Best Cultural Heritage Stewardship Practices by and for the White Mountain Apache Tribe

Abstract

As is true for most indigenous programmes concerned with cultural heritage management, the White Mountain Apache Tribe Historic Preservation Office (THPO) operates at dynamic and contested intersections of expanding populations and economies, shrinking budgets, diversifying international interests in heritage issues, and increasing indigenous demands for self-governance, self-reliance, self-determination, and self-representation. Faced with limited funds, large mandates, and land users having variable support for cultural heritage protection, the White Mountain Apache THPO has harnessed long-standing and emergent community heritage values as authentic foundations for 'actionable' rules promoting consultation, identification, documentation, and protection for tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Developed on the basis of a decade of interactions with elders and other cultural experts, foresters, hydrologists, engineers, and planners, the Tribe's Best Cultural Heritage Stewardship Practices illuminate challenges and opportunities faced by many THPOs and illustrate the crafting of appropriate institutional frameworks for community-based historic preservation initiatives.