Developing More Holistic Approaches to Cultural Resource Inventories: Results from a Salvage Survey on the Umatilla National Forest, Southeast Washington

Summary

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

Most heritage surveys conducted by Federal agencies in compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) focus exclusively on archaeological resources. This approach has resulted in the effective documentation and preservation of archaeological sites but has led to gaps in our understanding of a wide variety of cultural resources. For the last several years, National Forests have been encouraged to develop more holistic approaches to cultural resource management on their units. In 2022, the Umatilla National Forest proposed to conduct a roadside and area salvage sale within the Lick Creek Fire footprint which burned approximately 80,000 acres in the Pomeroy Ranger District. A cultural resource inventory design incorporating ethnographic and ethnobotanical survey was developed and implemented on 700-acre sample of the salvage project area. The results of this survey highlighted the interrelatedness between archaeological sites in the northern Blue Mountains, the natural world they are sited in, and the contemporary cultures who rely upon this land for physical and spiritual sustenance. A better understanding of the Blue Mountains as a cultural as well as natural resource also provides a much-needed human element to the development of Forest projects situated in Traditional knowledge and lifeways.

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): 37372.0