NEXT MEETING: Wednesday, June 18, 2025: CANCELLED DUE TO TROUT FIRE - watch this space for info on our upcoming monthly meeting on July 16, 2025, at the Roundup Lodge in the Mimbres Valley.

NEXT FIELD TRIP: We defer our usual first-Sunday-of-the-month field trip due to conflict with the July 4 holiday weekend. Watch this space for details as they develop about an August field trip.

US Southwest

Upcoming Events via Jornada Research Institute

Fill your calendar with a number of adventures on offer by the Jornada Research Institute. Consider any or all of the following:

Tuesday, April 15, 2025: sponsored by the Jornada Research Institute, Joan E. Price, MFA and JRI Research Associate, presents her most recent studies, MONEY RUNS UPHILL:THE PRIVATIZATION OF A COMMONWEALTH IN SOUTHERN NEW MEXICO. This presentation explores the cultural history of Tularosa, a Mexican American "acequia democracy" known for its equitable water irrigation and traditional settlement practices. It examines the ethnic conflicts and rapid cultural assimilation during the New Mexico Territorial Era (1848-1912), within the ambiguous relationship with the U.S. military presence and American capitalists who eventually gained control of the Rio Bonito, Rio Tularosa and the streams along the west slopes of the Sacramento Mountains. Contact Dave Greenwald for details.

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Attend SAA's Annual Meeting!

Wednesday thru Sunday, April 23-27, 2025, Denver, CO: it's the SAA's 90th annual meeting with forums and presentations galore, including topics like Avocational Archaeology in the Twenty-First Century: Volunteers as Lifelong Learners and Researchers scheduled for Thursday, April 24, 2025: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM, Plaza, FORUM- Governor's Sq. 12; and Continued Work on the Ray Robinson Collection: The Perishable Assemblages from Bonita Creek Cave Cache and Hackberry Ranch Sites in Southeastern Arizona (Session: Modern Methods in the American Southwest) scheduled for Saturday, April 26, 2025: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Tower, Tower Court B. All registration details, schedules, and updates are here. Denver is lovely in the spring!

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Jornada Research Institute Presentations Continue

In addition to the Jornada Research Institute’s ongoing excavations at Creekside Village during the winter 2025 season, the JRI's series of in-person presentations for March 2025 includes:

Tuesday, March 4, in Mountainair: Archaeoastronomy Associations of the Great Kiva at Creekside Village by Dave Greenwald; contact Dave at [email protected] or 575-430-8854 for details of times and specific location.

Wednesday, March 19, in Albuquerque: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act one-day class by Jeffery Hanson; contact Jeffery directly at [email protected] or 817-658-5544 for registration fees and other details.

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ASNM Annual Meeting in Albuquerque

Friday, May 2, 2025, thru Sunday, May 4, 2025, in Albuquerque NM: it's the annual meeting of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico (ASNM). The theme for 2025 is Archaeology of the Greater Middle Rio Grande Area to include the Rio Grande region from Cochiti to Socorro, Cochiti Reservoir, a portion of the Galisteo Basin, as well as the Salinas Province. While much of the program will be devoted to the Greater Middle Rio Grande, at least one session will be open to papers on topics from every corner of the state.

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New YouTube Video from Geoarchaeologist Dave Rachal

Dave Rachal PhD of Tierra Vieja Consulting in Las Cruces New Mexico has linked us to his new 11-minute YouTube video discussion of the complexities surrounding the interpretation of the data collected from the prehistoric footprints found at White Sands National Monument. Dave will be the Featured Speaker at our April monthly meeting so this is a good way to familiarize ourselves with his research. Contact Tierra Vieja Consulting to learn more about geoarchaeology in our region and for links to even more YouTube presentations.

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Next GCAS Meeting Features Speaker Lee Brown on Prehistoric Mining

The GCAS's next in-person meeting will be Wednesday, February 19, 2025, 6:00 PM at 2045 Memory Lane in Silver City, New Mexico. On this occasion we feature the GCAS's own Lee Brown, retired mining engineer, who will discuss evidence of Prehistoric Mining in North America with highlights from our own region. Doors open at 6:00 PM with light refreshments provided with a brief socialization period and business meeting, to be immediately followed by Lee's presentation.

