Brian D. Joyner

National Park Service

The significance of the Southern 

United States coastal culture of 

African peoples known as Gullah 

and Geechee has been portrayed 

in film and theater, documented in 

academic studies, and celebrated 

through heritage tourism. Now, 

after a Congressionally mandated 

National Park Service (NPS) Special 

Resource Study, and legislative 

efforts by Congressman James E. 

Clyburn, heritage preservation 

organizations such as the Gullah/

Geechee Sea Island Coalition, 

and others, the contributions of 

Gullah/Geechee culture have been 

recognized with the designation 

of the Gullah/Geechee Cultural 

Heritage Corridor through the 

National Heritage Areas Act of 2006 

(P.L. 109-338). NPS Director Mary 

A. Bomar announced the creation 

of the Heritage Corridor and nine 

other National Heritage Areas on 

October 19, 2006.

The region associated with the 

Gullah/Geechee culture stretches 

from the coastal counties of the 

Carolinas to northern Florida, 

leaving a distinctive mark on the 

historical traditions in the coastal 

region. The Gullah people possess 

linguistic traits, artisan skills, 

and agricultural and cultural 

practices attributable to African 

knowledge systems retained by 

those descendants. This survival 

is due to the relative isolation 

of the areas and the continuous 

influx of Africans from the same 

cultural zone. Despite the recent 

efforts to preserve lifeways and 

practices, commercial development 

and out migration of young adults 

now threaten to diminish Gullah/

Geechee culture. 

In addition to the Heritage 

Corridor designation, the National 

Heritage Area Act also establishes a 

Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage 

Corridor Commission to develop 

and implement a management 

plan for the Corridor. NPS will 

coordinate the solicitation and 

recommendations of members with 

the State Historic Preservation 

Offices in Florida, Georgia, North 

Carolina, and South Carolina 

to create this Commission. 

Information on the nomination and 

selection process will be finalized 

and made public in 2007.

For more information on 

National Heritage Areas, visit http://

www.cr.nps.gov/heritageareas.

N E W S O F T H E N A T I O N ’ S D I V E R S E C U L T U R A L H E R I T A G E

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Conferences 

upcoming, p. 10

Grant applications,

 p. 11

Internships, p. 3

National Register 

listings, p. 5

Tribal Preservation 

Officer list, p. 9

HERITAGE MATTERS

HERITAGE 

MATTERS

JANUARY 2007

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Gullah/Geechee Region Becomes a Cultural Heritage Corridor 

Closeup of a sweetgrass basket bottom.

Vera Manigault of Mount Pleasant, SC, is seated among examples of the one 

of the traditions associated with the Gullah/Geechee culture, sweetgrass basket 

making. The baskets are a staple of the cultural expression and economic well 

being that the Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor seeks to preserve. Photos below 

and opposite ourtesy of Deirdre Laird.
Highlighting Inupiaq 

Heritage in Northwest 

Alaska

Becky Saleeby

National Park Service

For the past three summers 

(2004–2006), young people from 

five villages in northwest Alaska 

participated in the Archeological 

Mentorship Program, funded by 

a National Park Service (NPS) 

Shared Beringian Heritage Program 

grant. Besides providing training 

and archeological fieldwork 

opportunities, the program also 

required the teenagers to create 

projects of local cultural interest to 

share with their home communities. 

The villages of Anaktuvuk Pass, 

Noatak, Kiana, and Point Hope, and 

the town of Kotzebue, were involved 

in the program. The majority of 

residents in each community are of 

Inupiaq Eskimo heritage. 

The Shared Beringian Heritage 

Program celebrates the exchange 

of resources and heritage by Russia 

and the United States on both sides 

of the Bering Strait, and funds 

international participation in a 

variety of projects. This unique 

NPS program, administered by 

the Alaska Regional Office in 

Anchorage, provided the funds 

to hire the teenagers as well as 

village coordinators to supervise 

the students in their home 

communities. 

Susan Bender and I, archeologists at the NPS office in Anchorage, served as the archeology mentors for the students—planning 

their curriculum, instructing them 

during week-long training sessions 

in Kotzebue and Anaktuvuk Pass, 

and participating in their fieldwork 

in 2004 and 2005. While we 

provided suggestions for possible 

projects, the decision on what to do 

as a project was left to the students.

The student projects varied 

widely, from the documentation 

of cultural traditions and sites of 

memory as a display in Noatak, 

to the design and construction of 

a historically accurate sod house 

by five students in Point Hope, 

using extant examples found in 

the village. In Kiana, two students 

decided to map the old village 

of Kiana using techniques they 

learned during training sessions 

with NPS staff. With the assistance 

of NPS historic architect Grant 

Crosby, their drawings and 

descriptions were transferred into a 

CAD computer mapping program. 

