BREAKING NEWS:

Despite the cancellation of a 4,434-acre lease of oil and gas parcels north of Chaco Canyon, Secretary Zinke and the BLM continue an assault on the cultural resources of ancient America throughout the Four Corners states. Tomorrow, on March 20, the BLM will proceed with a lease of 41,000 acres in southeastern Utah in an area rich with archaeological sites.
At least 10 Chaco Great Houses are within 2 miles of these parcels, including at least two Great House sites within the new lease boundaries. In addition, at least 4 prehistoric road segments are adjacent to or within the parcels.

 

There are also countless archaeological sites and rock art panels spanning thousands of years in and near the leases. In the words of Jim Allison, a professor at Brigham Young University, “There are so many sites [in the area], it would take an army of archaeologists decades to map them… they shouldn’t do oil and gas extraction there.” Make your voice heard and stand up against further attacks on these invaluable traces of America’s indigenous history!

Call or e-mail Secretary Zinke at

(202) 208-7351, [email protected]

and Utah BLM State Director Ed Roberson at

(801) 539-4010, [email protected]

 

 

by Robert L. Kelly and David Hurst Thomas
By Rich Friedman and Anna Sofaer

Anthropologist Timothy Pauketat of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign publishes appreciation for the Solstice Project’s contributions to archaeoastronomy and Southwestern archaeology. Read an excerpt from his “A Ray of Theoretical Sunshine” here, in press for the Journal of Skyscape Archaeology.

Chacoan site of spectacular lunar alignment was designated a National Monument

 

March 9 2018: Durango, CO, “Chacoan Astronomy, Cosmography, Roads, and Ritual Power: New Insights into Chaco’s Powerful Expanse using New Technologies.” 7:00pm at Fort Lewis College, Noble Hall, Room 130, located at  1355 E 8th Ave.. Sponsored by the San Juan Basin Archaeological Society and the San Juan Citizens Alliance

 

4 minute video showing the dangers of expanding fracking in the sacred landscape of Chaco archaeology

Announced by The National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Solstice Project

 

These organizations are valuable resources.

LUNAR ECLIPSE at Chimney Rock and Pueblo Bonito
September 27, 2015

 

Article shows astronomical markings and majestic architecture, describes Solstice Project’s work

New Insights into Chaco Roads with New Technology

 

 

Museum Installation of the Sun Dagger Explorer
The Solstice Project’s interactive computer model of The Sun Dagger of Chaco Canyon opened May 15, 2009, The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Click here for more information

 

 

National Trust for Historic Preservation supports the Solstice Project’s LiDAR Documentation
Chaco’s Great North Road and related video productions

 

 

Oblique Views
Presentation by Adriel Heisey, superb aerial photographer/videographer, partner of the Solstice Project for three decades Intriguing new exhibit, juxtaposing modern photos with Lindbergh’s Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe. Sunday, 25 October 2015, and runs through 25 May, 2016
Click Here for more Information

 

 

March 8, 2018: Pagosa Springs, CO, “Chacoan Astronomy, Cosmography, Roads, and Ritual Power: New Insights into Chaco’s Powerful Expanse using New Technologies.” 7:00pm at The Springs Resort and Spa (Ecoluxe Building) located at 165 Hot Springs Blvd. Hosted by the Chimney Rock Interpretive Association (CRIA).

 

 

See Solstice Project’s new 4 mins alert for Chaco’s protection.

 

 

Rob Weiner, Solstice Project Research Associate, presented at the Pecos Conference August 5 – 7, 2016, his Cordell/Powers Prize winning paper:“Gambling at the Center Place: Archeological, Oral Traditional, and Ethnographic Evidence for the Importance of Gambling in the Chaco World”
For a video presentation of the paper, watch here.

 

 

Letter to the U.S. Department of the Interior to deny Saddle Butte Limited’s permit for the Pinion Pipeline

Solstice Project colleague, Robert Weiner’s paper on exotic imports in Chaco Canyon now in print! A major breakthrough in understanding Chaco’s dynamic relationship with imported Mesoamerican objects. Read “A Sensory Approach to Exotica, Ritual Practice, and Cosmology at Chaco Canyon” in the Journal Kiva here!

