(Press Staff Photo by Kendra Milligan)
California poppies cover the College Avenue neighborhood yard of Sandra Lucas and Mike Knight.
For such a tiny little flower, the poppy invokes a huge passion in the people of southwest New Mexico. These little blossoms of beauty pop up from March to May, adding a burst of springtime color to the desert, roadsides and gardens of the region.
For a good poppy crop or the much-coveted superbloom which covers hillsides in yellows and oranges rain is required in both November and March, according to Elroy Limmer, a retired arborist and past president of the Gila Native Plant Society.
The ties to Native Americans that link New Mexico to centuries in the past are well-known.
Chaco Canyon, near Farmington, of course. The Gila Cliff Dwellings near Silver City. The Salinas Pueblo Missions ruins of Gran Quivira, Quarai and Abó near Mountainair. The plethora of petroglyphs spread from one side of the state to the other.
Cruising through the desert backcountry provides ample opportunity for exploration and discovery.
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Such is the case of the oft-overlooked, but subtlety exquisite Casamero Pueblo, about 20 miles west of Grants.
“Initially, when you walk up on it, the highest wall is mid-chest high,” said Sean Daugherty, Bureau of Land Management archeologist. “But that doesn’t really tell the whole story about it. What is striking is when you look closely at it and start studying it.”
, which President Donald Trump reduced by 2 million acres in 2017. The announcement rekindled tensions in Utah, where national monument designations have been used to add protections to federal public lands for more than 100 years, often over the objections of state leaders.
In order to better understand the history and use of the Antiquities Act, we caught up with David Gessner, author of the new book “
,” by email to help put the current debate into a historical context.
The Salt Lake Tribune: Monument designations have a long history in the Southwest. In fact, the very law that allows presidents to create national monuments on federal public land the Antiquities Act of 1906 originated because of widespread looting of Southwestern cultural sites around the turn of the 20th century. How did the act become law?
Heinrich Bill Safeguarding Tribal Items Passes Senate
U.S. SENATE News:
WASHINGTON, D.C. Thursday, by unanimous consent on the Senate Floor, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) passed bipartisan legislation to prohibit the exporting of sacred Native American items and increase penalties for stealing and illegally trafficking Tribal cultural patrimony.
The bicameral, bipartisan Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony (STOP) Act, introduced and championed by Senators Heinrich and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), has been endorsed by organizations and Tribes across Indian Country.
The legislation will help prevent instances like the auction of a shield, stolen from the Pueblo of Acoma. Sen. Heinrich played a role in the effort to bring the shield home by working with Governors Kurt Riley and Brian Vallo to call for its return.