Their finished project provided 

updated historic survey information 

on the village for the Alaska State 

Historic Preservation Office and 

was presented to the Kiana village 

council.

Martina Riley summed up the 

experience by observing, “We visited 

the old village of Kiana, which was 

occupied until the late 1960s, and 

mapped it out using a compass and 

measuring tape. Eileen Devinney 

[NPS anthropologist] helped us 

do the mapping of the village. We 

found one cabin, two caches, and 

a cache on stilts still standing. The 

rest were either depressions, or 

just the depressions sometimes 

containing the sill logs, and a few 

fallen in buildings. . . . Thanks for 

the opportunity to learn more about 

the old village and my history.” 

In 2006, the mentorship students 

chose to create individual rather 

than group projects. Samples of the 

students’ projects will be highlighted 

at the annual Beringian Days 

celebration held in Anchorage in 

September 2007. 

HERITAGE 

MATTERS

JANUARY 2007

page 2

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

INITIATIVES

(Left) Millie Booth and Deron Smith, mentorship students from Noatak, display a poster board of their photos and writings during Beringian Days in 2004. Courtesy of NPS. (Right) Students and community coordinators from Point Hope and 

Kiana pose with NPS archeology mentors for a group shot in Kotzebue in 2005. Courtesy of NPS.
page 3

Cultural Resources 

Diversity Internship 

Program: Another 

Successful Class

Turkiya Lowe

National Conference of State Historic 

Preservation Officers

The Cultural Resources Diversity 

Internship Program completed 

its eighth summer season with 13 

diverse interns placed in national 

parks, National Park Service 

administrative offices, and private 

nonprofit organizations. The 

summer season culminated in the 

annual Career Workshop from 

August 9-11, 2006, in Washington, 

DC. During the Career Workshop, 

the interns gave presentations of 

their work experiences to NPS 

managers and invited guests. 

They also visited museum and 

preservation organizations, 

including the American Folklife 

Center at the Library of Congress 

and the Smithsonian National 

Museum of African American 

History and Culture. 

For the summer of 2006, the 

intern sponsors included the 

Northeast Regional Office, NPS; 

National Register of Historic Places; 

National Parks Conservation 

Association; Heritage Documentation 

Programs; Route 66 Corridor 

Preservation Program; National 

NAGPRA Program; National Center 

for Preservation Technology and 

Training; National Underground 

Railroad Network to Freedom 

Program; Booker T. Washington 

National Monument; Martin Luther 

King, Jr. National Historic Site; 

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore; 

Women’s Rights National Historical 

Park; and Independence National 

Historical Park. 

The National Park Service 

administers this program in 

partnership with the Student 

Conservation Association. Contact: 

Turkiya L. Lowe, 202/354-2266, 

turkiya_lowe@contractor.nps.gov.

Historic Trees, the 

National Park Service, 

and Public History

Priya Chhaya

National Trust for Historic Preservation

What do the Burnside Bridge 

American Sycamore, the National 

Mall Jefferson Elm, and the Andrew 

Jackson Southern Magnolia have 

in common? Each tree serves as a 

witness to important events in of 

American history. The Sycamore, 

Elm, and Magnolia are three in 

a collection of “witness trees” 

being documented for the Historic 

American Landscapes Survey 

(HALS).

In the summer of 2006 

HALS initiated the Witness Tree 

Protection Program to identify 

and document 24 historically 

and biologically significant trees 

in the greater Washington, DC 

metropolitan area. Each of these 

trees has special characteristics 

that make it nationally significant. 

The Burnside Bridge Sycamore, a 

sapling at the time, was present 

at the clash between Union and 

Confederate forces at Antietam 

Creek in Sharpsburg, Maryland; the 

National Mall Jefferson Elm was 

part of the landscape architectural 

vision of the McMillan Plan and is 

a genetic anomaly, having survived 

the Dutch Elm disease outbreak 

of the early 20th century; the 

Southern Magnolia at the White 

House was planted by President 

Andrew Jackson the grounds in 

memory of his late wife Rachel.

NPS’s Heritage Documentation 

Program draws the connections 

between history and places with 

its documentation of structures as 

part of our nation’s cultural legacy. 

Every structure recorded by the 

Historic American Buildings Survey 

This year’s CRDIP interns worked on cultural resources/historic preservation 

projects in NPS regional offices and national parks, as well as with partner 

organizations such as the National Parks Conservation Association. Courtesy of 

Sue Waldron.
HERITAGE 

MATTERS

JANUARY 2007

page 4

(HABS) and the Historic American 

Engineering Survey (HAER) tells 

a story of the American past. 

