Indigenous Archaeological Involvement in Front of Suppression Reduces Mitigation

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

During early suppression efforts of two wildland fires, indigenous firefighters reduced damage by sharing unrecorded cultural site polygons created from oral tradition aligned to dozer lines ahead of the fire’s predictive path. During the Detwiler Fire (2017), and the Ferguson Fire (2018), the Tribal Archaeologists from two tribes, and the Cultural Officers from the Seven Affiliated Tribes of Yosemite participated at Incident Command during suppression efforts by guiding fire lines that would avoid unrecorded roundhouse depressions, milling features, and burial locations. Confidentiality of the information was protected through the use of controlled distribution of data to only the field READ and REAF for the sites being protected on that day in advance of the dozer crews. Tribal Archaeologists compare resource maps (historic, prehistoric, flora and fauna) to see which resources overlap tribal sacred sites not yet discovered. When the repair process begins, tribal monitors and archaeologists participate in the mitigation measures revealing less damage to sites than in previous fires. GIS collector applications used by field archaeologists can hold an abstract polygon for the areas of interest, which the tribes request to remain unrecorded by a site survey record form.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24034