This talk will explore Western scholars’ documentation of peyote use in the “New World” and its implications for Huichol cultural history, beginning with the works of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún in the mid-1500s, continuing with the 19thCentury studies of European scholars, and into those of the current century.
The second part of the presentation will focus on Huichol pilgrimage experiences. Once a year, groups of Huichols embark on the 300-mile peyote pilgrimage from their homes in the Sierra Madre Occidental to the north-central state of San Luis Potosi. Here, in a sanctified piece of desert they call Wirikuta,they hunt--in a literal sense with bow and arrow--the sacred peyote,a small, spineless hallucinogenic cactus that for them is at once deer, maize, and itself. For them Wirikutais the home of their ancestors, as well as such important aboriginal deities as the maize goddess called Our Mother Niwetsika and the culture hero Elder Brother Kauyumari, the personification of the Sacred Deer.
4:00 p.m.
Hibben105 Reception to follow.
More info: 277-4524

Habicht-Mauche has been a Visiting Scholar at the Maxwell Museum and the Department of Anthropology at UNM since April, where she has been analyzing the ceramic collections from Tijeras Pueblo (LA 581) that were excavated by a series of UNM field schools in the 1970s. She has been assisted in this research by several volunteers from the Friends of Tijeras Pueblo and by students from UCSC. In addition to laboratory analysis, this research project included field survey and collection of potential ceramic resources in the area around Tijeras Pueblo. In this presentation Habicht-Mauche will describe her research to date, provide some preliminary results, discuss new questions that have arisen, and lay out the future direction.

Judith A. Habicht-Mauche has been Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz since 1990. Prof. Habicht-Mauche’s research interests include the study of the organization of production and exchange of ancient pottery from the American Southwest and Southern Plains. She is an expert in the archaeological application of mineralogical, chemical, and isotopic techniques for sourcing artifacts and reconstructing ancient trade routes. Professor Habicht-Mauche has published extensively in connection with her studies of Southwestern ceramics. She received a grant to examine the pottery from Tijeras Pueblo, with particular attention to what can be learned from that site about the early development and spread of glaze paint technology to the Rio Grande pueblos from the Western Pueblo region around the turn of the fourteenth century.
7pm
Sandia Ranger Station, Tijeras

September 21 - Lecture: Albuquerque Archaeological Society, "GERONIMO'S WICKIUP:  ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE CANON DE LOS EMBUDOS SURRENDER SITE," Deni J. Seymour

In the spring of 1886 Geronimo and Naiche attempted to surrender to General George Crook at Canon de los Embudos in Sonora, Mexico.  This was several months before the actual surrender at Skeleton Canyon in southern Arizona.  This important event was attended by Tombstone photographer C.S. Fly who photographically documented the place, the Apache people, and some of their material culture.  While others left descriptive accounts of the occasion, these are the only photographs of the Apache in the field while still enemy combatants of the United States. Rumors led to the dispersal of Geronimo and his people before the surrender was consummated, delaying his final capitulation to General Nelson Miles until fall of the same year.
Scrutiny of the photographs and comparisons to on-the-ground evidence provide a clear view of archaeological Apache structure signatures and other forms of material culture from this period.  Such evidence serves as a basis for confidently identifying Apache sites, providing an indisputable historical basis at a known place.
Canon de los Embudos provides an example of how historic documents and photographs can be aligned with archaeological evidence to learn more and gain confidence about the incredibly light footprint of these mobile people.  At the same time, an explicitly archaeological focus shows how and in which ways documentary sources can be misleading.
Deni Seymour received her doctorate in Anthropology from the University of Arizona in 1990 and her Bachelor's degrees in both Anthropology and Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has taught, was employed by a number of state and federal agencies, and has worked for a number of cultural resource management firms, including one she founded and ran for about a decade.  Now she is a full-time research archaeologist affiliated with two academic institutions.  One of her current professional associations includes Research Associate with the Southwest Center at the University of Arizona.
Dr. Seymour's research for more than a quarter of a century in southern New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas has focused on colonial period indigenous groups in the American Southwest.  One of her primary contributions has been the identification of basic archaeological signatures of many previously unidentified or poorly understood groups; this provides the basis for a revised conceptualization of this regional period.  New and more explicitly presented methods provide a rigorous basis for making knowledgable claims about this poorly understood slice of time and establishes grounds independent from history and ethnohistory for understanding the era.  The Apache are a historic people and a legitimate topic of historical archaeology, both with regard to and independent of concerns about European expansion.
Dr. Seymour has published in numerous journals and edited volumes, has served as guest editor for journal issues. Her book on the Sobaipuri-O'odham will be published in 2011 by the University of Utah Press. Another book manuscript on ancestral Apache is currently under review.
7:30 PM
Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, 2000 Mountain Road NW (Old Town)

The Philmont Scout Ranch and the program in Anthropology at New Mexico Highlands University invite you to join us for the 2010 Philmont Archaeological Conference to be held at the historic Villa Philmonte on the Philmont Scout Ranch, Cimarron, New Mexico!
Included at the conference will be tours of the Villa, the Philmont Museum and Seton Memorial Library, as well as the Kit Carson Museum. On Sunday, October 17th, tours will be conducted at several archaeological sites in the North Ponil Canyon, just north of Cimarron.
Arrive on Friday, October 15th for an Early Bird Reception at the Villa from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.

The auction will be led by auctioneers from The R. B. Burnham & Co. Trading Post. Bruce Burnham and his family are well known for their work in trading Native art of the four corners area for five generations. Their expertise in buying, selling, and trading has earned the respect of area collectors and peers nationwide.
1pm Preview
3:30 Auction Starts
The Prairie Star restaurant is located on Highway 550 at Tamaya Road, Bernalillo, New Mexico.
For directions call 505 867-3327.