National Historic Preservation Research Articles

Cultural Resource Management: A Collaborative Primer for Archaeologists

Cultural Resource Management: A Collaborative Primer for Archaeologists

History and Approaches to Heritage Studies, Pedagogy and Practice in Heritage Studies

History and Approaches to Heritage Studies, Pedagogy and Practice in Heritage Studies

'That Chuitt River is Ours': Traditional Cultural Landscapes and the National Historic Preservation Act

'That Chuitt River is Ours': Traditional Cultural Landscapes and the National Historic Preservation Act

Federal Historic Preservation's "Place" in Property Theory

Progressive Property Theory scholars often point to historic preservation as an example of how property, itself, imposes an obligatory use. A historic structure’s public benefit justifies restrictions in available uses. To date, however, Progressive Property Theory has considered historic preservation only as it is applied in state and local regimes, forgoing an analysis of the federal structure under the National Historic Preservation Act. This article establishes a synergy between the underlying principles of Progressive Property Theory and federal historic preservation and suggests that federal historic preservation’s identification and incentivization structures model a process that could move Progressive Property Theory toward wider applications.

Federal Statutes and Environmental Justice in the Navajo Nation: The Case of Fracking in the Greater Chaco Region.

Arguing for the importance of robust public participation and meaningful Tribal consultation to address the cumulative impacts of federal projects, we bridge interdisciplinary perspectives across law, public health, and Indigenous studies. We focus on openings in existing federal law to involve Tribes and publics more meaningfully in resource management planning, while recognizing the limits of this involvement when only the federal government dictates the terms of participation and analysis. We first discuss challenges and opportunities for addressing cumulative impacts and environmental justice through 2 US federal statutes: the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act. Focusing on a major federal planning process involving fracking in the Greater Chaco region of northwestern New Mexico, we examine how the Department of the Interior attempted Tribal consultation during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also highlight local efforts to monitor Diné health and well-being. For Diné people, human health is inseparable from the health of the land. But in applying the primary legal tools for analyzing the effects of extraction across the Greater Chaco region, federal agencies fragment categories of impact that Diné people view holistically. (Am J Public Health. 2022;112(1):116-123. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306562).

How Archaeologists Can Effectively and Ethically Cultivate Responsible and Responsive Stewards

AbstractThe objective of this article is to share how professional archaeologists can leverage their knowledge and influence to develop collectors and amateur archaeologists into responsible and responsive stewards (RRS). This approach furthers the primary purposes of the National Historic Preservation Act as well as the ethics of the Society for American Archaeology. I share my own journey about finding artifacts in the Texas Panhandle, yearning to understand more about them, and how a poster in a gas station led me to visiting a local Stone Age Fair where I met a professional archaeologist. This archaeologist mentor was willing to answer my questions and guide me to greater understanding of archaeological ethics and practice, which prompted me to document everything I had found. In turn, I have shared my experience with many other nonprofessionals. Archaeologist mentors can have great influence if they are willing to meet collectors and amateur archaeologists on their level. Ultimately, collectors and archaeologists share a love of artifacts and a passion for the history behind them.

Upper Delaware Valley Archaeological Synthesis

Upper Delaware Valley Archaeological Synthesis

A Sea Cow Goes to Court. Extinction and Animal Agency in a Struggle Against Militarism

In Japan’s southernmost prefecture, Okinawa, the Japanese government is constructing a new military base for the United States Marine Corps despite ongoing local opposition and protest. Sea grass beds, which are potential feeding grounds of the critically endangered Okinawa dugong, are situated within the construction area. Because of its critical status close to regional extinction, the dugong was declared a Natural Monument of Japan in 1972, arguably putting it under protection of the United States National Historic Preservation Act in context of the base construction. Based on this assumption, and the dugong’s cultural significance for the people of Okinawa, the issue was brought to an American court, a rare case where an animal plays a central role in a lawsuit dealing with cultural property. Based on Eduardo Kohn’s anthropology beyond the human and his thoughts on life as a semiotic process the article explores the entanglements between dugongs and people. I argue that in this process dugongs play an active role. Through their interpretation of the generated indexical signs at the construction site and their resulting behaviour, these animals give humans the opportunity to convert their presence and absence into the sphere of symbolic human interaction.

