Managing Multiple Heritages: A Case Study of the Ohanapecosh Area, Mount Rainier National Park

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Ohanapecosh Area of Mount Rainier National Park contains diverse historic properties associated with multiple types and periods of Significance. The managerial requirements for the cultural resources are, consequently, equally diverse. The resources are archaeological, ethnographic, and structural in nature, and they are associated with the heritages of the park, colonial entrepreneurialism, and a local Tribal Nation. Heritage management at Ohanapecosh is further complicated by the boundaries of a historic archaeological district and several precontact archaeological sites occupying the same physical spaces without being managed as one, multi-component site. The archaeological district and the ethnographic landscape—the Ohanapecosh hot springs area—also share the same geographic space. Considering potential adverse effects to these cultural resources requires drafting resource management recommendations consistent with their Significances. Completing this process also reveals the pragmatic challenge of cultural resource management where, in practice, resources are given unequal stewardship. Highlighting complex cultural resource management case studies such as the Ohanapecosh Area fosters discussion about how cultural resource management occurs as applied practice and how practitioners can find themselves responsible for the stewardship of multiple heritages.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36465.0