Megan Kate Nelson  Author and Historian Most Americans believe that the Civil War took place only in the East—Gettysburg, Atlanta, Appomattox—and that the fight involved only the North and the South. Beginning in the summer of 1861, however, the U.S. and Confederate armies clashed with each other and with Indigenous peoples in New Mexico and…

William DeBuys                                                                            Conservationist and Writer Don J. Usner                    …

Thomas E. Chavez Director (Retired), New Mexico History Museum; Historian The Santa Fe Trail can be of interest on many levels; from tracing its ruts, reading the journals of those who traversed it, compiling receipts of the food they ate, focusing on biographies of individual travellers, and so on.  Yet, the Trail’s history has a…

Robert L. Spude, Ph.D. Regional Historian (retired), NPS Dr. Spude will take the audience on a tour of some of his favorite ghost towns around the Southwest and discuss their histories, legends and preservation.  The reality of the boom-and-bust economy of the territorial period and the resultant ghost towns highlights the shockingly transitory nature of…

Jeffrey P. Shepherd, Ph.D. Professor of History, University of Texas El Paso This presentation focuses on the Apache Treaty of 1852, which is the only treaty negotiated solely with Apaches and ratified by Congress and the President.  Sandwiched between the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the U.S. - Mexico War in 1848, and the…

Stephen Post  Research Associate, New Mexico Office of Archaeological Studies The talk will provide an overview of the Palace Seen and Unseen exhibit, which integrates documentary records with the material evidence uncovered by more than 100 years of archaeology at the Palace. Through this approach Co-curators, Stephen Post, Cordelia T. Snow, and Alicia Romero guide…

Chris Huggard, Ph.D. Professor of History, Author Terrence  M. Humble Local Historian, Preservation Activist, Former Miner This presentation will offer a synopsis of two centuries of copper mining at Santa Rita, New Mexico. We will examine the “discovery” of the copper, the emergent mining techniques in the nineteenth century, and the most important era of…

Rick Hendricks State Records Administrator, New Mexico Former New Mexico State Historian This talk will discuss the way in which Pueblo Indian have fought to preserve tribal sovereignty as it related to issues of land and water from the Spanish Colonial Period to the present day. Case studies of five pueblos will be examined, four…

Leah F. Tookey Curator of History, New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum At the turn of the 20th century, most of the arid land east of Las Cruces, New Mexico was ranch land. Cattle, sheep, and goat ranches filled the Tularosa Basin, the Oscuro Range, and the surrounding countryside. Most of these ranches were…

Cynthia Culbertson  Author, Curator, Horse Expert When we think of New Mexico history we sometimes forget that the humans in the narrative have often been dependent on their equine companions. The influence of New Mexico on the history of the horse in the Americas is both fascinating and profound.  From the pre-historic ancestors of the…

Richard I. Ford
Emeritus Professor of Anthropology & Botany, University of Michigan

Alison Colborne
Librarian, Laboratory of Anthropology, MIAC

Gary Hein
Volunteer, Office of Archaeological Studies

Colin G. Calloway 
John Kimball Jr. 1943 Professor of History
Professor of Native American Studies
Dartmouth College