Hubble Trading Post Celebrates 125 Years

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

- Hubble Trading Post Celebrates 125 Years: For more than a century, trading posts were integral parts of Native American life in the Southwest. These posts were stores, owned mostly by Anglos, where Native Americans exchanged woven rugs, jewelry, baskets, wool and nuts for food and other necessities. Trading posts also served as banks and bustling social hubs. Today, most of them have been replaced by grocery stores and big box chains like Walmart, but a handful of establishments still function as traditional trading posts.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121573916&ft=1&f=1006

- Southwest Symposium Begins Jan 8th: For more information about the 11th biennial SOUTHWEST SYMPOSIUM, to be held in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, January 8-9, 2010, visit the conference website.
http://sw-symposium.binghamton.edu/ingles%20pagina/introd.htm
http://www.cdarc.org/sat/sw_symposium_program.doc
http://www.cdarc.org/sat/sw_syposium_paper_abstracts.doc
http://www.cdarc.org/sat/sw_symposium_poster_abstracts.doc

- NPR Examines the Loss of Hopi Language & Culture: For nearly 1,000 years, the Hopi people have lived on the same three mesas, land now considered part of northeastern Arizona. For all that time, they have been speaking the Hopi language, which is slowly dying. There are many hurdles standing in the way of preserving Hopi, including, for Hopi teens, the choice between preserving their culture and adopting a modern lifestyle.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122018480&ft=1&f=1003

- Ruins of Texas Ranch and Mission Remain in Funding Limbo: Ruins that archeologists call one of the last links to the original ranches and cowboys that shaped Texas have been kept behind a gate, literally buried, for more than two decades - awaiting the funding that would allow people to see them. The 18th-century Rancho de las Cabras complex, with its stone building remains, was a birthplace of the large commercial ranching operations that would help define the state. Preservationists have long hoped it could be fully excavated and opened to the public, but so far, the site has been unable to attract the money it would need from Congress or the National Park Service's stretched budget.
http://www.whnt.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-mission-ranch,0,7102464.story

- Opportunity for Public Comment on National Park Service Policy on Oil and Gas Regulations Ends January 25th: Aztec Ruin is just one of the National Parks that could be impacted by adverse rulings regarding oil and gas exploration.
http://www.cdarc.org/sat/nps_oil_and_gas_comments.doc

- Lecture Opportunity (Phoenix): The Agua Fria Chapter of the Arizona Archaeology Society is offering a free lecture on Archaeoastronomy of the Verde Valley, on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 7:00 PM at the Glendale Public Library Auditorium, 5959 West Brown (south of Peoria Ave). The speaker will be Ken Zoll, who has done extensive studies in the Verde Valley, including research on the V Bar V Ranch. Archeoastronomy is the study of the uses of astronomy by ancient civilizations
Membership is not required. Refreshments will be served.

- Changing of the Guard at Prescott Historic Preservation Office: From one history buff to another, the details of Prescott's past have been undergoing a major transfer in recent months. Longtime Prescott Historic Preservation Specialist Nancy Burgess will be retiring from her post at the end of December, and for the past six months she has been working closely with her replacement, Cat Moody, to ensure a smooth transition. A major part of that process: The shift of information, much of which Burgess has accumulated through the years as institutional knowledge.
http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&subsectionID=1&articleID=76056

- Old Pueblo Archaeology Hosts Fundraising Raffle: The next of the ever-popular "Old Pueblo - Young People" fundraising raffles (the eleventh since Old Pueblo Archaeology Center began holding these events in 1998) will be held on March 31, 2010, as a finale for Old Pueblo's celebration of the annual Arizona Archaeology and Heritage
Awareness Month.
http://www.oldpueblo.org/raffle.html

Thanks to Jeffery Boyer and Carrie Gregory for contributions to today's newsletter.