Meet our Guests: Jason Nez

Jason Nez

Archaeologist & Artist

Tuba City, AZ

10/9/18

We bounce, rattle, and roll with the potholes and washouts as we skip along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, listening to the hits of the 80’s. Jason Nez is at the helm, a Navajo archaeologist who spent the day out in the field showing us archeological sites that consisted of old ruins, pot shards, and petroglyphs. Driving along, Jason flashes a broad grin as we pepper him with questions, he seems to have a thoughtful response to all of them and appreciates our enthusiasm for learning about archaeology and asking him why he dedicates his time to it. He believes in the power of sharing these sites, educating people on the history of them and current cultural traditions as a means of conserving resources and protecting them into the future.  Jason’s passion stems from his desire for people to see that Native Americans have belonged as an integral part of the narrative in the history and future of this place. This is why he works to educate people about the importance of protecting cultural sites.

Jason emphasized that he wants others to see and feel the way he does when in a landscape or looking at a prehistoric site. He stated, “I want them to love these places. I want them to appreciate them, because when you love somewhere and when you love something, you will fight for it”. Jason’s breadth of knowledge and love for what he does stressed the importance of not taking projectile points, pottery shards, or remnants of other cultures home for one’s own selfish desires. Jason hammered home the necessity to leave artifacts in the dirt of the landscapes they inhabit, as they help to provide context, cultural significance and act as evidence highlighting the importance of native peoples.

By Liam Voorhees

Meet our Guests: Joe Pachak

Joe Pachak

Artist

Bluff, UT

10/2/2018

Joe Pachak walks slowly through a fine drizzle, long goatee brushing his Patagonia jacket as he scans the rain-plumped red earth. Pausing, he kneels down, running his fingers over a protrusion of chert, a jagged scarlet patch of hard stone in a sea of soft limestone. He explains that these pockets of acidic chert formed in the basic limestone back when the crest of earth we are standing on now was at the bottom of an ocean. Picking up a piece of chert no larger than my thumbnail next to his knee, Joe’s hands mime the movements a flintknappers hands would make while forming a point.

Joe is an artist residing in Bluff, Utah, and has long been obsessed with discovering rock art and artifacts created by native peoples. Today, we are walking with him along the rim of a dried oxbow of the San Juan River just outside of Bluff, in southern Utah. He stops, showing us shrines, rocks that were used to knap flint, flakes, and potsherds ranging in color from yellow to red to black and white. We carefully place each artifact back in the spongy soil, tucking them under bushes and overhanging stones, but never burying them. We are in an area where archeologists from the BLM have removed many artifacts, and I ask Joe what his thoughts are on scientists removing artifacts versus leaving them in the field. He responds with a story-told softly through his white beard.

Growing up in Colorado, Joe followed his father in practicing a “finders keepers” methodology when they encountered artifacts and accumulated a huge collection of arrowheads. Obsessed from this young age, Joe eventually transitioned into a “finders leavers” mentality and practiced it so adamantly that his own father did not give him their arrowhead collection, for fear Joe would toss it back out into the sagebrush whence it was found.

Joe knows the power of an artifact left in place, from his many times guiding artifact hunting trips and witnessing the transformation of a person after finding an artifact. He also knows that many people don’t have the same mentality he does and would rather see artifacts safely scooped up by archeologists than in the private collections of people like his father. Throughout our drizzly walk, Joe encouraged us to feel the power of the pieces we found and their ancient spirits, and how we would like to continue encountering artifacts in their “native” environments.

By Clara Hoffman