GCAS member (and former GCAS treasurer) Lee Brown - formerly known as Gary Brown - was born and raised in New Mexico and has lived in towns as far-flung as Aztec, Mountainair, Socorro, Gallup, Rio Rancho, and now Silver City. He earned his B.S. in Mining Engineering from New Mexico School of Mines in Socorro and completed a 40 year career in the Mining and Steel Industry, mostly in the field of extractive metallurgy under "all sorts of funky engineer titles," as Lee puts it. He worked from bottom to top: laborer, operator, supervisor, underground miner, and operations superintendent. He retired as Chief Engineer for the Concentrator at the Chino Mine right here in Grant County. Lee has continued his lifelong interest in mineral collecting and mining history, enjoying collecting adventures in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Michigan, Montana, Alaska, Wyoming, South Dakota and Georgia, in addition to his archaeological adventures throughout the southwest US, Peru, Yucatan, and Spain.

See you there!

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Jornada Research Institute Presentations

In addition to the Jornada Research Institute’s ongoing excavations at Creekside Village during the winter 2025 season, the JRI's series of in-person presentations includes:

Saturday, February 15, in El Paso: Archaeoastronomy Associations of the Great Kiva at Creekside Village by Dave Greenwald;

Tuesday, February 18, in Alamogordo: Archaeoastronomy Associations of the Great Kiva at Creekside Village by Dave Greenwald;

Tuesday, March 4, in Mountainair: Archaeoastronomy Associations of the Great Kiva at Creekside Village by Dave Greenwald;

Please contact Dave Greenwald at [email protected] or 575-430-8854 for details of times and locations for all presentations listed above.

Wednesday, March 19, in Albuquerque: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act one-day class by Jeffery Hanson; contact Jeffery directly at [email protected] or 817-658-5544 for registration fees and other details.

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Jornada Research Institute - Upcoming Events

In addition to the Jornada Research Institute’s ongoing excavations at Creekside Village during the winter 2025 season, the JRI is offering a series of in-person presentations including:

Tuesday, January 21, in Alamogordo: Gypsum Overlook – An Early Archaic Period Structural Site in Tularosa Basin by Matt Cuba;

Saturday, February 15, in El Paso: Archaeoastronomy Associations of the Great Kiva at Creekside Village by Dave Greenwald;

Tuesday, February 18, in Alamogordo: Archaeoastronomy Associations of the Great Kiva at Creekside Village by Dave Greenwald;

Tuesday, March 4, in Mountainair: Archaeoastronomy Associations of the Great Kiva at Creekside Village by Dave Greenwald;

Please contact Dave Greenwald at [email protected] or 575-430-8854 for details of times and locations for all presentations listed above.

Wednesday, March 19, in Albuquerque: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act one-day class by Jeffery Hanson; contact Jeffery directly at [email protected] or 817-658-5544 for registration fees and other details.

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An Intriguing Zoom Presentation

Thursday, January 16, 2025: FREE online via Zoom, 7:00-8:30PM (ARIZONA/Mountain Standard Time): Old Pueblo Archaeology Center's “Third Thursday Food for Thought” program presents If the Shoe Fits: Subarctic-style Moccasins and the Apachean Journey from the Northern Dene Homeland to the Precontact Southwest by HDR Archaeologist Kevin P. Gilmore, PhD.

BSM Type 2(Bb) moccasin from Montezuma Castle, Arizona,
photo adapted from “If the Shoe Fits” article

by Kevin P. Gilmore, Edward A. Jolie, and John W. Ives
(2024, Journal of Arizona Archaeology 10(2):145-162)

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Next GCAS Meeting Features Speaker Marilyn Markel - Make Note of the Special Date

Saturday, October 19, 2024 beginning at 4:00PM: the GCAS shifts the regular day, time, and location of our usual October Wednesday meeting to 4:00PM on SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2024, to accommodate our featured speaker and National Archaeology Day. For those wishing to spend all day Saturday in the Mimbres Valley, the fun begins at the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site where folks will celebrate National Archaeology Day from 10:00AM to 3:00PM with assorted activities. Immediately following, from 4:00PM to 5:00PM, the GCAS general membership is welcome to join the general public at the Roundup Lodge where Marilyn Markel will present Apaches on the Mimbres and the Story of the Captive Boy, Santiago McKinn. Promptly after Marilyn's talk concludes at about 5PM, the GCAS will have our typical brief business meeting and we expect to adjourn by about 5:30PM. Given the earliness of the hour, no potluck or refreshments will be provided so that GCAS members can all be safely back home in time for dinner. See you on Saturday the 19th!

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