Salt Lake Tribune – Utah
Hopi group disputes popular perception of the Flute Player, By Lisa Church, Special to The Tribune

In Hopi teachings, Kokopelli – a corruption of the Hopi word “Kookopoli” – is a troublemaker, a lecherous and promiscuous figure who traveled from village to village as a trader, carrying his merchandise in a sack on his back.

Legend holds that as the villagers gathered to see his goods, Kookopoli would entrance them with flute music, then perform lewd acts upon some of the village women.

The exhibit, developed with the help of Hopi Flute Clan members, uses a variety of rock-art images and text based on the teachings of the Hopi to explain the importance of the Hopi Flute Player, and to detail the distinction between the flute player and Kokopelli.

Today, the Hopi sometimes depict Kookopoli in the form of a Katsina – a carved sculpture – called Kokopelli.

The characters of Kookopoli and the female version, Kokopolmana, often are seen during Hopi spring and summer dances meandering through the village feigning lewd acts, usually in the company of a clown figure who taunts Kokopolmana, while resisting her advances.

“They’re used to teach the people about the dangers of promiscuity,” said Leroy Lewis, a member of the Flute Clan who served as a consultant for the exhibit.

Where the wild things are By Chris Bergeron / Daily News Staff

Driving his pickup across the country, photographer Robert Turner spends days, even months looking through his lens for the precise moment primordial splendor shines through the landscape.

He calculates color and light with a painter’s eye and a meteorologist’s attention to nature’s changing moods.

Tripping his shutter of his Toyo large-format camera, Turner aims to “capture the essence of wilderness in a place.”

Cresting waves surge into a rocky cove on the California coast. A gnarled bristlecone pine thrusts upward into a seamless blue sky. Three aligned doorways lead through Anasazi stone ruins in Chaco Canyon.

“I’m looking for places and moments when light, forms and colors come together,” said Turner last week as he set up his show. He hopes his photos preserve the ephemeral moment when “I have witnessed something that has transcended the realm of ordinary experience.” …

The startling colors and panoramic breadth of his images suggest a pictorial amalgam of Claude Monet’s impressionist paintings and William Wordsworth’s lyrical poems.

Like Wordsworth, who sought to convey “spots of time” in poems of heartfelt remembrance, Turner roots his scenes in particular places and times: a sunset at Dead Horse Point near Moab, Utah; red maples reflected in a pond at Arcadia State Park in Maine; or a twisted juniper tree in Valley of the Gods in Arizona. …

The exhibit includes photographs Turner took from 1997 to this year while logging an estimated 40,000 miles annually crisscrossing the country from the Pacific Northwest to the Great Smokey Mountains, from New England to the Colorado Plateau.

Often traveling with his wife, Karen Messer, he drove his Toyota pickup into Canyonlands National Park in Utah and chased thunderstorms across the Great Plains. They trekked together through the Sonoran Desert and Maine’s hardwood forests.

The 62-year-old Turner said he searches for places where he can freeze “a fleeting moment of light, color, motion or stillness that gives the image a sense of heightened reality.”

“The Holy Grail is capturing intense color in soft light,” he said.

Turner said he uses “traditional methods” to take and print his photos. He doesn’t employ lens filters to enhance natural colors and uses commercial film that reveals sharp nuances and contrasts. …

Turner said his recent work reflects his early training as a painter through its nuance of color and composition. He cited the influence of 19th-century artists Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran whose lush paintings caught the Edenic beauty of an unspoiled country that he seeks in his photos.

An ardent conservationist, Turner hopes his work inspires others to protect and preserve natural resources including the public lands where most of his photographs were taken.

A slim, effusive man who looks like he would be as much at home on the Appalachian trail as a darkroom, he compared America’s wild places to “a refuge, a sanctum, an escape from urban chaos.

“I hope my photographs work on several levels,” he said. “I hope they inspire belief in the restorative power of wild places and the importance of protecting them.”

