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)

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.

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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.