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![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20080921200230im_/http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/images/newheadersmal.jpg)
NRCS to Chair Panel on Traditional Cultural Properties
![Makah rock art at Ozette Site, Washington; 1905 photograph taken by Edmond S. Meany (photo courtesy of the University of Washington Library)](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20080921200230im_/http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/images/stoneart.jpg)
Makah rock art at Ozette
Site, Washington; 1905 photograph taken by Edmond S. Meany (photo courtesy of
the University of Washington Library) |
NRCS Washington cultural resources specialist Scott Williams will moderate a
panel discussion he’s organized at the annual Northwest Anthropological
Conference, March 17-19, 2005. The panel will examine how Federal, State, and Tribal agencies address properties of
traditional cultural significance under the regulations of the National Historic
Preservation Act (NRHP) of 1966. This year’s conference will feature Scott’s
panel of cultural resources managers with a broad spectrum of experience in the
field including representatives of Tribal, Federal, State, and private
consulting agencies who deal with the issue of traditional cultural properties
extensively. The format for the panel will be open discussion of topics proposed
by the moderator, allowing for free interaction among the panelists and the
audience. The Future of Anthropology in the 21st
Century is the theme of this year’s Northwest
Anthropological Conference that is the region's premier gathering of
anthropological professionals, drawing many Tribal, academic, private, Federal,
and student archaeologists from around the Northwest and western Canada for
three days of presentations, workshops, and interaction.
Under the regulations of the NRHP, federal agencies must consider the effects of
their activities on historic properties which are eligible for the National
Register of Historic Places, the nationwide listing of historic properties
significant to American heritage. Such properties include archaeological sites,
buildings, structures, historic districts, and objects. Because of amendments to
the law made in the early 1990's, properties of traditional cultural
significance (often called traditional cultural properties) must now be given
equal consideration under the law as other types of historic properties.
This has created confusion among agency cultural resources managers about how to
identify, define, and protect such properties and how to fund (and at what
level to fund) such efforts.
Your contact is Scott Williams, NRCS cultural resources specialist, at
360-705-7787, or scott.williams@wa.usda.gov.
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