Collide-a-scape

A story I’ve been writing about and following closely since last summer has taken another odd and tragic turn. Here’s a can of worms that’s bound to be pried open:

Ted Gardiner, who had many off-the-record and deep background conversations with The Salt Lake Tribune during the past eight months, insisted he had come to the federal agents on his own to try to stop what he saw as immoral trafficking.

Gardiner was the sole source in the biggest sting operation against pothunters in the Southwest. He killed himself on Monday. Will those “conversations” see the light of day?

Last year, evidence from a DNA test was thought to have solved one of Utah’s oldest cold cases: the 1934 disappearance of Everett Ruess.  National Geographic Adventure published a big, splashy exclusive on the 75-year old mystery. But some observers, most notably Kevin Jones, Utah’s state archaeologist, had reason to question the findings in the story, including the genetic analysis that seemed to confirm the identity of the discovered bones.

In this Salt Lake Tribune story last summer, Jones continued to air his doubts:

A lot of people threw aside their skepticism with the announcement of the DNA tests. They don’t realize that DNA is just another line of evidence, and can yield mistakes as well.

That infuriated the scientists at the University of Colorado, in Boulder, who did the DNA analysis. One of them, Dennis Van Gerven shot back:

Genetic evidence is not just another kind of evidence. This is the kind of evidence that puts people on death row and takes people off death row.

That quote is going to haunt Van Gerven for some time.

Kevin Jones turned out to be right. Here’s my short profile of him in the current issue of High Country News.

The exhibits in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, like many archaeology exhibits, depicts Indians wearing only loincloths. Yet, as my favorite archaeology blogger points out,  there is ample historical and archaeological evidence that ancient Puebloans (more popularly known as the Anasazi) wore clothes. Imagine that!

He rightly concludes that this false representation

has more to do with the preconceptions of the people who made the dioramas than with what people at Chaco and elsewhere actually wore.

I’ve been following (and writing about) the battle over Utah’s Nine Mile Canyon since 2004. The place is so loaded with incredible rock art and other archaeological riches that it would be a national park if the landscape wasn’t a checkerboard of federal, state, county and private owners.

Then there’s the huge natural gas reserves that are the center of a long-running dispute between the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Bill Barrett Corporation, a Denver-based oil & gas company, and a coalition of preservationists.  Well, earlier this week, all the parties reached a compromise agreement that allows the gas drilling to go forward with more stringent safeguards. Lots of people have been publicly crowing about this deal, but behind the scenes, there’s much grumbling and even outright accusations that the preservationists got rolled by the BLM and the gas company.

The mainstream press mostly centered on all the backslapping. No reporters have taken a critical look at the details of the agreement. So I read the document myself and then started making calls earlier this week. My previous reporting on Nine Mile Canyon has revealed some shady behavior on the part of BLM, so I was curious to learn if this new accord represented a true depature from Business as Usual. What I found out is that most of the preservationists who signed the accord did so pretty much holding their noses. Anyway, for more perspective, read the story I just wrote for Archaeology Magazine, which takes a hard look at the perceived failings of this highly vaunted deal.

I recently wrote two stories for Archaeology magazine about the clash of history, science, and culture in the American Southwest. The main piece in the Nov/Dec issue juxtaposes Navajo claims to famous prehistoric sites, such as Chaco Canyon, with new archaeological data. This latest material evidence reinforces the strong scientific consensus that the Navajo didn’t arrive in the Southwest until sometime in the 1500s.

The accompanying web-only piece illustrates how Navajo oral history deeply shapes the views and beliefs of Taft Blackhorse, a Navajo archaeologist who I spent time with while reporting on these stories. I will say that I grew quite fond of Taft and his colleague, John Stein. They were generous hosts and there’s a part of me rooting for them to continue their maverick ways and quixotic quest. That said, I have no doubt that many archaeologists will be shaking their heads in disbelief at some of the statements they make.

