In July, a federal government company entrusted with safeguarding our cultural heritage relinquished its duty, voting to additional market’s pursuit of revenue over securing websites of cultural significance. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), the only federal firm whose sole objective is promoting conservation of America’s historical locations, voted to advance a proposed brand-new guideline that would make sweeping modifications to how Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act is carried out. By doing so, the Council is opening the door for federal firms to bulldoze spiritual Indigenous websites and crucial historical sites.

Area 106 needs federal companies to examine the results of their actions– or the actions they accredit or allow– on historical, historical, and cultural residential or commercial properties noted in or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Furthermore, companies need to try, to the level possible, to lessen damaging impacts on these considerable locations. The guidelines governing Section 106 have actually remained in location given that 1974. As part of that structure, the federal government is lawfully needed to seek advice from Tribal Nations about tasks that might damage or harm their spiritual locations or culturally considerable resources.

Dr. Joe Watkins, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, is Senior Consultant with Archaeological and Cultural Education Consultants in Tucson, Arizona. He is Past President of the Board of Directors of the Society for American Archaeology (2018-2021) and belonged to the Board of Directors of the Plains Anthropological Society and the Society for America Archaeology. He has actually released more than 100 book chapters or posts; his books consist of Indigenous Archaeology: American Indian Values and Scientific Practice and Indigenizing Japan: Ainu Past, Present, and Future. In 2025, he got the Society for American Archaeology’s Lifetime Achievement Award.