From Repatriation to Collaboration for South Carolina State Collections: The Keowee-Toxaway Reservoir Project

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Many Voices in the Repository: Community-Based Collections Work" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Stewarding state-controlled archaeological collections is challenging when state budget allocations determine the degree to which best practices may be realized in the repository. When daily routines are constrained by under-resourcing, engaging community stakeholders may seem out of reach; but regardless of capacity, state agencies must comply with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). We argue that NAGPRA compliance should be prioritized as an opportunity rather than avoided as a burden, and provide a case study in relationship building from one of the smallest offices of state archaeology in the Southeast U.S. In 2023 and 2024, the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology revived stalled NAGPRA consultations. Frequent communication with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians evolved into the Keowee-Toxaway Reservoir Project (KTRP), a collaborative investigation of orphaned and legacy collections from the midcentury salvage era. The KTRP addresses the under-documented archaeological record of Cherokee Lower Towns in South Carolina by introducing traditional knowledge to collections care and research (43CFR10.1(d)).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Many Voices in the Repository: Community-Based Collections Work

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52724