When there is a high concentration of Traditional Cultural Properties (TCPs) in a given area there is a higher risk of them being destroyed.   When there is a higher concentration of mineral resources in a given area there is a higher risk to sites being destroyed within the area of potential effect (APE) and in the close proximity of the surrounding one mile area by oil and gas development projects.  With a rush to start and complete projects throughout the field season there is a competitive push by companies which causes sites to be at an even higher risk of being missed during field work and project construction stages.  TCPs are at a higher risk than other cultural and historic sites when there is a lack of knowledge and skills at identifying these particular sites when companies do not perform TCP field work on projects.  The question is what to do about this issue within the larger discipline of Cultural Resources Management (CRM).  Another issue is the lack of properly trained personnel to identify and record TCPs.  The standard for years (and continues) was to completely disregard or acknowledge that TCPs existed at all. 

The development of the protection of TCPs started much later than the protection of historic properties in the United States.  The National Historic Preservation Act was enacted in 1966.  The development of the discipline to protect TCPs became prevalent[1] in recent decades with a focus on the creation of the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) in 1979[2] and the amendments to the NHPA in 1992.[3]  Since then there has been a contentious and deleterious impact to TCPs due to the highly charged differences in cultural values, sociocultural and ethnocentric beliefs, and the significance placed on historic properties in Architectural Historic preservation over that of archaeological sites and especially TCPs.  A lack of understanding and knowledge on TCPs has led to a chasm between Tribal Historic Preservation Offices (THPOs)[4] and State Historic Preservation Offices.[5]
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In the norther Great Plains and other areas of the country where oil, gas, wind and solar projects are fast-moving the issues are complicated.  In North Dakota the development of the Tribal Consultation Committee (TCC) Programmatic Agreement has helped to build relationships and create positive change in the CRM industry.  There are many issues that need to be discussed and work out in order to stop the onslaught of degradation to sites of religious and cultural significance to tribal groups.

[1]   Native people have worked hard to protect their sacred sites and burials for years prior to the enactment of any laws.  I call the work to protect TCPs by practitioners a discipline as that is what it has become.  This will be discussed in a separate blog post.
[2] Other laws exist which pertain to the protection of archaeological resources.  I will discuss each of them in turn from a native viewpoint.
[3] I will attach documents to the blogs I post for your research and further reading.
[4]   The acronym THPO refers to Tribal Historic Preservation Officer.  It has always seemed odd to me that the term is always referenced incorrectly yet it would be a bit ackward to insert “officer” and also include “offices.”  The acronym references both.  I am in the process of compiling a list of THPO glossary terms.  Refer back to my website in the near future to view the downloadable TCP glossary.
[5] A separate blog post will be devoted to this topic at a future point.

​I decided to create this blog as a tool to create a space for a discussion on Cultural Resource Management and Traditional Cultural Properties.  I also created it to continue discussion on the need for coalition work to be done between organizations, nations, individuals, and so on, to find ways to deal with the onslaught of attacks on cultural resources in the world.  At times things I say may be considered divisive yet there must be a way to discuss matters and then find ways to resolve issues.  The attack on cultural resources in the world is nothing new.  The very creation of the Cultural Resources Management discipline was born out of the need to protect historic properties.  The designation of a separation between cultural resources, and traditional cultural properties has exacerbated the issues in the protection of historic properties.  The National Historic Preservation Act (amended 1992), National Environmental Protection Act, Archaeological Protection Act, Native American Graves Protection Act are all under considerably high risk.  We are at a point when the destruction of cultural resources and the extraction of minerals, and the creation of wind and solar energy projects are given precedence over treaty rights and property rights in the name of national security and energy independence.

My hope is that this blog will help to create a further dialogue on the issues and move even one individual to create a coalition effort to expand the conversation and create positive change.  The blog is named after an ancient oral tradition among indigenous groups where stories known as coyote, trickster, and Iktomi characters are told during the winter months in many cultures.  These stories are now found in written context in many forms of creative writing and anthologized by many authors.  My opinion on these stories is that these stories originated in various cultures to create calm out of chaos, to create stability in societies as a way to hold cultural groups together, and to find ways to make sure that individuals learn to treat one another with respect in a way that they acknowledge and recognize their connections to all things in the universe at large.  There is much that we can all learn from the oral traditions of tribal groups across the world.