Thursday, February 27, 2020, through Saturday, February 29, 2020: Eighth Natural History of the Gila Symposium, to be held in the Global Resource Center of WNMU on West 12th Street in Silver City from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM on February 27 and 28, 2020. Field trips offered on Saturday, February 29. THIS SYMPOSIUM IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AND ADMISSION IS FREE. Follow details here as they develop.
Friday, February 28, 2020, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (noon): The GCAS's March field trip happens early as we attend the admission-free Friday morning session of the Gila Symposium featuring archaeologists from around our region. The slate of speakers is here and directions to the Global Resource Center of WNMU on West 12th Street in Silver City are here. Consider attending the entire three-day event!
Friday, March 6, 2020: VOLUNTEERS NEEDED to assist the GCAS's own Marilyn Markel in welcoming three groups of fourth-grade students from Deming to a day of multi-station outdoor museum classrooms at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site. This visit is a special one because this is the first time a large number of students and teachers will travel from Deming to our area. Please assist Marilyn in welcoming these young students to our backyard and showing them some of their region's rich heritage. No experience is necessary for any of these classroom stations; Marilyn will quickly get you up to speed. For hours and other details please contact Marilyn ASAP by telephone at 575-536-9337, or via email.
Saturday, March 7, 2020, 2:00 PM in El Paso - El Paso Museum of Archaeology's 2020 lecture series is still going strong with Polly Schaafsma, Dr.h.c., discussing "Mistaken for a Macaw: the Horned Serpent Deity of Paquimé." Location and contact info on the EPMA website.
Saturday, March 7, 2020, 5:30 PM in Truth or Consequences: The Sierra County Historical Society, the Geronimo Springs Museum, and the TorC Chamber of Commerce are co-sponsoring their 2020 Annual Dinner and Fundraiser. Held at the TorC Civic Center at 400 West Fourth Street, the cost for the presentation only is $15 per person, and $25 per person (or $45 per couple) for both the presentation and a brisket dinner. Children 12 and under get dinner for $15 per child. Keynote speaker is Dr. Matthew F. Schmader, adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico, who will present "Vazquez de Coronado and the Southern Tiwas, 1540-1542." This talk will highlight the battle at Piedras Marcadas Pueblo (Southern Tiwa Pueblo) between Vazquez de Coronado and the Native Pueblo inhabitants in 1540. This pueblo was the largest in the Albuquerque area with over 1000 rooms and over 1500 Coronado period artifacts have been recovered. Learn about this important historic encounter that happened in Nuevo Mexico...and view some of the Coronado artifacts. For more information contact the Geronimo Springs Museum at (575) 894-6600.
Saturdays, March 7, 2020; and March 21, 2020, ONLY: Tumacácori National Historical Park provides “Special Guided Tours to Calabazas and Guevavi Missions” starting at Tumacácori National Historical Park, 1891 E. Frontage Rd., Tumacácori, Arizona for $25/person. RESERVATIONS REQUIRED. To make reservations go to https://www.recreation.gov/ or https://www.nps.gov/tuma/index.htm or telephone the Tumacácori visitor center at 520-377-5060.
The fragile historic mission ruin sites of Guevavi and Calabazas are protected within the national park but normally closed to the public. Each guided tour begins at Tumacácori National Historical Park Visitor Center, then participants ride in a 15-passenger van to Guevavi and Calabazas. At each location participants walk on unshaded, moderately improved trails to reach the mission ruins, including one short section of steep, uphill trail at Calabazas. The tours are not wheelchair accessible and require walking on uneven terrain. Participants need to bring water and wear comfortable walking shoes and clothing appropriate for the weather. After the tour returns to Tumacácori, participants are invited to visit the Tumacácori Mission church and grounds, visitor center, and museum on their own or go on the next guided tour of Tumacácori (starting at 2 p.m.) at no additional charge.
Friday, March 13, 2020: VOLUNTEERS NEEDED once again to Marilyn Markel in welcoming several groups of fourth-grade students from Stout Elementary School to their day of multi-station outdoor museum classrooms at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site. Please pitch in with Marilyn to help show these students the rich cultural heritage and history in their own back yard. No experience is necessary for any of these classroom stations. These workshops begin at 9:00 AM and continue through about 2:30 PM. For specific hours and other details please contact Marilyn ASAP by telephone at 575-536-9337, or via email.Thank you in advance for your help!
