Realities on the Ground: Pasts, Presents, and Futures of the National Historic Preservation Act

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Fifty years after implementation, the National Historic Preservation Act shapes the majority of archaeological research and employment in the United States, including the Cultural Resource Management industry. The consultation process of Section 106 of the NHPA has resulted in the identification and preservation of a broad range of historic properties. However, the lack of regulatory mechanisms has resulted in the unmitigated destruction of many resources, including historic properties. Increasing engagement with Native American groups at various levels, most notably the development and growth of Tribal Historic Preservation Offices, has added layers of complexity to the Section 106 process, with varied results. In the twenty-first century, "Section 106 compliance" has created byzantine webs of relationships between archaeologists in the public and private sectors dependent on clients and governmental agencies for necessary resources such as funding, eligibility determinations, or staffing. Client pressures, inter-agency structures, and broader political realities create varied demands on those charged with identifying, researching, evaluating, and/or managing cultural resources in the United States. Authors in this session examine, analyze, and critique the growth of CRM over the last fifty years and explore possibilities for growth and change over the next fifty years.

Other Keywords
National Historic Preservation Act • Cultural Resource Management • CRM • Section 106 • Labor • NHPA • digital archaeology • Japan • Case studies • Public archaeology/CRM

Investigation Types
Heritage Management

Geographic Keywords
North America - Southeast • East/Southeast Asia

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-6 of 6)

  • Documents (6)
Documents
  • Chibariyo! Navigating Cultural Resources Compliance on U.S. Military Installations in Japan (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Alex Sweeney. Kara Bridgman Sweeney.

    Following World War II, the U.S. established military bases throughout Japan. Multiple cultural resources investigations have since been conducted at many of these facilities in compliance with applicable U.S. federal laws and regulations, the Government of Japan’s laws, and guidelines outlined by U.S. Forces Japan. Success in these projects required meetings with various stakeholders, including the Prefectural and local municipal Boards of Education in Honshu and Okinawa, Japan. These...

  • Four Decades of Consulting: A Contractor’s View (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Hope Luhman. Eric Voigt.

    Louis Berger has engaged in cultural and heritage resource management since the early 1980s. This long legacy of project successes, pitfalls, surprises, and minefields offers an interesting perspective of what works and what may not. As priorities and budgets rise and fall, new approaches meet with acceptance or resistance, leading to project streamlining or increased bottlenecks. Using project examples drawn from each decade, this paper explores consulting hits and misses and highlights the key...

  • Mining Data, Protecting Historic Landscapes, and Understanding the Past (2016)
    DOCUMENT Full-Text Richard H. Wilshusen.

    Forty years ago Bill Lipe dared archaeologists to fundamentally change their views about archaeological practice. We were like miners, exploiting a non-renewable resource. If we were to have a future we would need to practice conservation as well as salvage, and education as well as preservation. Lipe published his 1974 Kiva article just as CRM and modern government archaeology were coming into being. Today, we live in a fundamentally different archaeological culture: there are four times as...

  • Pragmatism in Practice: Advocacy, ethics, and impediments in compliance (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Shannon Dunn.

    The practice of “compliance archaeology” within existing structures requires practitioners to constantly weigh ideals against practicalities. What we think should be done, and how, is often limited by shortfalls in budgets, labor, time, and access. It is evident that few cultural resource stewards or managers have the resources they need to sufficiently address the requirements of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, much less compliance with any other legislation, guideline,...

  • Section 106 @ Fifty – A Look Back and A Glimpse Ahead (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only J Joseph.

    My first job in cultural resource management was in 1976, the American bicentennial. While I thus missed the first decade of the National Historic Preservation Act and Section 106, I have been actively engaged since. The first fifty years of Section 106 resulted in profound changes to the field of archaeology. From the growth of the cultural resource industry and private sector cultural resource management firms; to NAGPRA and the treatment of human remains; to the creation of Tribal Historic...

  • The Shovelbum Economy (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Holly Norton. Eva Hulse.

    It has long been common knowledge that “most” archaeologists attain gainful employment in Cultural Resource Management (CRM) related fields rather than in academic institutions. By and large there is an accepted idea of what such a career trajectory looks like- there are many archaeologists who have built successful careers in CRM while adding to scientific knowledge and policy, or who have built laudable businesses. The vast majority of those employed in CRM, however, are low-level field and...