Complexities and Opportunities in a Living Landscape: Developing a Cooperative Management Strategy for Historic Navajo Architecture in Canyon de Chelly

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument’s enabling legislation language is unique among units of the National Park system. Rights, title and interest to all lands and minerals were retained by the Navajo tribe upon the Monument’s establishment in 1931. Legal authorities are therefore executed by multiple governmental entities including, but not limited to, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the National Park Service (NPS), the United States Department of Agriculture, various Navajo Nation departments and local tribal Chapters. While cooperative management between these entities is crucial for protecting the canyon’s resources and trust relationship, the canyon’s historic vernacular landscape has largely been shaped and maintained by generations of Navajo families. Many significant Pre-Contact architectural sites also contain historic Navajo alterations and structural additions. Despite a shift away from extensive farming and livestock grazing toward tourism, Canyon de Chelly’s resident Navajo community still maintains a strong bond with archaeological sites that contain historic Navajo elements. As the NPS joins the BIA and Navajo Nation in developing a Joint Management Plan for the canyon, cooperative preservation strategies will be explored with individual residents whose families have preserved and contributed to the evolution of the canyon’s historic vernacular landscape.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Vanishing Treasures Program: Celebrating 20 Years of National Park Service Historic Preservation   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26069