Tribal Heritage Management Programs in Action at the Gila River Indian Community, Arizona
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)
Many Native American communities have developed their own archaeology programs and taken over management of cultural resources from Federal agencies. This has increased interactions between non-tribal archaeologists and members of native communities, and resulted in greater numbers of Native Americans becoming trained archaeologists. This synchronism has fostered new understandings of the past and has led to research that is scientifically valid while also reflecting tribal cultural concerns. Archaeologists have benefited from increased exposure to traditional knowledge and beliefs, and Tribes have developed new avenues for communicating their knowledge of the past in ways that will reach a broader audience. Papers in this session highlight the diverse investigations undertaken by the Gila River Indian Community's Cultural Resource Management Program and Tribal Historic Preservation Office in south-central Arizona. Presentations highlight recent findings from archaeometry investigations, controlled experimental studies of traditional technology, wildland fire archaeology program deployments, rock art preservation efforts, and large-scale cultural resource management investigations.
Other Keywords
Tribal Archaeology •
Agriculture •
Irrigation •
Projectile Points •
Social Organization •
Gila River Indian Community •
Vesicular Basalt •
Arizona •
Rock Art •
Hohokam
Geographic Keywords
North America - Southwest •
North America - Southeast
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-7 of 7)
- Documents (7)
-
Akimel O’odham Projectile Point Design and P-MIP Archaeological Research (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This presentation summarizes a Gila River Indian Community research program that is designed to provide quantified projectile point data, which are used to address significant research questions for the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project data recovery investigations. In contrast to people from most other regions of the world, the Akimel O’odham continued to extensively employ flaked stone points until the late 1800s. Consequently, considerable ethnographic and ethnohistorical data are available...
-
Documenting Ancient Hohokam Irrigation Systems along the Middle Gila River and the Social Organization of Irrigation (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The Gila River Indian Community’s Cultural Resource Management Program has conducted a long-term study of canal irrigation along the middle Gila River in south-central Arizona. The work has been conducted in conjunction with the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project with funding by the United States Bureau of Reclamation. These efforts have provided a wealth of information on prehistoric Hohokam canal systems, which were used between A.D. 450 and 1450. Principal contributions of these studies are a...
-
Gila River Indian Community’s Wildland Fire Archaeology Program (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Wildland fires have the potential to impact a variety of resources, and cultural remains are among those most vulnerable. Unlike most natural resources, archaeological sites including structures, artifacts, and sacred places are irreplaceable once damaged or destroyed. Over the past three decades, archaeologists have increasingly served as technical specialists on wildland fire incidents. Cultural resource specialists are now included in strategic planning and implementation of fire...
-
Place, Place Name and Property in the identification of O’odham and Pee Posh TCPs. (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Ethnogeography considers the ways in which human beings invest places, spaces, or points on the land with names and information that render them culturally meaningful. Many places in a culture’s ethnogeography are also Traditional Cultural Properties or TCPs. TCPs are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and by definition are significant to the perpetuation of traditional worldview and living indigenous cultures. This presentation reports on recent advances in O’odham and Pee...
-
Rock Art Heritage Conservation and Management (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The Gila River Indian Community is actively engaged in the inventory and documentation of petroglyphs located within the Community. These recording efforts also include oral history interviews with tribal members who have knowledge of the areas where the art occurs. Rock art sites include prehistoric and historic period figures, and they are found throughout the buttes and mountains surrounding the Middle Gila River. This art often occurs along trails, and in prominent locations such as...
-
Tribal Heritage Management in Action at the Gila River Indian Community, Arizona (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Many Native American communities have developed their own archaeology programs and taken over management of cultural resources from Federal agencies. The formation of Tribal Heritage Management programs has increased interactions between non-tribal archaeologists and members of native communities, and resulted in greater numbers of Native Americans becoming trained archaeologists. This synchronism has fostered new understandings of the past and has led to research that is scientifically valid...
-
Vesicular Basalt Provenance Analysis: A Collaborative Research Effort among Southern Arizona Native American Communities and Archaeologists (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Vesicular basalt was a preferred material for groundstone manufacture in central Arizona, and identification of source areas for raw materials will provide important information regarding prehistoric and historic exchange and interaction patterns in the region. As part of archaeological research under the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project, the Gila River Indian Community’s Cultural Resource Management Program has recently devoted considerable effort to the creation of a vesicular basalt...