Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
If you ask the Society for American Archaeologists, it might say James Warnica “was instrumental in preservation of threatened collections and records from Blackwater Draw,” but if you ask him about the prestigious award he recently received from SAA, he will just say he was doing what he loved.
SAA held its annual meeting in Washington, D.C., April 11-15, where it announced Warnica would be receiving the Crabtree Award, an accolade presented to avocational archaeologists who “have made significant contributions to advance understandings of local, regional, or national archaeology,” according to the organization’s website.
In its description of Warnica, SAA noted that he “collaborated with two generations of Paleoindian archaeologists” and reported dozens of archaeological sites in New Mexico.
Warnica, now 91, said his love of archaeology began when he would collect arrowheads at the Blackwater Draw site as a child.
“I’ve hunted arrowheads since I was 11 years old, and I’ve made some contact with some professionals, and I’ve just kind of followed up working with volunteering my time with professionals and learning. Then I actually did some work on my own and I had some publications,” he said.
Though receiving the award is one of his proudest achievements, Warnica hopes the Blackwater Draw Site will gain more recognition in the area for its historical importance.
“I think, in this area, we’re one of the hotspots of — they call it Paleoindian (artifacts) — in the United States right now. The Blackwater Draw Site is better known out of the state and county than it is in the county,” he said.
Warnica, who began working as a printer at the Portales Daily News in the 1940s, always looked at archaeology as one of his chief passions — while he appreciated receiving the Crabtree Award, he said he was simply pursuing those passions.
“I guess it makes me proud that my work has been recognized, but when I was doing it, I never thought about doing it for an award. I was just doing what I loved to do,” he said.
