Curator’s Corner: The Ever-Humble Turkey

Curator’s Corner: The Ever-Humble Turkey

by Amanda Mather, Curator of Collections One of the few domesticated animals (dogs, llamas, guinea pigs, and Muscovy ducks being the others) in the New World, turkeys were ubiquitous in the Southwest. Although there is some debate among archaeologists as to whether...
Curator’s Corner: Annual Sunflowers

Curator’s Corner: Annual Sunflowers

by Amanda Mather, Curator of Collections Even long after agriculture had taken a firm grip amongst Pueblo people here in northern New Mexico, wild plant resources continued to be eaten, used medicinally, and, of course, used to make all manner of stuff. We can still...
Curator’s Corner: Threshing Sled

Curator’s Corner: Threshing Sled

A Threshing Sled by Amanda Mather So, you may wonder—what is this thing you’re looking at? Is it a cart of a thousand tiny cuts? A medieval torture device? The world’s meanest sled? Well, it’s pretty much the last one—it’s a threshing sled! Take this bad boy, throw...
Object of the Month: Buffalo Gourd

Object of the Month: Buffalo Gourd

Buffalo Gourd by Amanda Mather Since we are about to (finally!) start into the hot long days of summer I thought I would talk about something that always makes me think of those fun spicy days! Buffalo Gourd, or Curbita foetidissima if you want to get fancy science...
Object of the Month: Yucca

Object of the Month: Yucca

Yucca by Amanda Mather Man, what would we do without the yucca plant? I mean, we eat it, we use it for fiber, we use it for needles and awls, we make sandals out of it, we make soap out of it, we love the stuff! It is also, real dork fact here, the official state...