Some University of New Mexico history is very old and even requires digging. UNM owns, or partially owns, archeological sites scattered across the New Mexico landscape. Paa-Ko in the Sandia Mountains; Abo and Quarai in Torrance County, Coronado Monument or Kuaua; and Cañada de Cochiti are some of partially owned UNM properties.
Hewett
Edgar L. Hewett, together with then-UNM President James F. Zimmerman, established UNM’s anthropology department almost secondarily to a cooperative agreement between UNM, the School of American Research and the Museum of New Mexico, both of which he founded in Santa Fe.
“They [Zimmerman and Hewett] agreed that cooperation between UNM and SAR/MNM would be mutually beneficial. And indeed it was. Zimmerman gained a connection with Hewett and his powerful and influential New Mexico allies. He also got an instant anthropology department, or at least the foundation on which to build one.” (JAR vol. 59. no. 3, pg. 313) Hewett would be the first department chair – for both archeology and anthropology.
“Hewett was the ‘Grandfather of the Antiquities Act of 1906,’ the first national preservation act,” Chapman said. All cultural preservation legislation followed that, including legislation that created national monuments such as Bandelier and Chaco, he said.
Hewett also worked to create national parks, such as Mesa Verde. “And he worked to get landowners to donate land to preserve as state or non-profit owned land,” Chapman explained. Among donated sites is Paa-Ko, Coronado, Abo and Quarai and Gran Quivira.
It was Hewett’s knowledge and understanding of the politics behind governmental entities that likely motivated him to develop undivided interest agreements regarding site holdings across the state. “With three parties involved, no one entity can sell it off,” Chapman said.
Young Ranch
“UNM owned the 9,600-acre James Webb Young Ranch, donated 35 years ago. The ranch was used for field research in geology, anthropology, archeology and other areas. Young, via [President] Tom Popejoy donated the land with a codicil which allowed the Dixons to continue to use the orchard,” Chapman said.
UNM traded the ranch to the State Land Office in exchange for 3,000 acres of state owned land in the Mesa del Sol development. Part of the Young Ranch includes land regarded by Cochiti Pueblo as sacred. Two hundred fifteen acres important to the Pueblo were returned to Cochiti in December 2004.
Chapman said that the deed didn’t specify Young’s intention for the donation to be used for scientific and educational purposes in perpetuity, but it was referenced in a letter from Popejoy.
UNM retains ownership of buildings behind the Dixon house, but “the archeological value is in sites on the landscape, not in the buildings,” Chapman said.
Chapman also said that a reason that UNM still owns the D.H. Lawrence Ranch is because language in the deed does state that UNM will provide an endowment to care for the land in perpetuity.
Paa-Ko and Coronado
Paa-Ko became a UNM property in 1938 in a resolution signed by the UNM Board of Regents to divide interest between UNM, the School of American Research and the Museum of New Mexico.
“Hewett made the same arrangements with Coronado. Congress deeded the land to UNM for archeological purposes with the caveat that if the University stops using it for that, then it reverts to the U.S. Government,” he said.
Problems at Coronado brewed when it was discovered that the Coronado visitors’ center was built on tribal land. “UNM settled by giving land to Santa Ana. UNM still owns 26 acres to the river gotten as part of the settlement. There is still room for legal interpretation, however,” Chapman said.
He added, “The University isn’t a good caretaker of extraterritorial lands, but should devote resources for upkeep in proper fashion, if, for example, it takes back Coronado.”
Salinas Sites
The Salinas sites of Abo, Quarai and Gran Quivira were originally obtained through undivided interest between UNM, SAR and MNM. “The federal government got them and turned them into national monuments,” Chapman said. Stewardship of the properties has been a problem because when government reorganizes, museums may or may not be funded.
Pottery Mound
Isleta Pueblo claims ancestral ties on Rio Puerco, south of I-40, even with Los Lunas. At the edge of the Rio Puerco box is the site of an ancestral pueblo from 1200 AD to 1400 AD.
“Frank Hibben ran a field school there in the 1950s and found a hill with lots of pottery. He found kivas with paintings and wrote a publication on the kiva murals from Pottery Mound,” Chapman said.
Pottery Mound was located on the Huning Ranch, owned by Franz Huning who came to New Mexico in the late 1800s, bought land grants and established a mercantile and cattle company, Chapman said.
“Hibben got permission from Huning to excavate the site and got Huning to donate the land for archeological and scientific purposes,” Chapman said of the 26 acres UNM owns.
Chapman said that even though Hewett died in 1946, mention of his name in Santa Fe into the 1960s still evoked hate or love; no one was neutral about him. He was known as “El Toro,” according to Don Fowler, the JAR article’s author, who wrote, “However he was perceived, he left an amazing institutional legacy.”
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu