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This chapter explores what results when Native peoples articulate religious claims in the language of culture and cultural resources under environmental and historic preservation law. It argues that cultural resource laws have become more fruitful in two respects. First, there is more emphatic insistence on government-to-government consultation between federal agencies and tribes. Second, in 1990, National Historic Preservation Act regulations were clarified by designating “Traditional Cultural Properties” as eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and in 1992, that law was amended to formally engage tribal governments in the review process. In light of these developments, protection under the categories of culture and cultural resource have proved more capacious for distinctive Native practices and beliefs about sacred lands, but it has come at the expense of the clearer edge of religious freedom protections, while still being haunted, and arguably bedraggled, by the category of religion from which these categories ostensibly have been formally disentangled.

This chapter focuses on the preservation of historic buildings and archaeological sites, and how it has been something of a national crusade. In 1966, Congress passed the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), which accomplished four major things. First, it created the National Register of Historic Places; second, it led to the appointment of a State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO); third, the legislation established the Historic Preservation Fund; and finally, the NHPA created the President’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. The reasons for promoting preservation range from the desire to preserve links with the past to the retention of tourist attractions. However, historic properties are expensive to purchase and maintain. Therefore, in times of tight budgets and increasing demand upon government at all levels, reliance on such acquisitions to save a substantial share of historic sites is misplaced.

The preservation and collection of structures, objects and stories changes significantly in the 1960s and 1970s. Building preservation is democratized as more people and organizations are involved, and different kinds of structures are targeted, including vernacular and recent buildings, and sites associated with African American history. Likewise the collection of vernacular objects and expanded oral history practice also changed at this moment.

Contextualizes Roosevelt’s role as the creator of national parks, wildlife refuges, and national monuments; shows important political connections with Representatives John F. Lacey and others in fostering the conservation agenda; addresses the neglected role of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society and its officials links with Roosevelt, and its alliance with the American Civic Association led by Horace McFarland. Examines the transfer of lobbying tactics from moral reform and missionary support groups to conservation. Emphasizes the role of scenic beauty in conservation and its relationship with a critique of the aesthetic and moral impacts of industrial society; examines the hitherto neglected importance of the international campaign for preservation of Niagara Falls and its impact on conservation strategies and tactics. Documents the roles of the Hetch-Hetchy Valley dam proposap, international park models, and tourism competition in spurring systemic national park policy and development.

Heritage resource management in the United States has its roots in the historic preservation movement. United States began the long road to recognition and protection of the nation's history in 1906 with the passage by Congress of the Antiquities Act. The National Park Service (NPS) was created in 1916 and in essence created the concept of management of significant sites (now called cultural resources) on federal land. The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966 and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 provide the foundation for the present approach to historic preservation. The basic difference between heritage resource management in the United States and just about all other countries concerns objects, sites, buildings, and structures—to say nothing of traditional cultural properties and cultural landscapes. This chapter examines the evolution of different preservation acts, legislation, and heritage resource management in the history of the United States.

Although they serve different communities with differing cultural belief systems, both the THPO and the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) share very similar preservation-centric goals. Florida is a very long state, and the relationship between the SHPO (in Tallahassee) and the THPO (in Big Cypress) presents a challenge to employees of both offices with little opportunity for interaction. Nevertheless, the similarity in mission and cooperative personnel have resulted in a fruitful relationship between the two institutions. This is not to say that culturally mandated project–based disagreements don’t exist. However, staff at both offices demonstrate the cultural and professional respect necessary to work well with one another. Opportunities to collaborate on projects of mutual interest have strengthened this relationship, and we have found much common ground. A view from outside the THPO is always welcome as we learn from one another.

This chapter offers a critical examination of historic preservationist practices to expand our understanding of the Nazi regime’s ideologies and objectives regarding historic places and national heritage. Rather than catalogue the actual techniques of historic preservation, this chapter focuses on the cultural politics animating the regime’s efforts to construct its vision of national history, heritage, and memory. To do so, the chapter surveys the Nazi regime’s efforts to “preserve” three generalized places: the city, the town, and the village

This chapter offers an analysis of a neighborhood historical survey, a cultural tourism brochure, and a preservation-based community revitalization program on H Street to show how the processes of making spaces authentic take place through the production of official (state-and corporate-sanctioned) narratives about the area, which involves a devaluing of H Street’s undesirable Black history and a rebranding and revaluation of H Street as historically diverse—only momentarily Black. The revaluation of the built environment not only requires investment, it also entails a discursive shift in how the space is seen. Part of that work involves revising the narrative. These documents and programs, generated to offer present-day narratives of the past, expose the power of the state and elite actors to shape both the perception and development of the space. Together they highlight the many conditions and strategies that undergird the transformation of urban space, and the ways that racialization and capital structure these changes.

