She's a Scientist: Carrie Heitman

Curt Bright Author

06/15/2021 Added

10 Plays

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Chaco Culture National Historic Park contains a sweeping collection of ancient pueblo ruins. For centuries they were the largest buildings in North America, but now they’re in danger, and one Nebraska researcher is coming to the rescue.

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[00:00:00.281](gentle music)
[00:00:05.750]Chaco Culture National Historical Park
[00:00:09.310]it's a sacred ancestral site to many, if not all
[00:00:12.610]of the indigenous descendant communities in the region.
[00:00:15.490]So great houses in the canyon tended to be
[00:00:17.930]hundreds of rooms and multi-storeys.
[00:00:20.230]And these weren't just like small little rooms.
[00:00:22.170]These were big rooms with big walls
[00:00:24.900]and supporting more and more masonry walls up on top.
[00:00:28.060]So a huge engineering feat.
[00:00:30.210]Anthropologist Carrie Heitman fell in love
[00:00:32.690]with Chaco Canyon on her first visit as an undergraduate.
[00:00:36.450]But now this remote historical site is threatened
[00:00:39.130]by oil and gas drilling operations in the area.
[00:00:42.000]The Bureau of Land Management had imperfect data
[00:00:44.920]about where these sites were.
[00:00:46.320]And so while they're busy leasing new parcels
[00:00:49.460]and putting in new access roads and pipelines and well pads.
[00:00:55.000]These are having profound impacts
[00:00:56.620]on the cultural resources on the ground.
[00:00:58.360]As a child, Heitman discovered her passion
[00:01:00.710]for cultural history during a family trip.
[00:01:03.210]We were on vacation and stumbled across
[00:01:05.560]an active archeological excavation.
[00:01:07.830]Somebody there took interest in me and toured me around
[00:01:10.680]and let me ask lots of questions and fell in love with it
[00:01:14.400]like at the age of seven.
[00:01:16.030]Heitman now works with stakeholders
[00:01:17.870]to protect the ancient site.
[00:01:19.860]Step one, precisely locate all the Chaco ruins.
[00:01:23.780]If a site location wasn't digitized,
[00:01:26.220]if it wasn't in the database of like
[00:01:28.210]the state of New Mexico, for instance, it didn't exist.
[00:01:31.030]It effectively didn't exist
[00:01:32.240]for the decision making process.
[00:01:33.820]And so we realized that we needed to get them
[00:01:37.770]better information about where all these sites were.
[00:01:40.530]Preserving this piece of our nation's
[00:01:42.490]cultural landscape is a monumental job.
[00:01:45.410]But Heitman says, it's worth it.
[00:01:47.790]If you value the indigenous heritage of this country
[00:01:51.400]then it's important to preserve these places
[00:01:53.490]and do what we can to understand them.
[00:01:55.603](gentle music)

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She's a Scientist: Carrie Heitman

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