Tribal Consultation:
Best Practices in Historic Preservation
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Best Practices project was an endeavor of the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Offices (NATHPO) in collaboration with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), and with funding from the National Park Service (NPS). The goal of the project was to identify a best practices model for consultation between Federal Agencies and Tribes on Section 106 consultation of the National Historic Preservation Act, implementing 43 C.F.R. Part 800.
The project surveyed the consultation experiences of actual participants. All Federal Preservation Officers and federally-recognized Tribes were contacted by the project and asked to identify successful consultations, the participants, and the aspects of the enterprise that they deemed led to a successful result. In addition, the respondents were queried on how they measured success. Participants were asked to identify events occurring after the 1992 amendments to the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), which enhanced the Tribal role in historic preservation and created the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (THPO) program. The results of the survey were charted and analyzed in an effort to distill the characteristics of successful consultation and to offer a best practices model for successful consultation in the implementation of Section 106.
Two methods were used to analyze the data: hypothesis testing and Boolean analysis. Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (THPOs), State Historic Preservation Officers (SHPOs) and others primarily involved in historic preservation were interviewed prior to the survey in order to devise the questions for the survey and obtain baseline assumptions about consultation. The survey data was used to test the validity of those assumptions. Boolean analysis was also employed to discern the formula for a successful consultation. This analysis relied upon the frequency of reported criteria for consultation. Through the analysis a best practices model for consultation between Federal Agencies and Tribes began to emerge.
Some assumptions about successful consultation were consistent with the survey data. For example, consultation must occur early in the project planning process, both sides must plan ahead for meetings and be informed of the project scope and effect prior to attempting consultation, the parties must engage in a dialogue predicated on mutual respect and understanding of the priorities of the other and the challenges that each face, having a THPO and an Agency Tribal Liaison involved in the process contributes to success, as does having adequate funding for Tribal parties to travel to meetings, and for Agency and Tribal participants to view the site together. On the other hand, reaching a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was rarely seen as the indicator of success. Both Tribes and Agencies agreed that building relationships is the goal of a successful consultation and that funds and time spent in consultation reap ongoing benefits and efficiencies for future projects. Although congenial personalities make consultation pleasant, the process is bigger than an individual interaction and can indeed be institutionalized and replicated over time.
Helpful Links:
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
Report of the NATHPO Tribal Tourism TOolkit Project: Cultural and Heritage Tourism in Indian Country
Abstract
“Cultural and Heritage Tourism in Indian Country: Report of the NATHPO Tribal Tourism Toolkit Project,” was conceived by the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers because of the need to protect Native America’s sacred places in ways that are compatible with the need for economic development in Indian country. This report covers three diverse tribal pilot projects conducted over two years as a test of NATHPO’s Tribal Tourism Toolkit. The results of this project will guide the development of a second edition of the Toolkit and direct support of new tribal tourism initiatives across Indian country. The NATHPO Tribal Tourism Toolkit was designed for use at the grassroots tribal level, especially for those tribal communities that are still planning tourism initiatives and those with a need to coordinate existing tourism products and services for marketing purposes. The results of this project indicate a need for technical assistance and support necessary to facilitate cultural heritage and nature-based tourism. For the original Toolkit, please see below.
Tribal Tourism Toolkit for the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial and Other Tribal Opportunites
Helpful Links:
Administration for Native Americans
*Special* Live Internet Guide for Financial and Technical Assistance
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