Dr. Jonathan Dombrosky from Crow Canyon Archaeological Center presents, "Ancestral Pueblo Fishing and Environmental Change in the Middle Rio Grande of New Mexico."

It is commonly assumed that fishes were unimportant in the diet of past Pueblo people in the U.S. Southwest. Yet, small numbers of fish remains are consistently recovered from Late pre-Hispanic/Early Historic archaeological sites in the Middle Rio Grande of New Mexico. The end of drought conditions may have been one factor that impacted food choice and fishing decisions during this time. Fishing could have been a reliably good source of food for Ancestral Pueblo farmers in small quantities. Stable isotope analysis and body size estimation (using 3D Geometric Morphometric techniques) suggest that fishing was associated with energy maximizing and risk reducing foraging linked with environmental change. This mix of foraging goals could be significant in the development of fishing behavior throughout human history, and the analysis of Ancestral Pueblo fishing charts a course to change the human-fish narrative across the globe.