Cultural Resource Management and Contemporary Archaeology: Challenges In Recognizing Traditional Cultural Places

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Critical Issues in Contemporary Archaeology & Historical Archaeology: Limits, Opportunities, Challenges", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Archaeology conducted for compliance and review comprises the majority of all work conducted in the field within the United States. Unfortunately, the Cultural Resource Management industry has primarily focused on site-level investigation without considering cultural contexts from the perspective of contemporary descendant communities. The result is that traditional cultural places and landscapes are often overlooked as historic resources. In this session we explore the importance of Tribal collaboration for understanding Traditional Cultural Places/Landscapes (TCP/L) and promoting Tribal expertise over archaeological knowledge. TCP/Ls cannot be understood solely through an archaeological lens. Rather, contemporary archaeology should promote TCPs by advocating for Tribal expertise.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Critical Issues in Contemporary Archaeology & Historical Archaeology: Limits, Opportunities, Challenges   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow