Volunteer site stewards play key role in cultural resource preservation

Roaming the remote dirt roads of the Caja del Rio in a Jeep on a sunny Saturday afternoon, Gary Newgent and John Pitts traded stories about exploring secluded canyons of the Southwest as they drove over the volcanic plateau where they’ve each devoted hundreds of hours to inspecting archaeological sites.

Curiosity has pulled the two men deeper and deeper into the nooks and crannies of the Four Corners region as their passion for archaeology has grown. Site steward organizations have provided them with a gateway to knowledge and discovery, and they’ve spent the last couple of decades becoming immersed in their volunteer efforts of monitoring the fascinating cultural and historical resources throughout the region.

“Isn’t this fun? There’s nobody out here. You’ve got the whole place to yourself,” Newgent said from an elevated vantage point that offered sweeping views of the rugged plateau west of Santa Fe.

Veteran site stewards speak with appreciation about their role — an appreciation for the time outdoors in beautiful landscapes, for the bonds created among one another and for the human history on the land.

Newgent said he also values the sense of purpose he gets from investing time to help preserve and protect these rich resources.

The Caja del Rio is an area that faces risks to natural and cultural resources from acts including illegal dumping, senseless recreational shooting practices by some users and vehicles going off authorized roads.

There was also the high-profile defacement of the centuries-old La Cieneguilla Petroglyphs in January 2022. Smaller acts of vandalism at the site continue regularly.

Dozens and dozens of trained volunteers across the state provide extra eyes on the ground for land management agencies that have limited personnel to cover large tracts of terrain like the 100,000acre Caja del Rio. The site stewards regularly visit sites that have been identified as highly significant or vulnerable in order to check for disturbances and provide reports to agency archaeologists.

In the process, the site stewards can gain a robust understanding of the cultural resources they devote their time to watching over.

“You get a real education when you join the site stewards,” said Pitts, 77, a self-proclaimed rock art fanatic who has been involved with the Santa Fe National Forest Site Stewards for 22 years. “I never took an archaeology or anthropology course in my life; now, I’m giving talks all over the place on rock art. I’ve lectured as far as Italy and South Africa to talk about American rock art all over the Southwest.

“There [are] lots of opportunities to learn about archaeology, then pass the word on.”

Pitts and Newgent are two of about eight active stewards who monitor sites in the Caja del Rio portion of Santa Fe National Forest. They’re also involved in monitoring sites for New Mexico SiteWatch, a separate entity managed by the Historic Preservation Division of the state Department of Cultural Affairs that contains seven chapters spanning from Las Cruces to Taos.

SiteWatch stewards monitor sites on lands managed by agencies including the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, the State Land Office, Santa Fe County Open Space, Trails and Parks and nonprofits such as the Archaeological Conservancy.

Kathi Kramer Turner is the Heritage program manager and archaeologist for Santa Fe National Forest who is the agency’s point of contact with the Santa Fe National Forest Site Stewards. She said there are approximately 12,000 recorded cultural resource sites within the forest, though not all of the approximately 1.6 million acres of forest have been inventoried.

Turner said cultural resources span from the earliest occupation of the area by Paleo and Archaic inhabitants to historic ranches, mines and logging sites of recent centuries.

Lands managed by the forest are significant and sacred to many of the tribes and pueblos of New Mexico, and a substantial portion of the cultural resources in the forest are ancestral sites. Historical sites from the earliest European occupants of the region are also present.

Sites can range from ancient refuse piles called middens and concentrations of lithics where tools were fashioned, to pueblo settlements and stone shrines.

Bob Florek, chairman of the Santa Fe National Forest Site Stewards, said there are about 100 sites that have been identified by the forest’s Heritage program to be important or vulnerable enough to merit regular visits.

The site stewards group covers six areas of the forest — Gallina, Jemez, Rio Chama, Garcia (near Los Alamos), Caja del Rio and Pecos/ Las Vegas, N.M. — with each area having a team leader to coordinate efforts. Florek estimated there are 80 to 90 active members who go out in teams of two to perform visits to their designated sites every one or two months.

