Cora was described in contemporary accounts as "frail"—frequently (and almost certainly in this case) a euphemism for a person suffering tuberculosis—and at her doctors' advice, the Hewetts started to spend time in the warmer climate of northern New Mexico.

[2] As a result, Edgar Hewett was exposed to, and became fascinated by, the prehistoric ruins in Frijoles Canyon near Santa Fe—a site that would eventually become the centerpiece attraction of Bandelier National Monument.

[3] Hewett's interest in Frijoles Canyon was timely, for ethnologist Adolph Bandelier had just started to describe, through both scientific papers and his novel The Delight Makers (1890), prehistoric life on the Pajarito Plateau.

Contemporary agriculture on the Plateau was not exactly widespread, but such as it was, the ranchers relied upon it for sustenance, and perceived a threat to their economic well-being if the land was put off limits to ranching and farming.

However, Hewett fell afoul of some of the powerful figures of the region who disagreed with his increasingly vocal position that the archaeological resources of New Mexico Territory required preservation.

He spent little time in residence at the university, developing his dissertation mainly by collating a number of papers which he had written previously (a practice that, in the eyes of Hewett's many critics, would characterize and compromise much of his later writing as well) and having them translated into the required French.

The resulting dissertation, bearing the title Les Communautés anciennes dans le desert Americain, was favorably received, and sufficed to earn Hewett his degree despite his inability to defend it in the customary French.

John F. Lacey, a congressman from Iowa, had visited northern New Mexico in 1902 to see the effects of pot hunting on ancient sites, and had enlisted Hewett as a guide.

"[7] This report rapidly made its way to Congress and Lacey, who was moved by Hewett's declaration in the Memorandum that "it will be a lasting reproach upon our Government if it does not use its power to restrain" the destruction of the ruins.

Hewett spent most of late 1904 and 1905 shuttling between Washington and New Mexico, helping Lacey with a nascent Act of Congress at the one and continuing his archaeological fieldwork at the other.

[8] As a result of the Antiquities Act, it was now no longer necessary for Congress to authorize permanent withdrawal of land for the purpose of preservation of cultural or other resources; a presidential proclamation would now suffice.

Ironically, Roosevelt's first use of the Antiquities Act was not to protect one of the ruins that Hewett had made his life's passion, but rather to establish Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming, a site of more geological and scenic interest than archaeological significance.

He had many supporters, but also many critics, and some of the latter complained that his real goal was to ensure that he, Edgar L. Hewett, D.Sc., Director of the School of American Research, would have access to, and control of, the Plateau's sites—while his rivals would not.

[3] The monument was rather smaller than Hewett had hoped, covering only Frijoles Canyon, some comparatively empty land to the southwest, and an outlier (now Tsankawi), and omitting among others the very significant Puye Cliff Dwellings near Santa Clara Pueblo.

Shortly after the first World War, an opportunity arose to revive the high-quality work of antiquity, driven as much by Hewett's curiosity about the potters of the past as anything else.

Hewett set Maria and her husband Julian, at that point proficient artisans in a polychrome style of pottery common at San Ildefonso, the task of trying to reproduce the colors and textures seen in the ancestral work of Frijoles Canyon and its vicinity.

Hewett, in conjunction with the eccentric entrepreneurs and philanthropists Vera von Blumenthal and Rose Dougan, detected in this pottery a commercial opportunity that the puebleños would go on to develop into a major and economically significant cottage industry in the region.

The Santa Fe Indian Market, probably the world's leading exposition for Native American art, has an economic impact on northern New Mexico estimated at nearly $20,000,000 annually.

[10] San Ildefonso (and Santa Clara) black-on-black pottery, some of it by descendants of Maria and Julian Martinez, features prominently to this day among the "Best of Show" award winners at the Market, as well as more pedestrian but still high-quality work that has far transcended the tourist trinkets that were being produced in the pueblos at the beginning of the 20th century.

Hewett staffed the museum's administrative functions with several of his friends and supporters from the Normal School days, and persuaded Alice Fletcher to take a key advisory role as well.

The museum was empowered by the legislature to acquire land containing some key archaeological sites in the state that were not yet protected by the Antiquities Act, and under Hewett, it did so.

Hewett was able to commingle public (Museum) and private (SAR) resources as he saw fit, but the arrangement was a matter of concern and in 1959 the two institutions were forced to separate.

This led in turn to his assuming directorship of the San Diego Museum of Man, which was created as a permanent institution from the exposition's collections established by Hewett.

His 1943 book Ancient Life in the American Southwest, cited below, amounts to a rehashing of a lifetime of archaeology without contributing anything new, and most of it could have been written at least 20 years earlier.

[5] His responsibilities at the University of New Mexico grew less demanding (and conspicuous) over time, although he retained directorship of the Chaco Canyon field school, a particular favorite of his, until 1937.

He continued in his roles at the SAR and the Museum of New Mexico until the last year of his life, chairing the joint meeting of the managing board in August 1946.