Introduces the rise of neighborhood activism in Northeast Los Angeles in the 1980s against the backdrop of “slow growth” preservation and local control movements in California and around the nation. Case study of Eagle Rock, where The Eagle Rock Association (TERA) led a series of protests against mini-malls, condominiums, mansions and “big box” chain stores, in favor of better coordinated land-use planning preservation of natural and architectural landmarks, and “Take Back the Boulevard” for bikers and pedestrians. The case of Highland Park, where citizen activists and preservationists worked to create a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone (HPOZ) to save historic buildings and better regulate land-use planning. It chronicles the rise of the Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition to oppose the veritable warehousing of the Southwest Museum and storage of the collection in Burbank by its new owner, the Autry National Center of the West. Examines the internal politics of neighborhood activism, the significant participation of women leaders, and the question of minority participation. The chapter finishes with the political legacy of the slow growth movements of Northeast Angeles, which are expressed through a progressive coalition of neighborhood activist organizations with Democratic Latino city councilmen.

Before 1861, white Southerners cherished many artifacts from the Revolutionary War. The region was filled with family mementos, household relics, and military objects dating from the Revolution, as well as many houses belonging to Revolutionary figures. After 1861, each side declared they were the true heirs of the Revolution, and soldiers in both armies competed for possession of these objects for their symbolic value.

In order for the Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO) to successfully represent the tribe it must be fully engaged with the community it serves. One way therefore to measure the impact of the program is to solicit feedback from the people themselves. Historically the Seminole Tribe of Florida is made up of speakers of two related but culturally distinct languages—Miccosukee and Creek. Language affiliation and cultural identity are intertwined and distinct. Today this traditional dichotomy is made more complex by the cultural and biological influence of non-Seminole peoples. Willie Johns offers a Creek historical perspective, from a respected elder who has a long history of working very closely with the THPO.

The emic perspective as derived from experience within the upper tier of tribal government is rarely presented as academic discourse. This is likely as a direct result of the burden of commitments and workload inherent in such positions, as well as the specific objectives of the government itself. The following interview, from the perspective of someone with responsibility for oversight of the day-to-day operations of the THPO, therefore provides vital context for the role the THPO plays within the broader governmental structure of the Tribe.

After the signing of many bands from Athens, the city was hardly a secret. Alternative music fans wanted to not only go to Athens but to UGA for college. With a constant churn of new people moving to town and new bands forming, the scene in the late eighties continued to expand and fragment. Many bohemians also got involved in local politics for the first time. In the second half of the 1980s, the place-based structure of alternative culture played a key role in propelling this new political engagement. In Athens, growing activism around the effort to save the old parts of town turned many scene participants into registered voters concerned about historic preservation, environmentalism, and homelessness. The growing level of political energy coincided with unprecedented levels of success for the Athens scene’s bands.

Chapter 6 explores the legacies of 1920s and 1930s studies within the Gullah revival and the land battles raging throughout the region. This chapter recounts the marriage of low country blacks' newly embraced Gullah identity, and their fight for the survival of coastal black communities like Sapelo. Chapter 6 investigates cultural preservation and historic preservation—ideas that became deeply contested categories as Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commissioners and Gullah communities try to define their past and plan their future.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida has a population of ~4,000 people. It is perhaps not surprising then that not all Tribal members are directly involved in the THPO. Most only interact with its operations abstractly through presentations at community meetings or other outreach events. Many are likely only aware of the THPO through the clearance requirements necessary to get their future home sites cleared for development. The presented interview gives the perspective of someone who is deeply connected to their culture and history but who does not interact regularly with the THPO.

This chapter interprets the site of Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park built to commemorate the settlers who fought and died in the Battle of Blue Licks in 1782. The Kentucky Department of Parks built a new lodge here for overnight guests with conference and dining rooms. The lodge is named for Marvin Lewis “Pete” Worthington who served as a representative in the state legislature from 1978 to 2000.

Chapter 9 discusses the politics of public space and neighborhood self-determination in the historically Black, working class neighborhood of Lincoln Park. The work describes a thirty-year history of neighborhood-level community building and planning, including the present struggles of the Coalition to Save Lincoln Park, an advocacy group that emerged in 2013 after the city announced its plans to extend Central Avenue through the historic park space and neighborhood.

Shortly after the war, preservationists lobbied for funds to carry out emergency repairs to key structures on Unter den Linden. The SMAD displayed little interest, and German Communist politicians sought to efface monumental buildings as symbols of the Prussian-German monarchy and military. The adoption of socialist realism in 1950 meant that valuable architecture should be restored as national cultural heritage. Buildings created for cultural purposes were readily rehabilitated, while those with militaristic place-based meaning prompted debate over how best to reinterpret them. Socialist realism allowed multiple possibilities, and decision-makers sought a solution that best mitigated concerns over militarism while maintaining conceptual and formal continuity.