Combined, the two stories reveal an interesting dilemma for archaeologists who strive to reconcile data-driven science with information gleaned from a culture’s oral tradition.

I’ll have more to say on all this shortly, as I suspect others will offer their own commentary, some who I know have already read the print story. I look forward to a spirited exchange.

One final thought: while writing these stories, I was reminded of something I once read in an essay by geographer D.W. Meinig, in this classic book:

Any landscape is composed not only of what lies before our eyes, but what lies in our heads.

This story in Nature News about societal collapse in ancient Peru is worth noting, especially for this quote by one of the main researchers:

Dramatic climactic events are always used to explain culture change in the Andes. But this is not satisfying based on what we know about human culture. It paints a picture of culture sitting there, not changing, hit by events over which they have no control. But Native Americans did not always live in harmony with their environment.

That last line provided some fodder for an interesting exchange in the comments thread of the story. I really wish Savage Minds would take up this meme some day. By happenstance, the death of this giant in anthropology is relevant to a wider discussion, which Rex duly notes over at Savage Minds:

First, Lévi-Strauss taught us that culture is a force in its own right.

The question many scholars struggle with is how much of a “force” culture plays in a society’s own demise–be it the Anasazi, the Angkor, or even in the widely cited case of a certain island people.

This article by Roger Webster, a South African historian, is intriguing on several levels. I was drawn in by this opening:

One of the many aspects of history and archaeology that fascinates me is that, in many respects, archaeology becomes the verifier, or the destroyer, of history.

Be sure to read it all the way through to the haunting poem about drought that closes the piece.

I have an upcoming story in the Nov/Dec issue of Archaeology magazine that will perhaps generate some controversy among Southwestern archaeologists. (It’s called “Who were the Anasazi?”)  The piece explores Navajo claims to ancient Puebloan sites in Chaco Canyon and other famous prehistoric ruins in the Four Corners region. My story also discusses a wealth of new Navajo archaeological sites discovered outside Farmington, New Mexico in the last 15 years (courtesy of a big natural gas project).

As some people have already mentioned to me, the Nov/Dec print issue of Archaeology is already on newstands and arriving in subscriber mailboxes. But it won’t be online until the end of this month or on Dec 1. Thus, until I can actually link to the story, I’m going to hold off on posting about it. But I will have much to say about it then. So too, I understand, will several science journalists and archaeology bloggers be writing about it. I’m glad to hear that, because although the story focuses on the Navajo, it speaks to a number of larger issues smoldering in SW archaological circles.

For a would-be pothunter, I supppose arrowheads are like a gateway drug.  Of course, not everybody becomes a junkie. And most people who become addicted to uncovering a piece of the past don’t become pothunters. That said, see if you can match the quote to the right author below. Don’t click on a link until giving it a try.

1) “I was hooked on this from the first time I picked up an arrowhead as a kid.”

2) “It is in our genes to collect and connect with our heritage. We have an inherent desire to touch and reflect on our past.”

3) “I grew up with a gut reaction to archaeology where an arrowhead in my hand felt warm with possibility.”

The three authors, in no particular order:

A) anonymous Blanding, Utah resident

B) Jane Waldbaum, past president of the Archaeological Institute of America

C) Craig Childs, well-known archaeology writer

Earlier this summer, after federal investigators arrested two dozen residents from Blanding, Utah, for looting ancient Indian burials, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) was quick to denounce the FBI’s conduct. Hatch called the federal pothunting raid “overkill” and asked Congress to investigate the FBI’s sting operation.

A Salt Lake Tribune editorial scolded Hatch for

trying to make cheap political points back home at the expense of federal agents.

Yesterday, Hatch held the CIA to a different standard. As the Salt Lake Tribune reported, he

said the Justice Department’s decision to open a preliminary inquiry into whether CIA officers violated federal laws would put a chilling effect on the nation’s ability to gather intelligence and thwart potential terrorist acts.