OPENING NOVEMBER 5, 2005 at The Harvard Museum of Natural History

From the San Diego exhibit several years ago:
Rare Places in a Rare Light: The Wildlands Photography of Robert Turner

In brief, 11/03/2005

The state’s Historic Preservation Division is seeking volunteers interested in monitoring endangered cultural resources in New Mexico, many of which are vulnerable to vandalism and looting because of their remote locations .

The New Mexico SiteWatch program is offering training for people interested in becoming site stewards from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 19 at Bandelier National Monument. They will learn how to spot vandalism and monitor for signs of ongoing deterioration or other problems at cultural sites.

SiteWatch units are already operating at Chaco Culture National Historic Park and Gila Cliff Dwellings.

The registration deadline is Nov. 11. To attend the session , contact coordinator Phil Young at 827-6314 or at phillip.young@state.nm.us.

In brief, 11/03/2005

The state’s Historic Preservation Division is seeking volunteers interested in monitoring endangered cultural resources in New Mexico, many of which are vulnerable to vandalism and looting because of their remote locations .

The New Mexico SiteWatch program is offering training for people interested in becoming site stewards from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 19 at Bandelier National Monument. They will learn how to spot vandalism and monitor for signs of ongoing deterioration or other problems at cultural sites.

SiteWatch units are already operating at Chaco Culture National Historic Park and Gila Cliff Dwellings.

The registration deadline is Nov. 11. To attend the session , contact coordinator Phil Young at 827-6314 or at phillip.young@state.nm.us.

Welcome to New Mexico State Parks

Geology of NM State Parks

National Landscape Conservation System

The public lands of the American West present rugged and remarkable landscapes for the use and enjoyment of all Americans.

Among the most spectacular of these natural treasures are the national conservation areas, national monuments, wild and scenic rivers, national scenic and historic trails, wilderness areas and wilderness study areas that comprise the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS).

Including:

· 15 National Monuments;
· 13 National Conservation Areas;
· Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area;
· Headwaters Forest Reserve;
· 38 Wild and Scenic Rivers;
· 175 Wilderness Areas;
· 5,327 miles of National Historic and Scenic Trails;
· more than 600 Wilderness Study Areas.

Canyons of the Ancients National Monument (Colorado) — This 164,000-acre national monument includes the densest concentration of Anasazi Indian sites in America—totaling more than 6,000 recorded sites so far.

The Wilderness Society

Report Finds BLM’s Finest Western Lands Suffering
Inadequate funding, staffing, monitoring, and accountability cited in first assessment of National Landscape Conservation System

Considered by many to be the “hidden treasures of the American West,� the lands and waters of the National Landscape Conservation System are experiencing rapidly increasing visitor numbers. For example, the number of visitors to the five BLM National Monuments in Arizona has doubled since 2000. Some of the fastest growing urban areas in the West border or surround NLCS lands, including Palm Springs, Tucson, Phoenix, and Las Vegas.

Many NLCS lands are threatened by excessive road networks that fragment wildlife habitat and bring motorized vehicles perilously close to cultural resources, such as archeological sites that, in most cases, have not yet been studied by the BLM. On average, 50 percent of the land in NLCS monuments and conservation areas is within one-half mile of a road or travel route, and 90 percent is within two miles of a road or route.

Defenders of Wildlife – Wolf Awareness Week 2005

October 16-22 marks National Wolf Awareness Week. This week is an important vehicle for dispelling misconceptions and educating the public about the role predators play in maintaining biological diversity.

The Seattle Times: Travel: Exploring New Mexico pueblos

The 19 pueblos of New Mexico are the oldest tribal communities in the United States, having descended from the ancestral Pueblo cultures that once inhabited Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde and Bandelier.

[mjh: can you name them without looking?]

