Stewarding the Past: Fiscal Year Enhances Education and Research

Private support for the Office of Archaeological Studies through the Museum of New Mexico Foundation in fiscal year 2023-24 (July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024) totaled $460,362 and had a considerable impact on the division’s award-winning education and research programs. These programs reached 13,373 people in the fiscal year, including 3,104 school-aged youth across 11 New Mexico counties. Outreach to Native American youth led by Native American OAS staff also remained an educational focus.

Fiscal year funding included OAS’s largest-ever cash gift: $250,000 from the Susan S. Martin Charitable Giving Fund. Martin, a plant scientist and longtime Foundation member and volunteer, had a deep love for archaeology. Her gift transforms that love to support OAS research and educational programming.

“[Susan’s] gift supports exceptional research by knowledgeable scientists and staff,” says Melissa Landon, a trustee of the Martin fund. “Isaiah Coan, an archaeological field technician, toured my fellow trustees Diane Blaser, Ellen Heath and me through OAS.
We knew immediately that Susan would have been pleased. We were particularly impressed by OAS's commitment to serving as a valuable resource for others through its education and public outreach programs.”

“This generous gift will allow us to update the ethnobotany lab,” says John Taylor-Montoya, OAS executive director. “We’ve been guided by Bill Green, a retired archaeologist and subject matter expert in ethnobotany and collections management—one of our invaluable volunteers.”

From digitizing the collections to recommending such equipment as stereomicroscopes and archival cabinets, Green says he “assessed the ethnobotany lab to make it a premier research center. I’m sure Susan Martin would be pleased.”

The legacy of Mollie Toll, a former OAS ethnobotanist, inspired others to give this fiscal year to the Mollie Toll Endowment Fund for Education Outreach, established in her memory. “Mollie shared her love and knowledge of ethnobotany with children of all ages as a schoolteacher and through the Office of Archaeological Studies,” says her husband Wolcott “Wolky” Toll, an OAS research associate who established the fund.

The endowment more than doubled this fiscal year to $246,861, thanks to the more than 38 households that contributed. This includes a generous matching gift of $100,000 from The Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust, which Toll describes as “inspiring and reaffirming.” He continues, “Supporting the continuation and expansion of archaeological outreach to New Mexico students is a fitting way to honor Mollie's legacy.”

On the OAS research front, its laboratories processed over 2,100 faunal specimens and 127 lithic raw material specimens in the fiscal year, and 20 major technical reports were published. The work was made possible in part by 916 valuable volunteer hours, equal to approximately $29,130 in support.

Support from the Foundation in partnership with the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs led to a significant donation of lab equipment to OAS’s Archaeomagnetic Laboratory. The gift helps ensure the lab’s position at the forefront of archaeomagnetic dating. "It's exciting to be leading archaeomagnetic research in New Mexico," says Shelby Jones, OAS lab supervisor.

Taylor-Montoya adds, “OAS research deepens understanding of the lives of people in the past and promotes the preservation and sound stewardship of New Mexico’s cultural heritage.”

Taylor-Montoya took the helm as OAS executive director midway through the fiscal year. “I have enjoyed working with the outstanding staff and volunteers,” he says. “I know together we will achieve great success.”

The division also hired its first full-time education and outreach coordinator, Ziggy Prothro. And several other new staff members were added to assist in bolstering OAS’s mission. They include Chandler Buchfink as project director and Osteology Laboratory supervisor; Steven Needle as archaeological field technician; Thatcher Seltzer-Rogers as director of Business Operations; Esther Peramune as archaeologist and zooarchaeology specialist; and Fiona Shaffer as archaeology crew chief.

“Our staff collaborates with local communities, tribal governments, international scholars, and other state and federal agencies to provide the highest quality research and outreach programs,” says Taylor-Montoya. “We’d not be able to continue without generous donations from people like you.”

This article and images are from the Museum of New Mexico Foundation’s Member News Magazine.