Earlier this month NASA reported some very uplifting news about their Perseverance Rover Team's research on Mars. Via Forbes, because "...a big contingent of Perseverance science is centered in universities and national labs in New Mexico and Arizona, which include traditional Navajo land...", the team is naming a number of Martian geological features with words from the Navajo language.

Join us Wednesday, February 17, 2021, at 7:00 PM on Zoom to hear our Featured Speaker, Lawrence (Larry) Loendorf of Sacred Sites Research, Inc. explain the relationships he and other anthropologists, archaeologists, and ethnobotanists have studied between "Medicinal Plants and Rock Art Sites in Southern New Mexico."

Larry was born and raised in Montana. His BA and MA degrees are in anthropology and archaeology from the University of Montana and his PhD is from the University of Missouri-Columbia. After receiving his PhD, he taught at the University of North Dakota for 22 years and then moved to undertake research and teaching at the University of Arizona and New Mexico State University. He currently manages Sacred Sites Research, Inc., a non-profit company that is dedicated to protecting ancient pictograph and petroglyph sites.

Wednesday, January 20, 2021, 7:00 PM via Zoom: 2021's first GCAS general meeting features speaker David Greenwald of the nonprofit Jornada Research Institute. Dave describes that he:

"...will be discussing the high points of the archaeological resources in Tularosa Canyon that date to the Mesilla phase (specifically between AD 600 and 900) focusing on Creekside Village, but also bringing the Twin Kivas Site and the Great, Great Kiva Site into the discussion. His presentation is titled EARLY JORNADA MOGOLLON SUBSISTENCE, SOCIO-POLITICAL, AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION IN TULAROSA CANYON, OTERO COUNTY, NEW MEXICO. Thus far, the Jornada Research Institute has published the first volume on the research at Creekside Village, a preliminary report, research design and plan for expanded investigations. Ongoing studies include a focus on the reservoir and irrigation systems, terraced agricultural features, and pit houses at Creekside Village, and the great kivas, canals, and field systems in Tularosa Canyon."

Watch your email for our Zoom invite. There will be no business meeting so join us at about 6:45 PM to get settled,  and enjoy Dave's presentation when it begins at 7:00 PM sharp!

Learn more about Dave's extensive background in his own words:

Wednesday, November 18, 2020, 7:00 PM: GCAS general meeting via Zoom. No business meeting, which means we will begin by welcoming our Featured Speaker, archaeologist Margaret Berrier, who will share with our group "Pisciform Iconography of the Jornada Mogollon," also known as, "Let's Look at Fish: Pisciforms in the Jornada Mogollon Region of Southern New Mexico, Northern Mexico, and West Texas." Margaret points out,

"Numerous examples of fish are depicted on ceramics of the Southwest's ancient Mimbres Culture. These are well illustrated in publications and the Mimbres Pottery Image Digital Database (MimPIDD). However, no significant catalog or publication exists for the Southwest's Jornada Mogollon culture that was partly contemporaneous with the Mimbres. This presentation will include examples of pisciform iconography (fish forms) and their distribution in the Jornada Mogollon area. It also summarizes ethnographic accounts of fish use and interpretation of fish iconography. Included in the presentation will be many examples and comparisons with other archaeological artifacts."

Wednesday, October 21, 2020, 7:00 PM: GCAS general meeting via Zoom. Unencumbered by a business meeting, we will begin by welcoming our Featured Speaker, John Stocke, Colorado University-Boulder professor of Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences (1985-2017). Dr. Stocke will share the "Secrets of Andean Skies: the Mystery of the Pleiades". If you recall his fascinating talk in March 2019 about “Polynesian Navigation” you will definitely want to join us on Zoom starting at 6:45 to get the audience situated for the lecture to begin at 7:00 PM sharp. A Q&A session with John will follow his lecture. Check your email inbox for your Zoom invitation! As further background to the presentation:

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and the Department of the Interior have produced a draft Resource Management Plan amendment (RMPA) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that proposes to open more land in the Greater Chaco Landscape Region to oil and gas drilling. Essentially, the agencies' preferred option is to allow drilling and related infrastructure development right up to the current boundaries of the Chaco Culture National Historic Park. For many Native tribes and pueblos, as well as environmentalists and avocational archaeologists, this is suboptimal.

On September 4, 2020, the GCAS Board of Trustees submitted a detailed comment to the draft RMP/EIS on behalf of our group as a whole. Meanwhile, you can help protect the Park as well as the Greater Chaco Landscape Region by spending as little as five minutes of your time to submit a comment as an individual, via email. Here's how:

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and the Department of the Interior have produced a draft Resource Management Plan amendment (RMPA) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that proposes to open more land in the Greater Chaco Landscape Region to oil and gas drilling. Essentially, the agencies' preferred option is to allow drilling and related infrastructure development right up to the current boundaries of the Chaco Culture National Historic Park. For many Native tribes and pueblos, as well as environmentalists and avocational archaeologists, this is suboptimal.

On September 4, 2020, the GCAS Board of Trustees submitted a detailed comment to the draft RMP/EIS on behalf of our group as a whole. Meanwhile, you can help protect the Park as well as the Greater Chaco Landscape Region by spending as little as five minutes of your time to submit a comment as an individual, via email. Here's how:

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and the Department of the Interior have produced a draft Resource Management Plan amendment (RMPA) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that proposes to open more land in the Greater Chaco Landscape Region to oil and gas drilling. Essentially, the agencies' preferred option is to allow drilling and related infrastructure development right up to the current boundaries of the Chaco Culture National Historic Park. For many Native tribes and pueblos, as well as environmentalists and avocational archaeologists, this is suboptimal.

On September 4, 2020, the GCAS Board of Trustees submitted a detailed comment to the draft RMP/EIS on behalf of our group as a whole. Meanwhile, you can help protect the Park as well as the Greater Chaco Landscape Region by spending as little as five minutes of your time to submit a comment as an individual, via email. Here's how:

On behalf of the GCAS general membership, on September 4, 2020, a quorum of the GCAS Board of Trustees submitted a comment to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Land Management opposing a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) that proposed additional oil and gas development in the Greater Chaco Landscape/Region. The GCAS comment addressed eight issues:

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and the Department of the Interior have produced a draft Resource Management Plan amendment (RMPA) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that proposes to open more land in the Greater Chaco Landscape Region to oil and gas drilling. Essentially, the agencies' preferred option is to allow drilling and related infrastructure development right up to the current boundaries of the Chaco Culture National Historic Park. For many Native tribes and pueblos, as well as environmentalists and avocational archaeologists, this is suboptimal.

The GCAS Board of Trustees will soon submit a detailed comment to the draft RMP/EIS on behalf of our group as a whole. Meanwhile, you can help protect the Park as well as the Greater Chaco Landscape Region by spending as little as five minutes of your time to submit a comment as an individual, via email. Here's how: