Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

Last week, ACHP Office of Tribal and Indigenous Peoples Director Ira L. Matt (on detail to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy) participated in the 2023 White House Tribal Nations Summit (Summit) at the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. The Summit provided the President and members of his Cabinet the opportunity to engage and consult with Tribal leaders on a nation-to-nation basis.

By Ira Matt

Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Vice Chairman Jordan Tannenbaum signed the historic Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on Native Languages on September 28, 2022, at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Reno Franklin, the ACHP’s Indian Tribe and Native Hawaiian Member, and Ira L. Matt, the ACHP’s Director of the Office of Native American Affairs, witnessed the signing.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) Acting Executive Director Reid Nelson announced Ira Matt is the new director of the Office of Native American Affairs (ONAA). Ira previously served as senior program analyst in ONAA.

“We are excited to have Ira assume this leadership role,” Nelson said. “Ira brings many years of experience, along with his education and tribal background, to the director position. His exemplary work at the ACHP over the years has been vital to the success of ONAA. His commitment to the central mission of that office–to support and advance the role of Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations in the national preservation program–has been a central part of his life’s work.”

Emily Choi, who joined the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation on September 3, 2019, as an assistant historic preservation specialist with the Office of Federal Agency Programs has won the Lawyers’ Committee on Cultural Heritage Preservation (LCCHP) student writing competition.

Choi, a former ACHP intern, will receive a $500 award from LCCHP for her paper, “Safeguarding Native American Traditional Knowledge Under Existing Legal Frameworks: Why and How Federal Agencies must Re-Interpret FOIA’s ‘Trade Secret Exemption.’ ” She also will be featured on the LCCHP website.