NPS AEP: Peoples and Cultures

(graphic) Image of park researchers, traditional users, and landscapes.

ETHNOGRAPHY IN THE PARKS


	WHAT ETHNOGRAPHERS DO

	PEOPLES AND PARKS

	SYMBOLS OF TRADITION

	RESEARCH TOOLS

The ethnography program conducts several kinds of research to comply with National Park Service policies and federal mandates. The goal is to inform park planning, management, and interpretation. The ethnographic overview and assessment is essential for all parks; the traditional use study is basic for many, as explained in Chapter 10 of the NPS-28: Cultural Resource Management Guideline, per NPS Director's Order 28.

ETHNOGRAPHIC OVERVIEW AND ASSESSMENT
The most comprehensive background study, this document reviews existing information on park resources traditionally valued by stakeholders. The information comes mostly from archives and publications; interviews with community members and other constituents--often on trips to specific sites--supply missing data. This study also identifies the need for further research.

TRADITIONAL USE STUDY
These studies fill gaps identified by the ethnographic overview and assessment. They also meet the requirements of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which addresses the traditions of Alaskan Natives. A researcher can take over a year to gather information on the annual round of a culture's activities, involving close interaction, extensive interviews, and knowledge of the language. Often the group collaborates in the research.

RAPID ETHNOGRAPHIC ASSESSMENT
A Rapid Ethnographic Assessment (REAP) is driven by a need for information in advance of actions like establishing a new park -which may affect a group's resources and thus its traditions. The assessment, which helps satisfy the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, serves the need to consider the views of various stakeholders. It can yield new ways to manage places deemed important by group members, as well what they want to share with the public (knowledge of sacred sites and the like must remain confidential). The assessment is brief and narrow in scope; field methods include focus groups, interviews during site walks, and mapping.

ETHNOHISTORY
This study plots continuity and change in a group's pattern of resource use, demography, and ceremonial life, placing these elements in relation to variables such as neighbors, resource boundaries, and economic, environmental, and political climates as they shift over time.

ORAL AND LIFE HISTORY
Chronicles individual and community ways of life as they relate to places in parks. These studies involve prolonged collaboration between interviewer and interviewee, essential when rapid change threatens a traditional culture, when elders and their stories are unrecorded, and when subsistence areas, practices, and knowledge require documentation. Methods include focused interviews when documentation is readily available. Open-ended interviews are also used to elicit undocumented information.

ETHNOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE STUDY
This field study typically involves stakeholders in visits to park places they perceive to be linked to their ethnic identity.

CULTURAL AFFILIATION AND LINEAL DESCENT STUDIES
These studies help meet the requirements of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, providing evidence of relationships between objects in park collections and native groups, past and present. A lineal descent study traces an individual's ties to ancestors, objects, or human remains.

EJL/MJB