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The West's megadrought and water crisis has one upside—declining water levels are revealing important archaeological and Indigenous cultural sites at Lake Powell. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that recent archaeological research has uncovered petroglyphs, thousand-year-old intact pottery, and ancient cliff dwellings that were previously inaccessible to researchers.
Evidence of human activity in the area dates back at least 7,000 years, and has ties to ancestral Puebloan, Ute, Hopi, and Navajo people. Before the reservoir was filled in 1964, there was an effort to survey the archaeological sites in the area, but according to a researcher on the project, “By today’s standards, the project survey was more like a reconnaissance, rather than being truly systematic, but we did the best we could, [covering] 180 miles of river canyon and the lower parts of the tributary canyons.” Understandably, that project did not meet modern laws and best practices for cultural resource management, so it's important that all the newly revealed artifacts are studied and protected.
This presents a challenge for the National Park Service. Visitors to Glen Canyon National Recreation Area can camp in areas that were underwater three years ago, where there might be unprotected cultural resources. These sites are vulnerable to visitor impact and vandalism, which are not uncommon there. “People go to the Grand Canyon or Bears Ears to be blown away,” said archaeologist R.E. Burrillo. “People go to Lake Powell to party and … scratch graffiti all over it. It’s a combination litter box and party zone, and that’s reflected in the way that folks treat everything there, including cultural resources. My job as an archaeologist in Glen Canyon was to document things getting wrecked.”
Erik Stanfield, an anthropologist for the Navajo Nation Heritage and Historic Preservation Department, suggests that Glen Canyon National Recreation Area could protect cultural resources by updating its management plan, increasing funding for archaeological research, improving tribal consultation, and increasing visitor education. All of these steps will require proper funding and staffing for the National Park Service.
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Water is a human right, a basic human right that should never be commodified.”