The Problem with “Confederate” Monuments on our Heritage Landscape

ObjectiveThis article seeks to reframe so‐called Confederate monuments as monuments to the revisionist “Lost Cause.” I define these monuments as a problem for historic preservation that has long been based on a preference for in‐place protection of things “historic.”MethodsI compare Confederate monuments’ original intent with arguments that these are Civil War, soldier, or veteran memorials. I also explore monuments’ value as sculpture and their de facto status as nationally significant and worthy of preservation.ResultsConfederate monuments are monuments to the Lost Cause, a narrative supporting the resurgence of white supremacy. We must reconsider the in‐place preservation of these monuments as a de facto choice of historic preservation.ConclusionThe structural problem of Confederate monuments for our national historic preservation program calls for its broader evaluation for inclusivity and racial justice. We must find other ways to tell the history of the Confederacy than through physical propaganda pieces of the failed national insurrection of the 1860s.

Genetic fingerprinting identifies apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) fruit cultivars in historic orchards on public lands

The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 mandates that historic resources, including orchards, on federal lands be evaluated for potential significance. Evaluations include assessments and documentation of an orchard’s layout and location, as well as the architecture, ages, conditions, and cultivars of trees. These factors may reveal an orchard’s history and uniqueness and determine an orchard’s historic importance. Fruit tree cultivar identities are a key piece of this puzzle. They reveal information about an orchard’s use, origin, and uniqueness. In the past, historic preservationists relied on pomologists to identify cultivars based primarily on the phenotypic traits of the tree. DNA fingerprinting technologies, in combination with high-quality reference cultivar collections, have dramatically improved the accuracy of heritage cultivar identification. We demonstrate the utility of using DNA technologies for cultivar identifications on federal lands using examples from trees in orchards of Redwood National and State Parks and the Eldorado National Forest. A total of 87 historic apple trees from these locations were genotyped and cultivar names were determined for 35 trees, using a reference set of 1319 apple cultivars from the USDA National Plant Germplasm System, Washington State University, Seed Savers Exchange, and Temperate Orchard Conservancy. Some of the trees that were not identified may be cultivars that are not included in the reference sets and others may be unique trees derived from seeds. The information derived from genetic fingerprinting analyses will aid in the determination of the historic significance of orchards on public lands.

Purposing aesthetics in historic preservation: advocating, signifying, and interpreting aesthetics

<p>Aesthetics is a pillar consideration in historic preservation. Yet, purposing aesthetics for historic preservation ends seems to lag behind the opportunities. Utterly subjective, aesthetics poses challenges for the preservation community worldwide to moderate, accommodate, and purpose aesthetics in heritage programs. The challenges revolve around the assessment of aesthetical purposing in three domains. These domains include the community disposition towards accommodating aesthetics (advocacy), the criteria and strategies for assessing the aesthetic value of historic resources (signification), and, the standards for treating historic resources in preservation projects (interpretation). This study, therefore, assesses the trends for purposing aesthetics in historic preservation thought and practice through three platforms: advocating aesthetics, signifying aesthetics, and interpreting aesthetics. The study completed literature content analysis on aesthetics in general and aesthetics in historic preservation in particular. Further, because of the perspective of the study, the works of international and country preservation programs provided information relevant to advocacy, signification, and interpretation of aesthetics that have been refined by classification, comparison, and exemplification methods. Among others, these works include those of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the U.S. National Historic Preservation Program in the National Park Service. The study culminated with general and platform-specific conclusions. First, as the three proposed platforms (advocacy, signification, and interpretation) maintain structural and serial relationships, they constitute a relevant and feasible framework for assessing aesthetical purposing. Second, as the aesthetical purposing assessment followed a broad, international perspective, the conclusions of the study are commensurate with the selective scope of information used from international and country preservation programs. Third, the contribution to aesthetical purposing at each of the three platforms can be measure only in general, and at times, subjective terms.</p><p><strong>Highlights:</strong></p><ul><li><p>Proposing aesthetical advocacy, aesthetical signification, and aesthetical interpretation as a platform framework to assess the purposing of aesthetics was feasible.</p></li><li><p>As aesthetical purposing was approached from a broad, international perspective, the conclusions of the study commensurate with the selective scope of information used.</p></li><li><p>The contribution to aesthetical purposing at each of the three platforms is hard to measure; however, the indications point to uneven contribution.</p></li></ul>

