From approximately 100 to 1600 CE, a prehistoric Native American civilization thrived in the Four Corners region of the United States. Northern New Mexico’s Pajarito Plateau—now mostly occupied by Los Alamos National Laboratory—was among the places the Ancestral Puebloan people called home. Today, their descendants include members of New Mexico’s 19 Pueblos. One of these Pueblos, the Pueblo de San Ildefonso, shares a border with the Laboratory. Others are just a short drive away.
“This place—the land used by the Lab—has a lot of history behind it,” says Gerald Martinez, an environmental technician at the Laboratory and member of the Pueblo de San Ildefonso. “And this place is still important to us now.”
That’s why Laboratory archaeologists Ali Livesay and Sam Linford describe the landscape as living.
“To the descendants of Ancestral Puebloan peoples, these aren’t dead places,” Livesay says. “To them, their ancestors still reside there, so the question is how do you impact their ancestors and cultural heritage as little as possible?”
Answering this question is difficult, given the Lab’s evolving national security mission, which has meant a constant and consistent increase in its number and size of facilities. With this growth, it is impossible for the Lab not to encroach on historical sites.
“My people’s ancestors were here for centuries across this whole place,” Martinez says. “We’ve been able to regain rights to some places, but there are others that have been built over.”
Linford agrees. “Pretty much anywhere there is a building, there probably was an archaeological site. They just didn’t have rules about removing things in the early years of the Lab,” she says.
As Livesay and Linford explain it, the land can’t be thought of as a collection of singular sites that are cordoned off from each other. The entirety of the landscape was used by the Lab’s predecessors.
In 1950, the Lab hired its first professional archaeologist. In the decades since, efforts to involve stakeholders, such as Puebloan descendant communities, have increased. Livesay, Linford, and other members of the Laboratory’s Environmental Stewardship group often serve as the conduit to communicate with Lab leadership, external groups, and state and federal agencies. The group members help assess the impact that any ongoing or future work might have on sites; support the Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration in consultation with the state, Pueblos, and tribes on the protection eligibility of sites; and educate Lab staff and leadership on the importance of site stewardship.
The level of security at the Lab can make it difficult for Puebloan descendants to access their ancestral places. Livesay and Linford say this has led to some members communicating that they feel cut off and would prefer more access, which is why the Lab has made efforts to coordinate visits for Pueblo youths and other members. For Martinez, reconnecting current generations with their long and storied past is an important way to honor the rich cultural heritage they come from.
“Learning about the stories, the history, it’s huge,” Martinez says. “It’s why we try and get the younger generations up here and participating in things so that knowledge can be passed down.”
Striking a balance of meeting the Lab’s mission without washing away history is a difficult task, but one that Lab archaeologists say they are approaching with a collaborative and positive mindset.
“We try our best to leverage our unique situation as a national laboratory that shares a property boundary with a Pueblo community to build and strengthen those relationships,” Livesay says. “We’ve got some really dedicated people, coworkers, and management that are really trying to do a lot.” ★
The Eras Tour (Los Alamos version)
Ancestral Puebloan, 1150s–1550s
For hundreds of years, the Ancestral Puebloans inhabited the area known as the Pajarito Plateau. Likely driven by drought, the Ancestral Pueblo people eventually moved to the fertile Rio Grande Valley. Today, the remains of many Ancestral Puebloan structures are on Laboratory property.
Homestead, 1887–1943
Hispanos from the Rio Grande Valley, descendants of early Spanish settlers, farmed the Pajarito Plateau during the summer. They and other settlers staked claims to their plots under the Homestead Act.
Los Alamos Ranch School, 1917–1943
The Los Alamos Ranch School, a boarding school for boys, strengthened mind and body with its unique combination of college preparatory academics and rigorous outdoor life.
Project Y, 1943–1945
The Manhattan Project was the government ’s top-secret effort to develop atomic weapons to help end World War II. Project Y, located in Los Alamos, was one of many Manhattan Project sites across the country. The name was meant to help keep the location and purpose of the Laboratory secret. However, most people working there simply referred to the Lab as “the Hill” because of its mesa-top location.
Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, 1945–1980
After World War II, Project Y’s location no longer needed to be a secret, and so Project Y became Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. The first known reference to this name change is in October 1945, at which time Norris Bradbury became the Lab director.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1981–today
In 1981, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory became Los Alamos National Laboratory. This change was prompted by Congress’s decision that the Department of Energy’s laboratories would all have “national” in their official names to emphasize the breadth of the work they perform on behalf of our nation’s interests. ★