Ed Chamberlin
2026
Memorial Lecture Series
Lectures are held at the Martha Liebert Public Library,
126 Calle Malinche, Bernalillo, NM
Refreshments are served afterwards. Masks are optional.
All lectures are free to the Public.
Obsidian Tools
Indios Amigos and
the Coronado Expedition
Dr. Sean Dolan
Archaeologist
Sunday - June 28th - 2:00pm
Obsidian – volcanic glass. Mined, traded and used to produce projectile points and scrapers along with deadly weapons long before the arrival of the Europeans reveal much. For one, obsidian stone tool production and exchange exposes long-distance interactions. This presentation examines New Mexican and Arizonan obsidian artifacts using geochemical analysis that prove the obsidian came from Mesoamerica. Using lithic analysis and historical evidence, these artifacts were likely brought by Coronado’s Indios Amigos.
Sean Dolan, a professional archaeologist, has managed cultural resources at Los Alamos National Laboratory since 2014. He has a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Oklahoma with research focused on the archaeology of the American Southwest and Mexican Northwest with particular emphasis on the Mimbres Valley. He has published in Kiva, Journal of Archaeological Science Reports and American Antiquity among others.
Three Women - One Story
1,000 Years of
Native American Art
Kate Nelson
Journalist
Sunday - July 26th - 2:00pm
For Three generations, Pablita Velarde, Helen Hardin and Margarete Bagshaw charted a course as remarkable Native American painters. Velarde broke traditions and tangled with her community’s elders to pursue a career painting. Hardin, Velarde’s daughter, the “It” girl of the 1960s, expanded traditional images but died of cancer as a young woman. Both used traditional imagery. Bagshaw, Velarde’s granddaughter, broke the “traditional” mold by residing in the Caribbean for a while and used a tropical color palette when she returned to New Mexico. Together they pulled the artform into abstract realms that continue to inspire artists today.
Kate Nelson, a longtime New Mexico journalist, worked at the Kansas City Star and The Albuquerque Tribune. She earned a spot in the Scripps Howard Hall of Fame for her political reporting, column writing and editorials. As the managing editor for New Mexico Magazine, she won several Writer of the Year honors from the International Regional Magazine Association. Kate also authored a 2012 biography, Helen Hardin: A Straight Line Curved.
