PUEBLO CULTURE
History lovers will find a wealth of information about New Mexico's past throughout the year with engaging topics led by archaeologists and researchers.
For a list of past talks by guest speakers, including YouTube videos of those presentations, click on the topic below.
For a list of discussion related to NM Pueblo Culture including YouTube videos of those presentations (for SOME presentations), click on the topics below.
2024, 2023
Chaco Community, Culture & Science: the Essence of Ancestral Puebloans (March 2024)
Learn about the complicated and mysterious legacy of Chaco. Jon Ghahate (Laguna, Zuni) provides an intimate Indigenous perspective of the culture, community, and science of the
civilization that produced the Chacoan Culture. Jon Ghahate is currently an Educator at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez, Colorado. Previously, he was the Museum Cultural Educator at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque. Jon’s talks provide historically accurate, science-centered, respectful narratives of the cultures and heritage of New Mexico’s Pueblos.
Ancient Flintknapping, Contemporary Artistry (May 2023)
Creating unique and functional tools from bone and stone utilizing traditional techniques is not for the impatient. Mastering the ancient art of
flintknapping to create stone arrow or spear heads and knives takes years of practice and trial and error. Dan Vallo, an enrolled member of Acoma Pueblo, is a contemporary flintknapper working with flint, chert and obsidian. He will explain the process, the materials and the problems he has encountered on his path to artistry. Dan Vallo’s art has been informed by a family of artists-his grandmother was a potter and his great uncle was a silversmith. Vallo’s passion, however, was to create stone tools and wooden handles by using every part of the animals he harvests with the primitive weapons he makes. Over the years, his unique pieces have ranged from small arrowheads to custom knives that honor the spirit of the animals that allow him to pursue his art.
2022 and Earlier
Comanches & Genizaros in Taos
Join us for our final Rock Art session as we travel north to Taos with Dr. Montgomery who introduces a native and multi-disciplinary approach, which brings together archaeological,
archival, oral historical, and ethnographic sources to understand the social practices of mobile groups, such as the Ute, Jicarilla Apache, and Comanche. Her current research revolves around a collaborative research project with Picuris Pueblo in northern New Mexico. This work explores the social and economic relationship between Picuris Pueblo and the Jicarilla Apache through an investigation of agricultural practices at the Pueblo between 1400-1750 CE. Dr. Montgomery received her PhD from Stanford. Lindsay is currently a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University where she is working on a full-length monograph entitled "We Take Our Place With Us" which documents the deep history of mobile land-use practices on the Taos Plateau.
Make a Pueblo Shield
Marlon Magdalena of Jemez Historic Site provides a tutorial on the history and manufacture of war shields. On August 10, 1680, the Pueblo People of New Mexico and Arizona launched a successful rebellion against Spanish colonization.
Their brave resistance helped preserve the Pueblo way of life and shaped the history of New Mexico for all those who have come after.
Archaeology of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt
Recent archaeological research casts new light on the aftermath and changes wrought by this transformative event, especially as it affects Jemez Pueblo.
Please note: the webinar will likely start around two to three minutes in. Please enjoy Dr. Liebmann’s webinar, “Archaeology of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt” generously provided by the UNM-Taos 2016 lecture series. Open his program with this link: 1680 Pueblo Revolt. Matthew Liebmann is a Professor of Archaeology and the Archaeology Program Director in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. His research interests include the archaeology of the Southwest U.S., historical archaeology and historical anthropology, collaborative archaeology, the archaeology of colonialism, archaeological theory, and postcolonialism. He has conducted collaborative research with the Pueblo of Jemez since 2001, and formerly served as Tribal Archaeologist and NAGPRA Program Director at the Jemez Department of Natural Resources. He is the author of Revolt: An Archaeological History of Pueblo Resistance and Revitalization in 17th Century New Mexico (2012) and the co-editor of Archaeology and the Postcolonial Critique (with Uzma Rizvi, 2008) and Enduring Conquests: Rethinking the Archaeology of Resistance to Spanish Colonialism in the Americas (with Melissa S. Murphy, 2011).