A New Attitude: Balancing Site Confidentiality and Public Interpretation at Delaware State Parks

Summary

It is generally an article of archaeological faith that the location of archaeological resources needs to kept confidential, secret even, to protect resources from vandalism and to respect the sacredness of ancestral sites. That was the attitude that dominated in Delaware State Parks to such an extent that only a handful of interpretive waysides mention Native Americans in any way at all and only one mentions prehistoric archaeology. This resulted in a public unaware of the stories of Native peoples on park lands. The authors have worked to bring a new, more open attitude to the issue of telling the stories of Native peoples. This paper outlines the concrete steps that have taken to make information appropriately available and begin to better tell the stories of Native Americans in Delaware State Parks while still recognizing that non-renewable archaeological resources must be protected.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Interpretation and Presentation of Archaeological and Cultural Heritage Sites: Evolving Horizons   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 934