Embracing the Ndee Past as the Present: Ndee Cultural Tenets as Practice

Summary

In 2004 the White Mountain Apache Tribe approved the Cultural Heritage Resources Best Management Practices (Welch et al.). However, since the tribe’s adoption of the practices little has been done in reference to the application of such tenets/concepts found within the guidelines. Tribal programs, contractors, and researcher’s might adhere to the guidelines during project activities but only as "guidelines," when there is much more embedded in such tenets as respect and avoidance that can be used as by non-Ndee researchers to critically reflect on their own research agendas and to guide research projects with Ndee communities then what is implied. This paper suggests that such cultural precepts including respect and avoidance can be used and applied to Ndee research contexts that not only embrace such cultural tenets, but contribute to overall community well-being as well as a sense of balance, beauty and harmony known as Gozho for Western Apache communities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018   •
• Reservation Archaeology: Culture Change, Historical Trauma, and Community Resilience in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Native North America

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 386