GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN CANCELS PALO ALTO EVENT

"Hello, this is Rolando Garza. I am currently on furlough due to the government shutdown. I will not be able to take my messages until I am reinstated." Phone message for Garza, National Park Service contact person for the symposium with the Palo Alto National Historical Park

By Juan Montoya

It was billed as an event to be attended by an impressive cast of academics and archaeologists from Mexico, the United States and the United Kingdom.

In the end, the stalemate between the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and the Barack Obama administration that shut down the U.S. government quashed the event.

Titled "Symposium – Battlefield Archeology: Global Perspectives in Research and Preservation," the event was to start this Thursday and conclude on Friday, but participants got the news through an email that informed them the event had been cancelled.

"We were going to have people come from all parts of Mexico and the United States, including the United Kingdom coming to present papers," said Dr. Tony Zavaleta, of the University of Texas at Brownsville. "But we got an email telling us it was cancelled."
The Palo Alto Battlefield was the scene of the first encounter between the U.S. Army under Zachary Taylor and the Mexican forces defending northern Mexico. Two future presidents – Taylor and Ulysses S. Grant – fought on the American side. Juan Cortina, the legendary "bandit" of South Texas, fought on the Mexican side. The Battle of Resaca de la Guerra followed on the next day.
The Palo Alto Battlefield has become a prime source of historical education for local students of the Brownsville Independent School District who often tour the museum and the battlefield operated by the National Park Service. 

The symposium was to take place at the B.I.S.D. Auditorium at the Central Administration Building on Palm Boulevard, according to posters placed around public buildings around town. It was to be free to the public and included papers on "the current methods and research on battlefield archaeology...Speakers include global experts on battlefield and conflict archaeology, and will discuss new methods and techniques being used to answer questions about the history of conflict and war."

Symposium speakers were also going to present their studies as posters at the 7th Annual Rio Grande Delta International Archeology Fair that was to be held on Saturday. Now, that's all for naught.

"I am going to publish my paper as a research paper in the journal of current historical studies through the university," Zavaleta said.

Among some of the speakers who were scheduled to attend were:

• Dr. Carl Carlson-Drexler, Arkansas Archaeological Survey
• Mr. John E. Cornelison, NPS Southeast Archeological Center
• Dr. Angélica María Medrano Enríquez, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Mexico
• Dr. Araceli Rivera Estrada, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Monterrey, Mexico
• Dr. Glenn Foard, University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom
• Mr. Rolando Garza, Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park
• Mr. Charles Haecker, NPS Heritage Partnership Program
• Maj. Nathan Ledbetter, United States Army
• Dr. Tony Pollard, University of Glasgow, Scotland
• Mr. Daniel Sivilich, BRAVO , Syracuse, New York
• Dr. Daniel Westcott, Texas State University, San Marcos
This event was to be hosted by Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park, the University of Nebraska Department of Anthropology, and the Brownsville Independent School District. 

"It's a shame," Zavaleta said. "This was going to be an important symposium on local history."
Zavaleta did not say if the papers that the diverse speakers were to present at the symposium would be available for local history buffs through publication.