What Is A Tribal Cultural Resource?

This paper investigates how TCRs are being operationalized in ways that overcome the epistemic violence and injustice of cultural resource management policies. Through semi-structured interviews with Tribal Chairs, Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (THPOs), agency planning staff, and archaeologists, I describe ongoing conflicts of interpretation between Tribal and agency approaches to state-run cultural management. Despite applications of the term that perpetuate colonial legacies by attempting to limit Indigenous relationships with the Land, Indigenous groups routinely reappropriate this and cognate terms (such as Tribal Cultural Properties, Cultural Landscapes, and Cultural Places) to advocate for their cultural heritage and the biotic health of their communities. By comparing how Tribal and agency authorities in California interpret cultural resource protection policy and, especially, the language of “cultural resources,” I offer critical insight into how conflicts over land and resources are meted out through rights-based legal structures.