Apache Trail turns 100 by Carl Holcombe, The Arizona Republic

Since 900 A.D. and probably before, Apache Trail has been vital to life in the Valley. It has been a trade route, a path to cooler climates and water recreation, the scene of legends and the key to the construction of a dam that provided the foundation for the Valley’s rise from the desert floor.

This year, the paved version of the trail turns 100.

The trail, which is also Arizona 88 and runs from Apache Junction east to Roosevelt Lake and south to U.S. 60, rolls through areas flush with jagged rocky towers that rise from hills alongside the Superstition Mountains. Colossal mesas jut from the earth, green moss brushes the sides of bulbous rock formations and archaic remains of Native American cliff dwelling tribes stare out across miles of empty, rocky desert.

The earliest documented use of the trail was by the Salado tribe in about 900 A.D. as a footpath to cooler summer home locations. Historians believe the Anasazi later followed the trail to trade pottery with the Hohokam and gain access to water, Akers said.

Four Corners region entices all types of outdoor enthusiasts by Scott Willoughby, Denver Post Staff Writer

Ranging from Mesa Verde National Park’s tranquil walking tours to do-it-yourself adventures within lesser-known Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, the Four Corners hub of Cortez combines a wealth of outdoor activity with rich Indian heritage and spectacular scenery. And to top it off, it’s almost always summer.

Canyons of the Ancients

Protected by former President Clinton in 2000, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is 3 miles west of Cortez and offers a unique variety of do-it-yourself recreational options in one of the densest archeological landscapes in the world. An estimated 30,000 archeological sites exist within the vast 164,000-acre monument, including 6,000 recorded sites in the form of cliff dwellings, shrines, petroglyphs and sweat lodges, among others.

Trail of Ancients wins Scenic Byway designation By John R. Crane

The Trail of the Ancients, 116 miles of scenic highway in and around Cortez flanked by mountains and archaeological attractions, recently garnered National Scenic Byway designation.

Also designated Sept. 22 were 364 miles of culturally rich roadways in Utah linked to the Southwest Colorado path.

The Trail of the Ancients’ change from state-designated byway to a regionally significant attraction makes it the nation’s first and only archaeological byway, said Lynn Dyer, director of Mesa Verde Country Information Bureau in Cortez.

“This makes us tied with Oregon with the most scenic byways (10) of any state within the U.S.,” Dyer said.

“It will bring more exposure to our area,” Dyer added. “It’s absolutely perfect timing to be going on the same time as the Mesa Verde Centennial.” …

Archaeological sites along the Trail of the Ancients include Mesa Verde National Park, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument on the Utah-Colorado border, Lowry Pueblo west of Pleasant View, Anasazi Heritage Center near Dolores, Hovenweep National Monument west of Cortez and other landmarks.
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TRAILING THE ANCIENTS BY DAN LEETH

To learn more about their culture, I stop at Edge of the Cedars State Park on the route’s northeast corner in Blanding.

The park’s museum holds the area’s largest collec-tion of Anasazi artifacts. Outside, eerie statues depict three-dimensional rock-art figures. Exhibits inside contrast the lives of the Ancient Ones with present-day tribes. In the restored ruins behind the museum, a ladder allows access into a restored kiva, an underground ceremonial chamber.

Kivas were important to the Anasazi. The ruins at Butler Wash have four. The site lies a few miles to the west of Blanding on the Trail of the Ancients.

From a roadside parking area, a pathway leads to a viewpoint, which overlooks the end of a box canyon. A sharp ravine separates visitors from the cliff-bound structures. In spite of the distance, the structures have impact.

“Maybe it’s the lack of guard rails and protective rangers,” fellow visitor Mick Sears observes, “but I am more impressed with this site than the mega-ruins of Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon.” …

Not all Anasazi homes were built beneath overhangs. A few miles away at Mule Canyon, the Ancient Ones built on flatlands. The site contains the remains of a two-story tower, a block of square rooms and a roofless kiva now protected by a canopy.