Tribal Consultation: Toward Meaningful Collaboration with the Federal Government

One of bedrock principles of federal Indian law is a centuries-old understanding that the tribes, as “domestic dependent nations,” have “government-to-government” relationship with the federal government, which has a trust obligation concerning the tribes, their sovereignty, and their cultural resources. Although this relationship was first judicially articulated in the 19th century, it was interpreted to require federal “consultation” with the tribes under a series of executive orders beginning in the 1970s and the National Historic Preservation Act. However, this government-to-government consultation has been largely disappointed the tribes, which have often complained that federal agencies have reduced it to procedural “box-checking,” with little or no evidence of substantive results. As a result, the tribes have called for “meaningful consultation” and resulting “collaborative management” going forward. This paper discusses the origins of the modern consultation doctrine and considers several case studies which have and have not produced substantive results. We draw some lessons from the case studies that the Biden Administration, which has professed an interest in engaging in meaningful consultation, may draw upon. If it does, tribes may gain an important management role concerning off-reservation resources that are significant to their history and culture.

To Collect or Not to Collect, That is the Question. . . But Where’s the Point?

Many land managing agencies have policies that forbid the collection of artifacts during archaeological survey and, even under controlled situations, collection is determined to be an “Adverse Effect” under Section 106 compliance interpretations of the National Historic Preservation Act. The main rationale is that removal destroys the contextual information of the artifact in relation to the rest of the site. This paper argues that such “non-collecting policies” are short-sighted and do not “protect” artifacts from unauthorized removal. In these days of technology, when sub-meter GPS instruments and other tools are available to pinpoint the location of artifacts, we submit that not collecting artifacts with important information potential is deleterious to interpreting the archaeological record. This point will be made by a case study from the Coconino National Forest in northern Arizona that illustrates the excuse “if I don’t pick it up, someone else will,” is a correct assumption. Surface collections, properly documented, provide useful information that justifies their collection and curation for present-day and future research.

The Freedmen’s Memorial to Lincoln: A Postscript to Stone Monuments and Flexible Laws

In a recent essay in the Florida Law Review Online, I argued that historic preservation law poses no significant barrier to removal of Confederate monuments and even provides a useful process within which a community can study and debate the fate of specific statues. The cultural and legal issues surrounding the removal of Confederate monuments are presented in a surprising and paradoxical form in the controversy surrounding the 1876 Freedmen’s Memorial to Abraham Lincoln. Addressing these issues provides an interesting postscript to the seemingly easier questions raised by the removal of monuments to the Lost Cause. I argue that Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act provides a useful process for understanding and discussion, and should not be short-circuited by federal legislation.

Alternative Mitigation to Counter Resource Losses from the Lake Cumberland Drawdown, Kentucky

ABSTRACTThis article presents a case study of the process of developing and implementing mitigation as the result of adverse effects to cultural resources from the drawdown of Lake Cumberland, Kentucky. Signs of a dam failure in early 2007 triggered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) to implement the emergency drawdown. While the drawdown prevented a life safety catastrophe, it created a new erosion zone and exposed archaeological sites to looters. When it became clear that conventional Section 106 procedures to identify and evaluate these endangered archaeological resources were not an option, alternative and creative mitigation became a necessary approach for the Corps to meet its obligations under the National Historic Preservation Act. This article discusses the creative brainstorming among the Corps, Kentucky state historic preservation officer, and tribes that led to three alternative mitigation measures aimed at educational outreach, raising public awareness, and staff training. Furthermore, the article identifies challenges encountered during the implementation of the mitigation measures. Through the presentation of our mitigation journey, we share some of our lessons learned to improve awareness of the challenges and successes one may encounter during the execution of such alternative measures.