 

 

Archaeologist John Roney and Anna Sofaer recently developed an “Urgent Proposal to Record Chaco’s Prehistoric Roads” to submit to BLM in its current “scoping period.” Support this Proposal with your comments!

New Insights into the Chaco and Maya Cultures by Anna Sofaer and Christopher Powell

We commend Senators Udall and Heinrich for their proposed legislation to protect Chaco and we support efforts to expand this protection to the larger Chaco region.

To prevent any further damage to the Chaco culture’s invaluable heritage, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) must cease permitting new oil and gas wells in the Chaco region. Especially, and at the very least, they must not grant any leases within the Chaco Cultural Heritage Withdrawal Area as defined by Chaco Cultural Heritage Area Protection Act of 2018 proposed by Senator Udall and Senator Heinrich. Further, the withdrawal area boundaries of this proposed bill should be extended to cover a 20 mile buffer zone around Chaco National Historical Park and 10 mile buffer zones around outlying Chaco Great Houses.

Approaching Chaco today you are confronted with an unreal sight of fracking rigs and flares, creating noise, air, and groundwater pollution. The ground fracturing vibrations risk damage to some of the most valuable archaeological sites in North America.

In 2014, the BLM promised a new Resource and Management Plan to govern all future oil and gas leases. They have not yet delivered. Instead, the BLM plans to sell leases this December inside the ten mile ‘buffer zone’ around Chaco Canyon, a protective boundary they previously assented to. This sets a dangerous precedent for advancing energy activity closer to Chaco Canyon.

The BLM has also permitted many roads to cross the ancient Great North Road’s 35 mile course from Chaco Canyon to Kutz Canyon. The Chacoans created this elaborate corridor to connect their ceremonial center to the direction North. For descendant Puebloan peoples it holds profound spiritual significance. However, modern energy roads continue to erase the Great North Road. This erasure risks getting worse: the Chaco people created numerous Great Houses and other ‘roads’ as a web, uniting their sites with special landforms and astronomical directions. This comprehensive web of a sacred landscape must be protected.

Much of the area adjoining Great Houses in the ‘buffer zone’ is only beginning to be analyzed with LiDAR (aerial LASER scanning); this data requires much further evaluation, along with on-the-ground truthing by experienced archaeologists. These efforts should proceed and the findings deter any further leasing.

We also urge mitigating actions by the BLM to prevent public health hazards to surrounding communities already encroached upon by intense energy development. We further support a shift in the region’s economy to job-creating, sustainable energy enterprises.

Follow this link and select “Layers” in the upper left box to view the proposed and existing intense fracking activity in the Chaco region:
climatewest.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=8a8355a62c414757abfe5c0dec144907&extent.

And again, you can submit testimony for the record to the Committee at:

[email protected].

Thank you,

Anna Sofaer
Solstice Project

Rich Friedman: The Chacoan Great North “Road” LiDAR Project Anna Sofaer: Ancient Chacoan Roads: New Aerial Technology Provides New Insights

 

A Solstice Project symposium in Farmington, NM on Chaco Roads and our new research in progress

 

Narrated by Robert Redford. It continues to be broadcast across the country. Franz Joachim, the CEO of PBS of New Mexico: “The average Prime Time rating was 2.8. These are the kinds of numbers we expect with Nova, Nature and Masterpiece Theatre.”

 

Thursday, April 14, 2016 5:30pm – 7:00pm
Click Here for more information

 

The Solstice Project’s exciting new findings were presented by the National Geodetic Survey of NOAA and the Solstice Project, at The Science of Time conference, Harvard University, June 5 to 9, 2016. View the

The Solstice Project’s LiDAR Study
Chaco Canyon’s Great North Road revealed by the Solstice Project, published in American Archaeology

MPMA 2009 Publication Design and Technology Competition, multimedia category. View the press release here

 

 

The Worlds of Cahokia and Chaco: Parallels of Cosmograhic Expanse and Power

October 2014 letter to Secretary Jewell regarding danger to Chaco from fracking

 

The Solstice Project is now producing a new one hour documentary for PBS
Click here for more information