Buildings and structures provide 

visual and physical evidence of 

our nation’s history. In 2000, NPS 

created HALS to document and 

record another aspect of human 

intervention: historic landscapes 

from gardens to battlefields.

Like monuments and memorials 

that are placed on a particular 

landscape, trees convey a deep 

relationship with the events and 

history that surrounds them. Their 

place in that history depends on 

the humans that shape them—and 

ultimately what these visitors take 

with them when they leave.

Priya was a CRDIP intern with the HABS/HAER/

HALS/CRGIS programs in the summer of 2006. She 

currently works for the National Trust and recently 

received her M.A. from American University.

Only a sapling at the time of the Battle of Antietam, the Burnside Bridge American Sycamore (far right), now over 100 

feet high and 200 inches around, is the last remaining “witness”on the battlefield and an ideal subject for the HALS 

Witness Tree Protection Program. Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Collection.
page 5

National Register of 

Historic Places Listings

Caridad de la Vega

National Conference of State Historic 

Preservation Officers

Rustin Quaide

National Park Service

Ridge Trail Historic District

Significant in the areas of 

archeology, commerce, ethnic 

heritage, and transportation, 

the Ridge Trail Historic District 

encompasses a series of oxcart trail 

segments 8 to 10 feet wide, located 

in Walsh and Pembina counties 

in northeastern North Dakota. 

Demarcated by the continual 

passage of wooden carts across the 

area, the trails served as important 

arteries for the transport of people 

and commercial goods throughout 

much of the 19th century between 

St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Selkirk 

settlement in Manitoba, Canada. 

Listed in the National Register 

of Historic Places on March 17, 

2006, the site and trail were used by 

the Métis, a distinct ethnic group 

created through the intermarriage 

of Native American and French 

settlers to the area, which played 

an important role in the economic 

development and settlement of the 

Old Northwest and Upper Plains. 

Like many other oxcart trails, the 

Ridge Trail traversed for many miles 

on ancient lake ridges and beaches 

in near the Red River, creating the 

first “permanent overland highways 

throughout the region.” 

Emery Hall, Old Wilberforce 

University Campus

Wilberforce University, founded in 

1856 in Green County, Ohio, is the 

oldest African American private 

institution of higher learning in 

the nation. The university was one 

of the major African American 

cultural and educational centers 

in Ohio and the nation. W.E.B. 

DuBois taught at Wilberforce in 

the late 1800s; Dr. Hallie Q. Brown, 

an accomplished teacher, author, 

lecturer, and political activist, was 

a long-time professor; William 

Scarborough, a prominent classics 

scholar, served as president of 

Wilberforce University from 1908 

to 1920; and Charles H. Wesley, was 

a founding scholar in the field of 

African American history.

Emery Hall was constructed in 

1913 with a large donation from 

the American industrialist Andrew 

Carnegie and Miss E.J. Emery, a 

philanthropist living in England. 

Emery Hall is also associated 

with the fundraising efforts of 

Dr. Brown, a founder of the 

National Association of Colored 

Women, from the late 1800s to 

her death in 1949. Emery Hall 

helps frame the western end of 

the historic Wilberforce campus, 

and along with the Carnegie 

Library it constitutes the only pre1920 buildings remaining on the 

Wilberforce campus. Built in the 

Colonial Revival style, the building 

consists of a 2 1/2 story, side 

gabled central block attached to 

flanking, gable-fronted pavilions by 

narrow, two story connected brick 

walkways. Emery Hall was listed in 

the National Register of Historic 

Places on October 4, 2005.

Ponca Agency

Listed in the National Register of 

Historic Places on July 12, 2006, 

the Ponca Agency is significant 

as an historic archeological site 

consisting of remains from the 

Indian agency and its associated 

Indian village in Boyd County, 

Nebraska. The Ponca were a semisedentary tribe who lived along 

the Missouri River in northeastern 

Nebraska, until the Treaty of 1858 

between the Ponca and the United 

States government relocated the 

group onto the reservation as 

part of the acculturation program 

for American Indians during that 

period. The site is significant in 

the areas of ethnic heritage, social 

history, military, and historic 

aboriginal and non-aboriginal 

archeology. 

The site consists of five artifact 

scatters; three areas are associated 

with the agency building, school 

house and graveyard, while the 

remainder are associated with 

the stockade. The remains at the 

stockade site itself consist of three 

foundations, three depressions, a 

cistern and three piles of rubble. 

The Ponca Agency archeological 

site remains have the potential 

to yield further information on 

the interactions between EuroAmericans and the Ponca people.

Ohio Theatre

The Ohio Theatre in Toledo, Ohio, 

was built in 1921 and has a long 

and close association with Toledo’s 

Polish community, called Lagrinka. 

From its opening on February 28, 

1921, to its closing in 1975, the Ohio 

Theatre was owned or managed by 

residents of the Polish community. 

In addition, the small businesses 

housed in the theatre building 

storefronts served the needs of 

the Lagrinka neighborhood. Still 

in operation and standing in its 

original location with much of 

its architectural integrity intact, 

STATE INITIATIVES
HERITAGE 

MATTERS

JANUARY 2007

the Ohio Theatre offers a unique 

glimpse into the culture and history 

of the surrounding Polish Village 

and greater Toledo area, as well as 

American theatrical, social, and 

cultural history. 

From its inception, the building 

served as a neighborhood theater, 

playing American and Polish 

silent movies. In 1920, five Polish 

Village community membersPresident Rosa Bialorucki, Vice 

President Stephen L. Gurdzinski, 

Secretary Nicholas J. Walinski, 

Walter L. Gurdinzski, and Walter 

J. Nowak-banded together to form 

the Lagrange Street Amusement 

Company to build and operate 

the Ohio Theatre. However, the 

demand for the theater’s ethnic fare 

diminished and by 1953, the Ohio 

Theatre showed only 208 films a 

year (compared with 600 a year at 

its height). Attendance continued to 

dwindle through the 1960s, and in 

May 1975, the Ohio Theatre closed 

its doors. The Ohio Theatre, Inc., a 

non-profit organization, purchased 

the theater in November 2004, and 

began showing movies and hosting 

cultural events. 

Designed in a commercial 

Neoclassical style, the building is 

primarily of masonry construction 

with steel roof trusses, covering 

three lots of approximately 10,800 

square feet in total area. The Ohio 

Theatre was listed in the National 

Register of Historic Places on 

March 29, 2006.

Hydaburg Totem Park 

Located in southern Southeast 

Alaska, Hydaburg Totem Park is 

located in the center of the city of 

Hydaburg on a 125 by 250 square 

foot-area established in 1939 for the 

preservation of totemic art of the 

Northwest coast Haida people. The 

park site features 21 totem poles, 

3 of which were relocated from 

abandoned Haida villages to the 

park upon its creation. 

Listed in the National Register 

of Historic Places on June 16, 

2006, the site includes a carved 

stone figure and represents the 

establishment of the park through 

the end of the totem pole project 

in 1942. As a Civilian Conservation 

Corps project, the U.S. Forest 

Service hired Native carvers to 

relocate abandoned totem poles 

to the park, carve replicas of those 

poles that could not be relocated, 

and create new poles; 5 poles are 

repaired originals while 16 are 

carved replicas. 

Sunrise Mine Historic District

The Sunrise Mine Historic District 

was listed in the National Register 

of Historic Places on December 23, 

2005. Beginning in 1898, the ironore industry flourished locally for 

80 years. The 225-acre district is 

located in eastern Wyoming, and 

consists of 3 areas: the company 

town, the railroad and maintenance 

yard, and the mining area, which 

collectively contain a total of 34 

contributing resources. Some of the 

extant resources within the district 

include former housing for the 

laborers, bachelor’s quarters, and 

a laboratory for the testing of ore 

samples at the mine.

The weekly camp newspaper 

published by the company reflects 

the diversity of the labor force at 

the Sunrise Mine through its multilingual editions in Italian, German, 

Spanish, and English. The ethnic 

makeup of the workforce included 

people of Italian, Greek, SyrianLebanese, Japanese, Scandinavian, 

and English origin, with Greeks 

constituting half of the immigrant 

population at the Sunrise Mine.

page 6

Renowned as proficient carvers, Haida people created the the totem poles at 

Hydaburg Totem Park in Alaska as artistic manifestations of the ancestors and 

supernatural beings. Courtesy of Doreen Witwer.
page 7

(Above) Casa Aztlan on South Racine Avenue is a visual marker of the multicultural neighborhood that is Pilsen Historic 

District in Chicago, IL. Courtesy of Lydia Brant. (Below) The Shower and Changing Room and the Boiler House are just two of 

many supporting facilities erected for the daily operations of the local iron-ore industry at Sunrise Mine. Courtesy of Richard 

Collier.

