[from UNM Today]

The collaboration between UNM and NPS dates back to the founding of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park in 1907. Edgar Lee Hewett, founder of UNM’s anthropology department, the Museum of New Mexico and the School of American Research, was instrumental in passing the Antiquities Act of 1906, which led to the creation of Chaco Canyon National Monument the following year.

UNM had partial ownership in the monument; acquired sections from the SAR,
and all state sections were deeded back to the federal government in 1949. Hewett conducted research in Chaco Canyon at Chetro Ketl in the 1920s and early 30s. The UNM/SAR Archaeology Field School built research facilities in Chaco Canyon and excavated several small sites from 1935-’47. As a result, UNM holds extensive and important collections from Chaco Canyon. The collections complement the NPS collections and provide researchers an opportunity to study the full range of Chaco material culture.

UNM and NPS signed a memorandum of understanding in 1949 when UNM deeded its parkland to the National Park Service. As a result, the NPS granted UNM “perpetual preferential rights” to conduct scientific research in Chaco Canyon.

The MOU was renegotiated to establish the joint NPS-UNM Chaco Project, which was designed to determine through survey, excavation and multi-disciplinary research, the relationship between the environment and the prehistoric inhabitants of Chaco Canyon. The Chaco Project was based in the UNM Department of Anthropology and funded by the NPS from 1970-85.

http://www.unm.edu/~market/cgi-bin/archives/002296.html