SPRING NEWSLETTER 2025
HOLISTIC HISTORY EDUCATION FOR ALL Teaching thousands of students who travel to Crow Canyon’s campus with their schools is just one of the many ways our education team connects young people everywhere with accurate, comprehensive history lessons. According to Jonas Kurronen, Crow Canyon Education Manager, “Our overall goal at Crow Canyon is to make our education resources open and available to all. We want to help teachers as much as we can to teach a more holistic history of this area and the world.”
The education team continually looks for ways to help teachers teach and kids learn. In 2024, the team developed two new education modules which are taught on campus and on the road with the Mobile Learning Lab. The team has also been adapting Crow Canyon’s curriculum to be accessible via a digital platform, allowing lessons to be taught remotely by teachers. This will add to the already significant number of publicly available teaching resources, products, and guides freely available on Crow Canyon’s website, accessed by tens of thousands of teachers and students every year. “As a former public high school teacher myself, I un- derstand that teachers are always looking for material and units to teach, and we want them to know that Crow Canyon has a lot to offer that’s easy, accessible, and user-friendly,” shared Jonas. Crow Canyon’s education team is committed to reaching more underrepresented communities and Indigenous schools. Indigenous educators Alicia Benally and Jon Ghahate recently joined to help support these goals. The entire education team is incredibly diverse, bringing a variety of perspectives, skill sets, and experiences. They look forward to developing new resources and ways of knowing for young people across the U.S. and even globally. Learn more about Crow Canyon’s education programs and resources at CrowCanyon.org/education .
NEW CRM FIELD SCHOOL HELPS FILL PROFESSIONAL TRAINING GAPS You may have noticed a new Cultural Resource Management (CRM) Field School program at Crow Canyon this year. In addition to our College Field School for undergraduates, we’re offering a CRM Field School in 2025 . Both are part of Crow Canyon’s professional development offerings, designed to provide college students with hands-on experience and training needed to secure jobs in the industry.
That’s why in 2024 we piloted a new CRM Field School program in partnership with the PaleoWest Foundation. Ten students gained practical training in CRM fieldwork. Three of them were given work in Tribal Historic Preservation Offices (THPO) and gained valuable understanding of CRM archaeology and the role of the THPO. Two of them landed jobs almost immediately, and one is being considered for an internship with a private CRM firm. “The best part about field school was how much it taught me about CRM and archaeology as a whole…It felt like I learned a whole semester’s worth of info in two weeks.” – Jack C., student
Why CRM? Fewer than 10% of practicing archaeologists work as university or college professors or for a museum or laboratory. Most archaeologists practicing today work under the auspices of CRM, whether as consultants, or for tribal, local, state, or federal governments to review the work of private sector archaeologists. CRM services are required for any construction project that triggers local, state, and/or federal regulations. In areas like southwest Colorado with a high density of archaeological sites, the need for trained CRM practitioners is especially great, yet very little training exists.
- The 2025 program runs June 29–July 12 on Crow Canyon’s campus in Cortez, CO. Stay tuned for updates from the field!
Learn more at CrowCanyon.org/crm-field-school.
EXPLORING CULTURAL, ECONOMIC, AND SOCIAL DIVERSITY IN EARLY FIRST MILLENNIUM C.E. ANCESTRAL PUEBLO SOCIETIES
Crow Canyon Laboratory Manager Reuven Sinensky was invited to present some of the results of his recently completed dissertation research at the Southwest Symposium Biennial Archaeological Conference in January 2025. His presentation was part of a session titled Trajectories of Change and Transformation in the Northern U.S. Southwest , organized by former Crow Canyon staff Benjamin A. Bellorado and Kellam Throgmorton. Reuven discussed the background for his research in a recent blog post on Crow Canyon’s website.
You can also find Reuven’s dissertation research from UCLA, titled Early Agriculture and Indigenous Foodways in the U.S. Southwest and Mesoamerica: Cuisine and Social Change in Mobile Farming Societies at https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6gq0f0n5 . Comparison between C.E. 200–550 (top) and C.E. 550–700 (bottom) residential and communal architecture. Note the contrast between the informal site layout above, and the more organized site layout below.
From the blog:
“As our understanding of Ancestral Pueblo peoples across time and space has grown, and archaeological techniques have become more refined, a picture has emerged that is far more complex and better aligned with the perspectives of our descendant community partners—Pueblo Ancestors were diverse and had distinctive traditions that rarely fit into tidy boxes.” “But why were families and communities of Ancestors living in the same geographic regions during the same periods of time diverse if broad-scale changes spanning millennia are highly visible archaeologically? The answer lies in the lived experiences of Ancestral Pueblo people—the decisions made by individuals, families, and communities in the ancient past were informed not only by the environmental and technological constraints intrinsic to living in a particular place at a specific point in time, but by distinctive histories of movement and interactions between people, landscapes, plants, and animals experienced by community members and their ancestors.”
You can read Reuven’s full post on our News Blog at CrowCanyon.org/news .
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE ANTIQUITIES ACT? With our country’s national parks and monuments making news headlines lately, Dr. Susan Ryan’s latest blog post, “Monumental Debate: The Antiquities Act of 1906,” is timely. While the Act has played a crucial role in conservation and preservation policies for almost 120 years, she explores both the purpose of the act and the controversy involved. Read the full post on our News Blog at CrowCanyon.org/news/monumental-debate-the-antiquities-act-of-1906 . Dr. Susan Ryan is Executive Vice President of the Crow Canyon Research Institute and she writes a monthly blog post on topics that demonstrate the relevance of archaeology to modern day challenges.
OUR VISION To expand the sphere in which we operate, both geographically and intellectually, and show how the knowledge gained through archaeology can help build a healthier society.
YOUR SUPPORT IS NEEDED NOW MORE THAN EVER
There are many ways you can support Crow Canyon, including: CARS– Consider donating
your unwanted vehicle. The pick-up is free, your donation is tax-deductible, and we’ll use the proceeds
to continue our award-winning archaeological research in the American Southwest. Please call 970-564-4357 for more information. IRA CHARITABLE GIFTS– Individuals aged 70 1/2 and older can distribute from their IRAs directly to Crow Canyon Archaeological Center without counting the distribution as income. These gifts, called Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs), count toward your Required Minimum
Distribution, and your taxable income is lowered by the amount of your QCD.
LEGACY GIFT– Are you interested in making a gift that will have an impact on our work well beyond your lifetime? A simple, flexible, and versatile way to ensure we can continue our work into the future is to make a gift in your estate plan, known as a charitable bequest.
to make a gift to Crow Canyon today!
For more information, please contact Sarah Grace Pretzer at 970-560-7545. Or donate directly to make an immediate impact:
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