Pilsen Historic District 

The Pilsen Historic District is 

significant for its associations with 

Chicago’s Bohemian-American 

and Mexican-American ethnic 

heritage, social history, industry, 

and architecture. Listed in the 

National Register of Historic 

Places on February 1, 2006, the 

district is located about 2 1⁄2 miles 

southwest of Chicago’s downtown, 

encompassing 4,405 contributing 

resources and including a wide 

array of residential and commercial 

buildings. Roughly bounded by 

Halsted Street on the east, Cermak 

Road on the south, Western Avenue 

on the west, and the railroad 

viaduct north of West 16th street 

on the north, the community was 

created by Czechs in the 1870s, with 
page 8

NAGPRA Develops 

New Outreach 

Initiatives 

Maria Elena Frias

Cultural Resources Diversity Internship Program

The Native American Graves 

Protection and Repatriation Act 

of 1990 (NAGPRA) has been 

responsible for the repatriation 

of over one-half million Native 

American cultural items and 

has enabled documentation of 

many more. According to the Act, 

objects of cultural patrimony, 

sacred objects, funerary objects, 

and human remains that can be 

traced to a federally recognized 

Indian tribe, a particular lineal 

descendant, or a Native Hawaiian 

organization must be repatriated if 

a claim is made. Since 1994, costs 

for repatriation (up to $15,000) and 

the documentation (up to $75,000) 

of items which are or potentially 

could be subject to NAGPRA have 

been eligible for federal funding 

under the NAGPRA grants program.

Within the National NAGPRA 

program of the National Park 

Service, there are noticeable 

trends in the tribes, museums, and 

geographic areas that have or have 

not received funding. Therefore, 

the program developed an outreach 

plan to aid under-funded groups 

and institutions. National NAGPRA 

developed a brochure describing 

the grants program to provide 

further assistance to those entities 

that have either applied and not 

received funding or have not 

applied at all. 

One of the outstanding projects 

featured in the brochure is a FY 2004 

documentation grant to the Caddo 

Nation of Oklahoma. Representatives 

of the Caddo Nation viewed and 

documented archeological collections 

at the American Museum of Natural 

History, which were recovered from 

a gravesite in the early 1900s. These 

funerary objects are the subject of a 

book that the Caddo published, titled 

A Rediscovering of Caddo Heritage. 

The National NAGPRA program 

is also developing a website to 

provide museums and tribes with 

examples of projects that have 

used NAGPRA funding successfully. 

Some of the more compelling 

and diverse final projects are 

highlighted on the website. Each 

example will include a project 

summary and an explanation as 

to why the particular project is 

unique and effective in carrying out 

NAGPRA objectives. Some of the 

chosen projects will feature PDFs 

of selected materials the applicants 

submitted for their applications, to 

better demonstrate how the most 

effective projects are conducted. 

The website and brochure 

describe NAGPRA grants and other 

similar grant programs, and provide 

examples of projects that NAGPRA 

has funded. Their intent is to 

encourage more grant applications 

from the under-funded tribes and 

museums. The purpose of the 

website and brochure is to provide 

a quick resource for interested 

parties seeking different funding 

opportunities and show the breadth 

of projects that NAGPRA funds. 

For more information, contact 

Michelle Joan Wilkinson, michelle_

j_wilkinson@nps.gov; phone: 

202/354-2203.

Maria Elena Frias was a CRDIP in the National 

NAGPRA Program offices in Washington, DC, 

during the Summer 2006 session. She is currently 

completing her undergraduate degree at the 

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 

HERITAGE 

MATTERS

JANUARY 2007

Mexicans settling it in the postWorld War II period.

The district’s architectural style 

reflects the cultural heritage of 

the Bohemian immigrants, with 

a large portion of the district’s 

buildings having construction 

dates between the 1880s and 1890s. 

Stylistically, the district’s buildings 

include representations from the 

late 19th- and 20th-century Revival 

Movement, late 19th- and early 

20th-century American Movement 

styles, including structures in 

the Craftsmen and Bohemian 

Baroque styles. Buildings such as 

the Skala National Bank, Thalia 

Hall, and the Gothic style St. Paul 

Roman Catholic Church, are just 

some of the individual structures 

that contribute to the district’s 

distinctive aesthetic and ethnic 

qualities. 

TRIBAL INITIATIVES 
page 9

Current THPO Listings

As of November 7, 2005, the 

Native American tribes with 

officially-recognized Tribal Historic 

Preservation Offices include:

• Absentee Shawnee Tribe 

(Oklahoma)

• Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla 

Indians (California)

• Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the 

Owens Valley (California)

• Bishop Paiute Tribe (California)

• Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe of 

Indians (California)

• Bois Forte Band of Chippewa 

Indians(Minnesota)

• Caddo Tribe of Oklahoma 

(Oklahoma)

• Catawba Indian Nation (South 

Carolina)

• Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe 

(South Dakota)

• Chippewa Cree Tribe of the 

Rocky Boy’s Reservation 

(Montana)

• Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma 

(Oklahoma)

