The Bears Ears Digital Cultural Heritage Initiative (BEDCHI): A Collaborative Project Bridging Ethnography, Archaeology, Stewardship, and Tribal Perspectives in Southeastern Utah

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Reemerging from the Ancient and Current Pasts: Recent Archaeological and Ethnographic Research in Southeastern Utah" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Bears Ears Digital Cultural Heritage Initiative (BEDCHI) is a collaborative project that brings together tribal representatives, federal land managers, museum professionals, archaeologists, ethnographers, and students to document important cultural sites in the Bears Ears National Monument. By focusing on the integration of new technologies and Indigenous perspectives about the importance of these places and the larger area, our team is striving to develop virtual-reality and augmented-reality experiences of select cultural sites that can serve the needs of descendant communities and other stakeholders. This presentation outlines two recent workshops in the BENM that introduced students to photogrammetry technologies and ethnographic interview techniques while working in partnership with representatives from the Navajo Nation and the Pueblo of Zuni. The products and process created during the workshops help educate the public about the tie’s descendant communities maintain with the BENM landscape, help tribal peoples revitalize connections to the natural and cultural landscapes of their ancient homelands, assist federal land managers to preserve and protect the cultural landscapes of the BENM, and integrate students into an immersive and collaborative project that bridges ethnography, archaeology, museum studies, land management, and tribal interests in Southeastern Utah.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Reemerging from the Ancient and Current Pasts: Recent Archaeological and Ethnographic Research in Southeastern Utah

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53337