Saturday, March 14, 2020 in Las Cruces: It's the 9th Annual Buffalo Roast Fundraiser at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum! Human Systems Research Inc. presents the keynote speaker, Mark Santiago, discussing "Labyrinth of Blood: Apaches and the Spanish Empire." This is an Advance-Ticket-Only event with tickets going for $50/person. For time of presentation, tickets, and other information please telephone the NMFRHM at 575-524-9456. Meanwhile, enjoy the presentation summary:
"Over the course of several centuries, the Apache peoples repeatedly confronted and confounded the northern movement of the Spanish Empire into what is now the Southwestern Borderlands. From the late 16th century through the beginning of the 19th, Apaches and Spaniards engaged in almost constant warfare. Whether viewed as a series of relatively small, local conflicts, conflated by an imperial perspective, or as a generations-long struggle for control of ancestral lands and resources against outside invasion, the war (or wars) between the Spanish Empire and the various Apache peoples were among the longest and the most important in the history of North America. Haphazardly at first, but then with increasing momentum from the mid 1700s, the Spaniards unleashed all the power and subtleties available to their modern nation-stateagainst a tribal society. Alternating extreme violence with offers of food and security on what were essentially reservations, by the 1790s the Spaniards had imposed on the Apaches a form of mutual accommodation that resembled peace more than war. This talk will examine the origins, course, and results of this long, bloody, and labyrinthine struggle."
Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 6:00 PM: GCAS general meeting at 2045 Memory Lane in Silver City, New Mexico. No potluck dinner, but light refreshments provided. After the GCAS General Meeting, our Featured Speaker, University of New Mexico PhD candidate and 2018/2019 GCAS Coinman Grant Awardee Thatcher A. Rogers will speak on the findings of his current research regarding "Following the Green Stone Road: Exploring the Upper Gila Connection to Paquimé (Casas Grandes)." Please join us!
Saturday, March 21, 2020, 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM: In support of the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site, Marilyn Markel presents "Ancient Trails of the Mimbres: Macaws, Cacao (Chocolate) and Pots." Come to the Roundup Lodge on Acklin Road just off Highway 35 in Mimbres to learn about Mimbres pottery, archaeology, trails, and trade; and to enjoy a "chocolate extravaganza." Some chocolate dessert will be provided and you can sample a drink of an ancient frothy chocolate brew. This event is FREE but please bring a chocolate bar, some Hershey's Kisses, brownies, or any other chocolate dessert to share. For more information telephone Marilyn Markel at 575-536-9337 or Kathy Hill at 575-536-3161.
Through March 21, 2020, 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM at Tumacácori, AZ: The first and third Saturdays of each month, Tumacácori National Historical Park provides “Special Guided Tours to Calabazas and Guevavi Missions” starting at Tumacácori National Historical Park, 1891 E. Frontage Rd., Tumacácori, Arizona for $25/person. RESERVATIONS REQUIRED. To make reservations go to https://www.recreation.gov/ or https://www.nps.gov/tuma/index.htm or telephone the Tumacácori visitor center at 520-377-5060.
The fragile historic mission ruin sites of Guevavi and Calabazas are protected within the national park but normally closed to the public. Each guided tour begins at Tumacácori National Historical Park Visitor Center, then participants ride in a 15-passenger van to Guevavi and Calabazas. At each location participants walk on unshaded, moderately improved trails to reach the mission ruins, including one short section of steep, uphill trail at Calabazas. The tours are not wheelchair accessible and require walking on uneven terrain. Participants need to bring water and wear comfortable walking shoes and clothing appropriate for the weather. After the tour returns to Tumacácori, participants are invited to visit the Tumacácori Mission church and grounds, visitor center, and museum on their own or go on the next guided tour of Tumacácori (starting at 2 p.m.) at no additional charge.
Saturday, March 21, 2020 through Sunday, March 22, 2020: David Greewald of the Jornada Research Institute plans a field session at Creekside Village and the Twin Kivas sites north of Tularosa, New Mexico, just after the vernal equinox (March 19). If enough participants join in there will be excavating at both sites. If interested, please follow the Jornada Research Institute's Events page or contact them for details.
Saturday, April 4, 2020, 2:00 PM in El Paso - El Paso Archaeology Museum's 2020 lecture series features Emily Lena Jones PhD, presenting "Transformed: People, Animals, and Landscapes in Central New Mexico, AD 1300-1950." Location and contact info on the EPMA website.
Wednesday, April 15, 2020, 6:00 PM: GCAS general meeting at 2045 Memory Lane in Silver City, New Mexico. No potluck dinner, but light refreshments provided. After the GCAS General Meeting, our Featured Speaker, Margaret (Peggy) Nelson, author and expert on Mimbres culture, will share with us "News from the East - Contributions to Understanding Mimbres Lives and Landscapes."
Watch some of Peggy's YouTube talks about our area:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSbReVp8s4E "Mimbres Lives and Landscapes of SW New Mexico," 4/2019; and
In the early 20th century, archaeologists in the southwestern U.S. viewed a constellation of distinctive cultural traits – multicolored pottery, houses arranged in walled compounds, and monumental architecture – as evidence of a cultural group they termed "Salado." Subsequent discoveries cause us to question what the Salado traits really represent. In this presentation archaeologist Allen Dart illustrates some of the so-called Salado culture attributes, reviews theories about Salado origins, and discusses how Salado relates to the Ancestral Pueblo, Mogollon, Hohokam, and Casas Grandes cultures of the U.S. Southwest and Mexico's Northwest.
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