• Confederated Salish and 

Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead 

Nation (Montana)

• Confederated Tribes of 

the Colville Reservation 

(Washington)

• Confederated Tribes of the 

Umatilla Reservation (Oregon)

• Confederated Tribes of the 

Warm Springs Reservation in 

Oregon (Oregon) 

• Confederated Tribes of the 

Yakama Nation (Washington)

• Coeur D’Alene Tribe (Idaho)

• Eastern Band of Cherokee 

Indians (North Carolina)

• Elk Valley Rancheria, California 

(California)

• The Ho-Chunk Nation 

(Wisconsin)

• Hualapai Tribe (Arizona)

• Keweenaw Bay Indian 

Community (Michigan)

• Lac Courte Oreilles Band of 

Lake Superior Chippewa Indians 

of Wisconsin (Wisconsin)

• Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake 

Superior Chippewa Indians 

(Wisconsin)

• Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake 

Superior Chippewa Indians 

(Michigan)

• Leech Lake Band of Chippewa 

Indians (Minnesota) 

• Lummi Nation (Washington)

• Makah Tribe (Washington)

• Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara 

Nation Three Affiliated Tribes 

(North Dakota)

• Menominee Indian Tribe of 

Wisconsin (Wisconsin)

• Mescalero Apache Tribe (New 

Mexico)

• Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe 

Indians (Minnesota)

• Narragansett Indian Tribe 

(Rhode Island)

• Navajo Nation (Arizona)

• Northern Cheyenne Tribe 

(Montana)

• Onieda Nation of Wisconsin 

(Wisconsin)

• Passamaquoddy Tribe (Maine)

• Penobscot Nation (Maine)

• Poarch Band of Creek Indians 

(Alabama)

• Pueblo of Zuni (New Mexico)

• Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior 

Chippewas (Wisconsin)

• San Carlos Apache Tribe 

(Arizona)

• Seminole Tribe of Florida 

(Florida)

• Seneca Nation of Indians (New 

York)

• Sisseton-Wahpenton Oyate 

(South Dakota)

• Skokomish Indian Tribe 

(Washington)

• Skull Valley Band of Goshute 

Indians (Utah)

• Smith River Rancheria 

(California)

• Spokane Tribe of Indians 

(Washington) 

• Squaxin Island Tribe 

(Washington)

• Standing Rock Sioux Tribe 

(North Dakota)

• Stockbridge-Munsee Community 

Band of Mohican Indians 

(Wisconsin)

• St. Regis Mohawk (New York)

• Table Bluff Reservation-Wiyot 

Tribe (California)

• Timbisha Shoshone Tribe 

(California) 

• Tunica-Biloxi Indians of 

Louisiana (Louisiana) 

• Turtle Mountain Band of 

Chippewa (North Dakota) 

• Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head 

(Massachusetts) 

• Washoe Tribe of Nevada and 

California (Nevada)

• White Earth Band of Minnesota 

Chippewa (Minnesota)

• White Mountain Apache Tribe 

(Arizona)

• Yurok Tribe (California)

For more information on 

THPOs, contact James Bird at 

202/354-1837, e-mail: james_

bird@nps.gov
HERITAGE 

MATTERS

JANUARY 2007

page 10

Conferences

March 2007

VAF Annual Meeting: Savannah and 

the Lowcountry

On March 28-31, 2007, the 

Vernacular Architecture Forum 

(VAF) will host its annual 

conference in partnership with 

the Savannah College of Art and 

Design in Savannah, Georgia. This 

year’s theme, “Savannah and the 

Lowcountry,” explores aspects 

of the cultural landscape of the 

city, lowcountry rice and cotton 

plantations, German Lutheran 

settlement patterns, post-bellum 

African-American communities, 

and coastal livelihood and 

recreation. Established in 1733, the 

city has one of the largest historic 

districts in the United States 

with a significant urban plan and 

remarkably intact 19th-century 

urban fabric. 

Conference tracts include “High 

and Low, Ideal and Real,” “African 

American Identity,” and “Coastal 

Landscapes.” 

For more information, visit the meeting website 

at http://www.scad.edu/academic/majors/arlh/vaf/

contact.cfm.

OAH Centennial Meeting: American 

Values, American Practices

The 100th annual meeting of 

the Organization of American 

Historians will be held in 

Minneapolis, Minnesota, on March 

29-April 1, 2007. In addition to 

commemorating the centenary 

of the organization, the meeting 

is dedicated to the theme of 

“American Values.” “The universal 

values that the United States 

holds dear and has used to justify 

its existence have morphed into 

American values, used to define 

our nation while including or 

exclude members of the American 

populace, depending on who’s 

defining them. With the peculiar 

development of those values, it is 

not clear how or if they impact our 

national or personal practices and 

behaviors.” 

