ACHP Policy Statement on Indigenous Knowledge and Historic Preservation
The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation’s Office of Tribal and Indigenous Peoples (OTIP) developed a policy statement to further inform how Indigenous Knowledge (IK) should be integrated into the Section 106 process. This policy statement builds on the recently released government-wide Guidance for Federal Departments and Agencies on Indigenous Knowledge in an effort to tailor many of those messages to the needs of the historic preservation community. The policy was informed by concepts discussed the ACHP’s existing information paper Traditional Knowledge and the Section 106 Process: Information for Federal Agencies and Other Participants. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation approved the policy statement by unanimous vote on March 21, 2024.
Policy Statement on Indigenous Knowledge and Historic Preservation March 21, 2024
Summary of Comments March 25, 2024
Additional Background Information:
In 2018, the Office of Tribal and Indigenous Peoples (OTIP) launched an initiative to promote an understanding of and respect for IK in the Section 106 process. The initiative coincided with the United Nation’s efforts to advance IK through their Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Since that time the ACHP has actively collaborated with Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations (NHOs) to elevate IK by assisting the State Department in drafting the U.S. statement on IK and through participation in their Cultural Heritage Expert Working Group, conducting numerous webinars, and releasing the information paper Traditional Knowledge and the Section 106 Process: Information for Federal Agencies and Other Participants. Throughout this process, Tribal and NHO leaders have made it clear that further action from the ACHP would be needed. In May 2022, ACHP's Indigenous Peoples (IP) committee identified the development of a policy statement as the most effective mechanism to advance the integration of IK into the Section 106 process.
Development of this policy statement aligns with several ongoing efforts to advance IK by the administration and other federal agencies and departments. On November 31, 2022, the Council on Environmental Quality and the White House Office on Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released a guidance document regarding integration of IK into federal agency and department decision making. The ACHP participated in the development of that guidance document and coordinated meetings between the IP committee and OSTP to inform its development. The ACHP is also closely coordinating with other federal agencies to align consideration of IK into their guidance documents including the National Register of Historic Places Traditional Cultural Places guidance updates, Department of the Interior’s Professional Qualification Standards, and the Interagency Sacred Sites Memorandum of Understanding, among others.
An ACHP policy statement on IK will seek to address ongoing requests made by Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiians, meet the needs of federal agencies to incorporate IK more fully, and align with administration directives to advance IK in federal decision making. For Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiians, IK is cross-cutting and has a role in all ways of knowing, including the identification and evaluation of historic properties, the assessment of an undertaking's effects on such properties, and the resolution of adverse effects.