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The Federal archeology program
is a general term that includes interpretation programs, collections
care, scientific investigations, protection efforts, and public
education and outreach efforts. The program covers activities
on federal and tribal land, as well as federally financed, permitted,
or licensed actions on nonfederal land. Authorities, regulations,
and guidelines define these activities to preserve, properly treat,
and protect archeological sites and objects, such as the Archeological
Resources Protection Act and the National
Historic Preservation Act, especially Sections 106 and 110.
The archeological work involves the identification, evaluation,
and nomination of historic properties to the National
Register of Historic Places. The foundation for these activities
and programs was laid by the authorities and protections provided
by the Antiquities
Act of 1906.
Dozens of federal agencies, such
as the Bureau of Land Management, US Army Corps of Engineers,
Forest Service, and National Park Service, have archeological
programs related to their own activities and responsibilities.
The Secretary of the Interior is charged with providing general
guidance and coordination for all of federal archeology. The Secretary
is required to report to Congress
on federal archeological activities under the Archeological and
Historic Preservation Act and the Archaeological Resources Protection
Act. The Departmental Consulting Archeologist accomplishes the
report for the Secretary with the support of the Archeology and
Ethnography Program, NPS, and cooperation of dozens of federal
agencies.
The position of Departmental
Consulting Archeologist (DCA) was created in 1927 to advise the
Secretary of the Interior about archeological matters handled
by any bureau of the Department. For many years, the DCA primarily
reviewed permit applications under the Antiquities Act of 1906
and made recommendations to the Secretary. Yet, even during the
earliest years of the DCA function, other important activities
were linked to the job. These include: advocating better protection
of archeological sites scattered over the lands of the Department,
mainly in the Southwest; preventing unlawful excavation and gathering
of objects of antiquity on federal and tribal lands; inspecting
the orderly progression of archeological field work under secreterial
permit; and, encouraging the publication of information through
the scientific and educational institutions that carried out most
of the early archeological studies done under Antiquities Act
permits.
Since the late 1950s, the
DCA function has expanded beyond enforcement related to the Antiquities
Act to a more general guidance role as required by the set of
laws mentioned above. Currently, the DCA is the program manager
for the Archeology and Ethnography program, NPS. The kinds of
guidance and activities carried out today by this function include:
(1) developing regulations and policy documents, often
in concert with other federal agency officials, such as the uniform
regulations for the Archaeological Resources Protection Act and
the National Strategy
for Federal Archeology; (2) coordinating joint archeological
activities and programs undertaken by federal and other public
agencies; (3) implementing the Native
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act within units
of the National Park Service; (4) developing, maintaining,
and coordinating the implementation of the National
Archeological Database; (5) preparing the Secretary
of the Interior's Report to Congress on Federal archeology;
(6) developing and publishing technical and programmatic
information related to archeological preservation, such as the
Abandoned Shipwreck
Act Guidelines; (7) developing training
courses; and, (8) maintaining clearinghouses on incidents
of vandalism to archeological resources on public and tribal lands
and on efforts to educate the public on the nature and value of
archeological resources.
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