For more information about conference proceedings and registration, visit the OAH meeting website at http://www.oah.org/meetings/2007/index.

html.

April 2007

10th Annual US/ICOMOS 

International Symposium: Heritage 

Tourism

US/ICOMOS, in conjunction with 

affiliated organizations, will host 

“Balancing Culture, Conversation, 

and Economic Development: 

Heritage Tourism In and Around 

the Pacific Rim,” in San Francisco, 

California, on April 18-21, 2007. 

The 10th annual international 

symposium was organized with 

US/ICOMOS by Architectural 

Resources Group.

Heritage tourism is increasingly 

identified as a principal means 

through which to conserve cultural 

sites by promoting, presenting, 

and interpreting those sites 

to the public. This approach 

has brought about increased 

opportunities for preservation, 

restoration, and development 

of historical and cultural sites, 

but it also has entailed some 

negative consequences and 

CONFERENCES, ANNOUNCEMENTS, 

AND EVENTS 

US/ICOMOS will hold an international symposium in San Francisco 

April 18-21, 2007. The conference 

theme will be “Balancing Culture, 

Conversation, and Economic 

Development: Heritage Tourism 

In and Around the Pacific Rim.” 

Photo courtesy of Marcia Axtmann Smith 

Design•Communication, Alexandria, Va.
page 11

challenges. Such complicating 

factors include competing interests 

among stakeholders; protection 

of resources undergoing tourism 

development; varying treatments of 

rural and urban sites; and the wide 

financial cultural and value-based 

differences that frequently exist 

between the host community, site 

managers, and visitors.

For more information regarding registration, 

accommodations, and the program overview, visit 

the symposium website, http://www.icomos.org/

usicomos/Symposium/SYMP07/2007_Symposium_

Program_Overview.htm. 

Arkansas Historical Association 

Conference: Not Just Black and 

White—The Fight for Civil Rights in 

Arkansas.

The Arkansas Historical Association 

(AHA) will hold its 66th annual 

conference in Little Rock, April 

26-28, 2007. The conference theme 

is “Not Just Black and White: The 

Fight for Civil Rights in Arkansas.”

The year marks the 50th 

anniversary of the 1957 

desegregation crisis at Little 

Rock’s Central High School. The 

2007 conference will focus on the 

individuals and groups who have 

fought for civil rights in Arkansas.

For more information, contact Laura A. Miller, 

program chair, Little Rock Central High School 

National Historic Site, 2125 Daisy L. Gatson Bates 

Drive, Little Rock, AR 72202; phone: 501/374-1957; 

email: laura_a_miller@nps.gov. 

May 2007

AAM Annual Meeting: Why Museums 

Matter

The American Association of 

Museums (AAM) will host its 

annual meeting in Chicago, 

Illinois, on May 13-17, 2007. This 

year’s theme is “Why Museums 

Matter.” Museum professionals 

and volunteers understand how 

and why museums matter, but need 

to do a better job communicating 

this to others. “What are the most 

effective ways of conveying the 

value of museums to the public, the 

media, policy-makers, and funders? 

What are the key messages that 

the museum community should be 

communicating? Individual museums 

tell compelling stories about how they 

serve their communities. How do they 

work together as a field to unite this 

narrative into a powerful message 

about the valuable roles museums 

play?”

For the 2007 annual meeting, 

AAM invites the field to submit 

proposals that demonstrate how 

they measure and communicate 

their value—educational, social, 

creative, financial—in their 

communities. “What research do 

they undertake to measure the 

results of what they do? What 

communications strategies work to 

convey to supporters the value of 

their efforts? How do you adjust 

their messages for their various 

audiences?”

For more information on the conference, visit the 

meeting website, http://www.aam-us.org/am07/

index.cfm. 

October 2007

National Trust 2007: Twin Cities 

National Preservation Conference

On October 2-October 6, 2006, 

the National Trust of Historic 

Preservation will host its annual 

conference in St. Paul, Minnesota.

For more information, contact the Trust at 

866/805-5725, or visit its conference website, 

http://www.nthpconference.org/. 

Announcements

NPS Accepting Applications for 

Preserve America Grants

The Preserve America Grant 

program recognizes and designates 

communities that protect and 

celebrate their heritage, use their 

historic assets for economic 

development and community 

revitalization, and encourage 

people to experience and 

appreciate local historic resources 

through education and heritage 

tourism programs. The applications 

for the 2007 round of grants are 

due February 14, 2007.