The Role of Modeling and Synthesis in Creative Mitigation

AbstractIn the 54 years since passage of the National Historic Preservation Act, more than 56 million ha of land have been surveyed in the United States, and nearly one million cultural resources have been identified and recorded. These efforts have produced hundreds of thousands of project reports, vast collections of data, and a wealth of descriptive information about the past. The accumulated data can be used to generate important new knowledge about the past, with many scientific and management implications, but remain largely untapped. Following current approaches, many resources will be damaged or lost before effective strategies for studying or preserving them can be developed. Synthesis and modeling are needed in creative mitigation efforts to identify which resources to preserve and study and how best to do so with limited time and funding. This article explores the potential for compiling and synthesizing large cultural and environmental datasets within a geographic information system to model the nature and distribution of cultural resources. It is argued that dedicated synthesis and modeling of cultural resource management data will allow development of more effective and proactive research and management strategies, providing lasting benefit to diverse scientific and traditional communities and the public.

Sustainable Neighborhood Public Outreach: I-95 GIR Archaeological Investigations in Philadelphia

ABSTRACTThe Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration are undertaking a long-term, multiphase project to improve and rebuild Interstate 95 (I-95) in Pennsylvania, within the historic city of Philadelphia. Given the complex urban setting, the archaeological subsurface testing for the I-95 Girard Avenue Interchange Improvement Project is being guided by a programmatic agreement under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and a categorical exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act. Through data-recovery excavations, the contractor for the project, AECOM, has documented 30 historical-period and Native American archaeological sites. The project includes its own professional journal, live interactive reporting, and a public archaeology center.

The Slurry Wall: Past, Present, and Future

ABSTRACT One of the most telling artifacts in the 9/11 Memorial Museum is the slurry wall, a vestige in situ of the pre-9/11 World Trade Center complex, preserved under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. This subterranean 20 meter long section of the perimeter wall that surrounded 4.5 hectares of the Trade Center site was never meant to be seen or tell its story. Made of reinforced concrete,and tied back to bedrock, its job was to hold back the waters of the Hudson River. The wall was a marvel of engineering in its time and on 11 September 2001 withstood untold forces and thus acquired new meaning – the once mute, utilitarian object became a symbol of hope and resilience. The slurry wall no longer performs the work it was intended to – there is another loadbearing structure behind it – but remains in conversation with Mother Nature. The wall weeps, which has catalyzed corrosion of the steel, introduced salts and a host of other material concerns. The complexity of the slurry wall, as an artifact and an architectural element of the Museum that affects its environment, has necessitated collaboration between a diverse group of stakeholders to parse its secrets.

Hard-Rock Mining for Precious Metals in the U.S. Southwest: Considerations for Developing Historic Contexts and Archaeological Research Designs

The variety of precious metals mined during the historical period in the U.S. Southwest provided the momentum for other pursuits reflected in regional history. An understanding of historical mining is fundamental to the interpretation of important persons and historical patterns including cultural, economic, technological, and legislative events. The development of adequate historic contexts and archaeological research designs for studying and evaluating historical-period mining sites is critical in archaeological investigations where such sites may be encountered and satisfies the requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act with regard to National Register of Historic Places significance evaluations. Strategies for preparing these documents are outlined here, and a list of existing models is provided.

A Confluence of Anticolonial Pathways for Indigenous Sacred Site Protection

AbstractThe confluence of the Little Colorado and Colorado Rivers is an Indigenous socio‐ecological landscape, revolving in large part around water resources. Substantial surface and groundwater use within the Little Colorado River (LCR) basin threatens the water sources of the confluence, springs in the LCR basin, and specifically the Hopi Sipapuni—a sacred site of cultural emergence. To address concerns about diminished flows of sacred springs, we engaged in praxis through collaborative, reciprocal, community‐based research processes. Through the lens of anticolonial theory, we ask: Can federal policies be employed in an anticolonial pursuit of water and sacred site protection? How do Indigenous grassroots organizers envision protection and work to re‐Indigenize water management? Semi‐structured interviews with Indigenous community organizers and federal land managers were coupled with policy analysis of the National Historic Preservation Act/Traditional Cultural Properties, the ongoing LCR Adjudication, and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Findings point to multifaceted, complex, and contradictory themes that elucidate the continued influence of colonization on water governance and the degree to which protection solutions can be anticolonial. Criteria were generated for anticolonial protective pathways that highlight the centrality of reciprocal relationships, Indigenous Knowledges, and meaningful inclusion. While details about protection pathways for the confluence and Sipapuni are many, the salient finding is that the struggle for water protection in the LCR is the struggle for protection of inherent Indigenous rights.