportunities. That’s why I'm in Newtown, Pennsylvania, typing this. It’s why I flew on an airplane, which is the only realistic option to visit my daughter and grandchildren.
And, as I've noted previously, it's my worries about the world my grandki...
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2021
02
Mar
Hope for Oak Flat
Dear Friends,
Recently, a friend from Phoenix commented that she was looking for a higher-elevation summer home. “I’m tired of breaking records for 115-degree temperatures like we did last summer.” [Fact check: In summer 2020, Phoenix had 145 days in triple digits, 53 days of 110 or more,...
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2021
26
Jan
It’s Time to Permanently Protect the Greater Chaco Landscape
Dear Friends,
Last week’s list of fresh words I hope we'll be using more going forward was a bit too short. Here are the contributions of your word-savvy fellow readers.
Compliance (as say, for mandatory masks)
Humor (as in, good humor) (2)
Tolerance
Thankfulness, Gratefulness, Gratit...
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2020
17
Nov
Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition Ready to Work with New Administration
Dear Friends,
How do you know when you have the perfect job?
For me, it’s when you get home after an 11-hour day and you’re relaxed, energized, and ready to face the ever-mounting challenges to Archaeology Southwest’s Preservation Archaeology mission.
I left home just before 7:00 a.m....
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2020
10
Nov
Interior Appropriations Bill Excludes Chaco Protections
Dear Friends,
Weeks are longer than they used to be. I can barely remember the geologic era of the last time I sat down on a Tuesday evening to write to you.
That’s the problem with archaeologists: We expect time to be linear.
Sometimes, it can be helpful to consider the antitheses ...
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2020
20
Oct
Bears Ears Monument Advisory Committee Meets as Judge Deliberates
Dear Friends,
For two reasons, I am in a good—very good—mood.
First, I am so grateful that I live in a county that knows how to do mail-in voting right. I am on my county’s permanent mail-in voter list, so my ballot automatically appeared in my home mailbox on October 8. I took the w...
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2020
05
May
Continuing Coverage: Interior Moves Public Meetings Online, Does Not Postpone Deadlines
Dear Friends,
It’s Tuesday afternoon, and I’m getting ready to moderate our second Archaeology Café Online. Tonight’s program will be with John Welch, who directs Archaeology Southwest’s Landscape and Site Protection Program, and our honored guest, Octavius Seowtewa of Zuni Pueblo. John ...
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2020
24
Mar
Educational and Public Archaeology Resources Online
Educational and Public Archaeology Resources Online
Last week, Lewis Borck (University of Missouri) organized a community-crowdsourced spreadsheet of archaeology/history-oriented educational and public content online as a resource for teachers and students looking for activities/readings/videos the...
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2020
18
Feb
New Management Areas Protect Archaeology in Southwestern Colorado
New Management Areas Protect Archaeology in Southwestern Colorado
The Bureau of Land Management Tres Rios Field Office has designated three areas of critical environmental concern in Montezuma and San Miguel counties. The new amendment to the 2015 Resource Management Plan designates the Mesa Verde ...
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2020
11
Feb
Final Management Plans for Reduced Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante Open Lands to Extraction
Final Management Plans for Reduced Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante Open Lands to Extraction
Thursday the Trump administration announced it was opening two national monuments to development. The culturally and geologically significant Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments will ...
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2019
10
Dec
National Monument Reductions, Two Years Later
Commentary: “Relentless assault” in the Two Years Since National Monument Reductions
This week marks the two-year anniversary of the Trump administration’s decision to decimate two national monuments located in Utah. With the stroke of a pen, the president removed protections on 85% of the Be...
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2019
01
Oct
Federal Judge Rules that Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante Suits May Move Forward
Federal Judge Rules that Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante Suit May Move Forward
A federal judge has turned down an attempt by the Trump administration to dismiss legal challenges to its 2017 decision to cut the size of Bear Ears National Monument in southern Utah. In a three-page ruling issued...
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