Repatriation Controversy in Santa Fe, DNA and Peopling on the New World

Southwestern Archaeology Making the News - A Service of the Center for Desert Archaeology

- Controversial Decision on the Repatriation and Reburial of Non-NAGPRA Collections in Santa Fe: Four years ago, excavations to prepare for tearing down Sweeney Convention Center and building the new civic center in its place turned up remains of a prehistoric village. City officials began negotiations with Tesuque Pueblo, which said the ruins were associated with its ancestors. This led to an agreement to excavate the items, study them and then rebury them on the site. City and pueblo officials have declined to discuss the disposition of human remains, but they are believed to have been reburied there. On Wednesday, the museum regents were asked to approve a "deaccession" of non-burial items recovered from the floors of four kivas on the site: ceramics, stone and bone tools, shell ornaments and pollen samples.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/kp3j - Santa Fe New Mexican

- Study Examines DNA Evidence on the Timing of the First Migrations to the New World: Research by anthropologists at the University of Illinois indicates that early humans may have migrated from Asia to the Americas more slowly than originally believed. New DNA evidence suggests that they settled in the area between Siberia and Alaska for 15,000 years, and then spread into the Americas.
http://www.las.uiuc.edu/news/2008Spring/08jan_migration.html

- Eastern Arizona Courier Publishing Fascinating Apache Oral History: Many winter days I would sit with my grandmother, Ada, and her sister, Irene, in our small, yellow brick home in Bylas Navajo Point to hear stories passed down by their father, John Rope, the English name given to him by the U.S. agency at old San Carlos. John Rope was born in the early 1850s around the upper Black River and lived with his family near present-day Cedar Creek on the White Mountain Apache reservation. Tlol-dil-xil came from Tuagaidn clan (White Water people). Many of his descendants still reside in the community of Bylas, while many relatives from his clanship reside on the White Mountain Apache reservation.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/e37u - Eastern Arizona Courier

- Construction Worker Fined for Theft of Artifacts at Mesa Verde Museum: The National Park Service says a construction worker is banned from entering all national parks for three years, after pleading guilty to stealing archaeological relics from Mesa Verde National Park.
http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=84825

- Lecture on Puebloan Social History Tonight in Tucson: At 7:30 PM at the University of Arizona Duval Auditorium, Amerind Foundation Director, John Ware will present Pueblo Social History: Upstreaming into the Past. Lecture presented as part of the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society's monthly meeting.

- Speaking Volumes: A series of discussions in honor of the Arizona State Museum Library’s 50th Anniversary. On January 31, 2008, Join us for coffee and conversation 3:30-5:30 p.m. Guest speakers include Michael Brescia, ASM assistant curator of ethnohistorical research and R. Brooks Jeffrey, associate dean, preservation studies, UA College of Architecture. Free and open to the public. Your generous donations will help the library meet its mission.
http://www.statemuseum.arizona.edu/public/

- Employment Opportunity, Passport in Time Volunteer Services Coordinator (Albquerque): Passport in Time (PIT) is a volunteer program of the USDA Forest Service. The goal of PIT is to preserve the nation’s past with the help of the public. PIT volunteers work with professional archaeologists and historians on national forests throughout the country. The Volunteer Services Coordinator is responsible for maintaining the day-to-day aspects of the PIT program. The Volunteer Services Coordinator duties include assisting with the development and maintenance of a new PIT Website, distributing the electronic newsletter, maintaining the newsletter email list, and program database, as well as, processing applications, notifying applicants of their
application status, and coordinating with PIT project leaders.
http://www.cdarc.org/sat/pit-announcement.pdf

Thanks to Jim Heidke for Contributions to today's Newsletter.