The Middle San Juan region of northwestern New Mexico is often misunderstood regarding its Puebloan history. Falling between the better-known Pueblo cultural centers at Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde, the ancient Aztec and Salmon communities rarely attract deserved attention. Research at these Puebloan centers over the last 100, and particularly, the last 20 years has revealed a unique and outstanding record of innovation and creativity, as well as large numbers of Pueblo-affiliated peoples. In this talk, I will highlight the special nature of the ancient Puebloan use of the Middle San Juan region. I will also provide a brief update on our efforts to protect the Greater Chaco Landscape from oil-gas development.

Paul F Reed has been a Preservation Archaeologist with Archaeology Southwest since 2001. He is based in Taos, New Mexico and still works as the occasional Chaco Scholar at Salmon Ruins, New. Reed’s most recent writing is an edited book (with Gary M. Brown as co-editor) entitled Aztec, Salmon, and the Pueblo Heartland of the Middle San Juan, published in SAR Press’ Popular Series in 2018. He also served as editor (and author of several chapters) on Chaco's Northern Prodigies: Salmon, Aztec, and the Ascendancy of the Middle San Juan Region After AD 1100, published by the University of Utah Press (2008). Reed was also editor (and author of several chapters) of the three-volume, comprehensive report entitled Thirty-Five Years of Archaeological Research at Salmon Ruins, New Mexico published in 2006. His other books – The Puebloan Society of Chaco Canyon (2004) and Foundations of Anasazi Culture (published in 2000; as editor and author) have explored the origins of Puebloan culture and Chaco Canyon.

During the last six years, Reed has been working to protect the Greater Chaco Landscape from the effects of expanded oil-gas development associated with fracking in the Mancos Shale formation. Through a series of meetings and forums with public officials, Tribal leaders, various US Government agencies, and New Mexico’s Congressional delegation, Archaeology Southwest and its partners have focused on expanding protections to sites, traditional cultural places, and fragile landscapes in the greater San Juan Basin. The most recent effort on this front is to partner with the Pueblo of Acoma to complete a focused ethnographic study of Acoma’s connections to the Greater Chaco Landscape.

Among his other interests, Reed leads tours to Salmon and Aztec Ruins, Chaco Canyon, the Chuska Valley, and the Navajo Country, and gives public presentations on different topics in southwestern archaeology and history. Reed has conducted fieldwork and research in the Southwest for more than 30 years. From 1993 to 2001, Reed directed a roads archaeology research program for the Navajo Nation Archaeology Department, Farmington, New Mexico. Reed completed his Bachelor of Arts (1986) and Master of Arts (1989 in anthropology and archaeology) degree at New Mexico State University.

Meet Paul at dinner at Guadalajara Grill South at 5 pm.

Order and pay for your dinner and join us in the back dining room.