COURT DECISION: OTERO MESA

http://wilderness.org/files/TWTD-NM-Otero.pdf
http://wilderness.org/content/otero-mesa-drilling-court-decision


Our victory on New Mexico's Otero Mesa this week took a turn for the pithy in the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals' decision rejecting the Bureau of Land Management's drilling scheme for the mesa.
If you're not familiar with Otero Mesa, it occupies a blank spot on the map between Las Cruces and Carlsbad, and, at 1.2 million acres, it's the largest untouched Chihuahuan Desert grassland found anywhere in the United States.

Santa Teresa Archaeological Field School

http://www.alamogordonews.com/news/ci_12094144

This is an interesting project, not only because it is behind a Tyson Chicken Factory (oh my, the jokes!), but it is being excavated from within a building which formerly housed an old museum.

--aggie castronuevo johann

R3 Lincoln National Forest: Perk_Grindstone Stewardship Project

http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/lincoln/news/Perk_Grindstone_III_DEIS_Response_to_comments_05_06_08.pdf


The objective of Perk-Grindstone is to restore fire-adapted forest systems to structural characteristics that would reduce large-size crown fires to more manageable surface fires. See link for DEIS Response released by the Forest Service May 2008.

Dog Burials: Divine Escorts to the Afterlife?

Buried Dogs Were Divine "Escorts" for Ancient Americans
Anne Casselmanfor National Geographic News
April 23, 2008
"Hundreds of prehistoric dogs found buried throughout the southwestern United States show that canines played a key role in the spiritual beliefs of ancient Americans, new research suggests. . ."

Read full story:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080423-dog-burials.html

Dody Fugate has created a database of over 700 dog burials, many of them in the American Southwest and indicates a preponderance of burials during the period between 400 BC and AD 1100. Dog burials are a phenomenon found throughout the world, and recent research is focusing questions of religious significance to help determine why dogs were buried in a ritual manner, often with people.
--aggie castronuevo johann

Clovis found on Lincoln National Forest

News Flash!



While conducting a survey in the Guadalupe Mountains of southcentral New Mexico, Lincoln National Forest Archaeologists recently located the proximal portion of a Clovis projectile point. Diane White, commented "I've been doing archaeology for 20 years" and thought she would never find anything as important as a Clovis artifact. Shortly after recovering the stone point, LNF archaeologists suffered from a temporary scare as the Clovis point was discovered missing by Amanda Sanchez. It turns out that one of the staff members had set the artifact next to the office candy dish, where it was picked up by another conscientious archaeologist, and locked up for safekeeping.

The Clovis point fragment is made of tan chert. It measures 2.5cm in length, 2cm wide, and .5cm in width just above the flute. There is a distinct flute on one side, and what appears to be a partial flute on the obverse. The point was broken ~3mm beyond the full flute. There appears to be at least two separate breaks, one of which is hinged.

Archaeologists are yet unsure of the total significance of this recent find. The site appears large and boundaries have not been completely identified. At least one archaeologist, forest service SCEP and Graduate student at New Mexico State University, Agnes Castronuevo hopes to find more associated with the site, perhaps even mammoth bones! "Blackwater Draw anyone?"

History of an ancient symbol

http://www.collectorsguide.com/fa/fa086.shtml (article)

http://www.collectorsguide.com/fa/fa040.shtml (history)

"Visitors to New Mexico in the late 19th century would have been pleased to purchase a souvenir rug, pot or piece of silver jewelry decorated with a swastika. "The tourists loved the motif," wrote Margery Bedinger in her popular 1973 book Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers. "Between July, 1905 and 1906, 60,000 swastikas in various forms, some by Indians and others not, sold to tourists in New Mexico as genuine Indian articles.""