Benefits of designation include 

White House recognition; eligibility 

to apply for Preserve America 

grants; a certificate of recognition; 

a Preserve America Community 

road sign; authorization to use the 

Preserve America logo on signs, 

flags, banners, and promotional 

materials; listing in a Web-based 

Preserve America Community 

directory; inclusion in national 

and regional press releases; official 

notification of designation to State 

tourism offices and visitor bureaus; 

and enhanced community visibility 

and pride. 

For additional information about the Preserve 

America initiative, see http://www.preserveamerica.gov/overview.html.

SAT Grant Application Season to be 

Announced in January 

The Save America’s Treasures grant 

program announcement of the 

application deadlines for the 2007 

granting period is pending. For 

more information, visit the SAT 

website at http://www.cr.nps.gov/

hps/treasures/index.htm. 

Events

Preservation-related 

Commemorations 

• African American Heritage 

Month (February)

• Asian American/Pacific Islander 

Heritage Month (May)

• Historic Preservation Month 

(May)

• Hispanic/Latino Heritage Month 

(September 15-October 15)

• American Indian Heritage 

Month (November)
FIRST CLASS MAIL

Postage & Fees Paid

U.S. Department 

of the Interior

National Park Service

1849 C Street, NW (2280)

Washington, DC 20240

Mary A. Bomar

Director

Janet Snyder Matthews

Associate Director

Cultural Resources 

Antoinette J. Lee

Assistant Associate 

Director, Historical 

Documentation Programs

Brian D. Joyner

Heritage Matters Editor

Mission of the 

National Park Service

The National Park Service preserves 

unimpaired the natural and cultural 

resources and the values of the national 

park system for the enjoyment, education, 

and inspiration of this and future generations. The Park Service also cooperates 

with partners to extend the benefits of 

natural and cultural resource conservation 

and outdoor recreation throughout this 

country and the world.

Heritage Matters, sponsored by the 

Cultural Resources Programs of the 

National Park Service, is published twicea-year and is free of charge. Readers are 

invited to submit short articles and notices 

for inclusion. (Limit submissions to fewer 

than 600 words and include author’s name 

and affiliation. Photographs or slides 

are welcome.) Please submit newsletter items in writing or electronically to: 

Brian D. Joyner, Editor, Heritage Matters,

DOI/National Park Service, 1849 C Street, 

NW (2280), Washington, DC 20240. Phone: 

202/354-2276, email: brian_joyner@nps.gov.

Visit the website for the NPS Cultural Resources Diversity Program: www.cr.nps.gov/crdi

HERITAGE 

MATTERS

JANUARY 2007

 CONTENTS

H E R I TA G E M AT T E R S

NPS ACTIVITIES, pages 2-4

Inupiaq Heritage in Northwestern Alaska, p. 2

Cultural Resources Diversity Internship Program, 

p. 3

Historic Trees, the National Park Service, and 

History, p. 3

STATE INITIATIVES, pages 5-8

National Register Nominations, p. 5

• Ridge Trail Historic District, Walsh and Pembina 

Counties, North Dakota

• Emery Hall, Wilberforce University, Green 

County, Ohio

• Ponca Agency, Boyd County, Nebraska

• Ohio Theatre, Toledo, Ohio

• Hydaburg Totem Park, Hydaburg, Alaska

• Sunrise Mine Historic District, eastern Wyoming

• Pilsen Historic District, Chicago, Illinois

TRIBAL INITIATIVES, pages 8-9

NAGPRA Develops New Outreach Initiatives, p. 8

Current THPO Listings, p. 9

CONFERENCES, ANNOUNCEMENTS, AND EVENTS, 

pages 10-11

Conferences, p. 10

Vernacular Architectural Forum Annual Meeting 

in Savannah, p. 10

Organization of American Historians Annual 

Meeting in Minneapolis, p. 10

US/ICOMOS International Symposium on Heritage 

Tourism in San Francisco, p. 10

Arkansas Historical Association Conference in 

Little Rock, p. 10

American Association of Museums Annual 

Meeting in Chicago, p. 11

National Trust for Historic Preservation National 

Preservation Conference in St. Paul, p. 11

Announcements, p. 11

Preserve America Grant Applications, p. 11

Save America’s Treasures Grant Applications, 

p. 11

Events, p. 11

Preservation-related Commemorations, p. 11

page 12

This material is based upon work conducted under a cooperative agreement between the U.S. 

Department of the Interior, National Park Service, and the National Conference of State Historic 

Preservation Officers. Views and conclusions in this material are those of the authors and should not 

be interpreted as representing the opinions or policies of the U.S. Government. Mention of trade 

names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the U.S. Government.

The Gullah/Geechee region, famous 

for its basket weaving, has been 

named a Cultural Heritage Corridor. 

See page 1.