Traditional Cultural Properties

Traditional cultural properties are significant because of the role they play in the retention and transmission of historically rooted beliefs, customs, and practices of a living traditional community. They are routinely identified and evaluated as historic properties during research activities needed for compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, which requires federal agencies to consider the effects of their undertakings on cultural resources. To be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, traditional cultural properties need to be tangible places (a district, site, building, structure or object), must meet one or more of the National Register eligibility criteria, must have integrity of relationship and condition, must have been important for at least fifty years, and must have definable boundaries. The methods and concepts pertinent to research of traditional cultural properties in the Southwest are reviewed in this chapter.