Tribal Community Engagement and Archaeology: The Story of the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s Tribal Historic Preservation Office

Summary

Like other THPOs across the country, the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s Tribal Historic Preservation Office (STOF THPO) is charged with serving the STOF communities and preserving their cultural heritage. With a staff of 17 individuals, the STOF THPO is heavily involved with both on and off reservation compliance projects ranging from home sites, pasture improvement projects, and wetland mitigations. However, as this paper and the symposium will demonstrate, these projects only make up a percentage of what the STOF THPO completes. With all of these projects, the underlying goal for the STOF THPO is to work with various communities that make up the STOF so that the tasks are completed appropriately and information can be shared. This paper will provide both a brief synopsis of the daily work that the STOF THPO completes, and will also detail how these projects provide the STOF communities an outlet in which to participate in decisions regarding heritage preservation. Through active participation with other THPOs we hope not only to share the STOF THPO story, but also to understand the makeup and specific goals that drive the direction for other THPOs.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Community Matters: Active Involvement with Tribal Communities, the Many Roles of Tribal Heritage Management

Keywords

Spatial Coverage