NPS Collections

National Park Service Archaeological Collections Management

Scott Shirar

During the fall of 2008 the UAMN archaeology department began a one year project to inventory and assess accessions from National Park Service (NPS) lands in Alaska. There are currently 17 national parks, preserves, and monuments across Alaska and the NPS actively manages the cultural resources in each. Every summer more archaeological sites are recorded and new collections are made from many of these parks. Presently, the NPS curates new collections at its own facilities in Anchorage and Fairbanks but UAMN still curates several NPS collections from the 1960s through the 1990s. There are several goals associated with this inventory project which include: compiling a list of all NPS owned collections currently accessioned at UAMN; compiling a list of all UAMN accessions from current NPS managed land but collected under previous agency ownership, determining the cultural affiliation (where possible) for all NPS collections currently at UAMN. An overriding goal for this project is related to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). While NAGPRA eligible collections at UAMN were identified during inventories conducted in the 1990s, this project is focused on clarifying what agency is responsible for the upkeep of some of those collections with questionable ownership. This step will help identify all NAGPRA eligible collections that are of interest to the NPS.

Funding : National Park Service

Project Staff:

Aimee Tunks