The stewards are required to complete a training program to learn the proper protocol for inspecting sites and reporting problems. They must also adhere to a code of conduct to comply with preservation ethics and laws.

The collecting of any artifacts is prohibited and the alteration of sites on state or federal land, including improvement and maintenance activities, is not allowed without written authorization and specific guidance from land managers.

There are also confidentiality guidelines that prohibit the public disclosure of site locations and the sharing of site information and photographs.

There are quite a few couples that monitor sites together, but site locations aren’t to be shared with family members, friends or other stewards who don’t normally monitor a site if it is an area the public would otherwise not be aware of.

“These sites are on public land; anyone can go visit them, but we don’t want to advertise their location,” said Florek, who partners with his wife, Carolyn, to monitor a location in the Rio Chama area. “It’s not like they’re top secret, but we don’t want to increase traffic.”

What registers as a disturbance to a site can run a wide gamut, said New Mexico SiteWatch Coordinator Jessica Badner.

There are acts that are clearly ill intentioned, such as defacing rock art or looting. There are natural threats, such as erosion. Then there are problematic acts people may not realize are harmful.

That can include people moving rocks around to build cairns, not realizing the rocks that are being moved are part of an archaeological site.

Collecting pottery shards and artifacts at a site and piling them up in a visible location is a common occurrence. While people may think they’re helping future visitors, this is problematic because it removes valuable context of the artifacts within a site that could help archaeologists piece together a story.

“One person doing that is a small impact,” Badner said, “but when you get a site that’s visited a lot, then that impact is exponential.”

It can be difficult to determine that some areas contain archaeological sites, as they can sometimes blend in with the land. People may not realize something like a rock pile could be part of an ancestral Puebloan shrine. And when people drive off official roads and create their own paths, they may be going right over significant sites.

Cutting fences is another detrimental act. Sometimes fences have been put up to protect sites. Breaks in a fence can allow vehicles or grazing cattle to enter and cause damage.

If a site steward reports a disturbance in Santa Fe National Forest, Turner said the forest’s Heritage staff will go to the location to document it. A forest law enforcement officer may then be contacted.

Depending on the disturbance and the age of the site damage, the officer and Heritage staff may work together to see if the disturbance falls under the Archaeological Resource Protection Act or theft of government property to determine if there’s an official case.

Turner said the Heritage staff will create a damage assessment report and determine any restoration that may be needed. Depending on the type of site and its affiliation, associated tribes or pueblos may be contacted to bring in a Tribal Historic Preservation Officer to assess the damage.

Getting to sites can take some work. Most require a high-clearance vehicle to traverse primitive roads. Moderately strenuous hiking may also be necessary.

Badner said some sites are extremely remote, and it can take the better part of a day for stewards to complete their trips.

Pitts and Newgent don’t mind the work. It seems they can’t get enough of it.

Pitts monitors sites in both the Caja del Rio and Bandelier National Monument, and leads petroglyph survey and recording teams for the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project near Velarde.

Newgent monitors San Marcos Pueblo south of Santa Fe along NM 14 for SiteWatch in addition to being area team leader for the Caja del Rio for the Santa Fe National Forest Site Stewards. He said he and his wife, Shelley, also head up to Utah multiple times a year to monitor four sites around Bears Ears National Monument.

Like Pitts, Newgent’s educational background didn’t include archaeology. But now, he said, that’s where he finds great purpose.

Newgent serves as vice president of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico. He’s also the founder and president of the Site Steward Foundation, a nonprofit that raises funds to support the conservation, preservation, monitoring, education and research of archaeological, historical and cultural resources in the Four Corners region.

“My wife was into archaeology. I was into trout fishing and hiking,” Newgent said. “She always wanted to be an archaeologist. She’d always been into it; then she met me. Now I’m vice president of ASNM. She said, ‘You’ve really taken this a long way, Gary.’ I go, ‘I know, I’m kind of overdoing it, aren’t I?’ I just get a kick out of organizing stuff and trying to help out.”