PRESENTATIONS
Abstract: Chacoan Complexities
The Chaco Research Archive (CRA, chacoarchive.org) has been available since 2004 and the Salmon Pueblo Archaeological Research Collection (SPARC, salmonpueblo.org) launched in May of 2018. These web-based portals, as their names indicate, were both designed primarily with the academic researcher in mind. While these resources acknowledge the diverse descendant communities within the Southwest, neither has deliberately focused on eliciting robust Native perspectives to coincide with Euro-American forms of archaeological classification and interpretation.
We are in the early stages of a new collaboration aimed at incorporating diverse cultural perspectives from descendent communities with archaeological information; to develop a plan for how best to support community-based initiatives through engagement with material culture; and to enhance existing archaeological records with Native perspectives. This pilot project will proceed in collaboration with several tribal historic preservation offices. In this paper we will discuss the design and potential benefits of this project.