Crafting a Methodology for Identifying Indigenous Cultural Landscapes

In September 2012 a team from the anthropology department at the University of Maryland, College Park, began working in cooperation with the National Park Service Chesapeake Bay (NPS) to develop a methodology for identifying indigenous cultural landscapes (ICLs) along the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail (CAJO). The anthropology team, brought together with the NPS through the Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit national network, studied the history and implementation of the ICL concept, and tested criteria and methodology they developed. Their goal was identifying and mapping an area of high probabilities for ICLs along CAJO, as well as producing methodological procedures which included adaptable criteria for future researchers may follow in related projects. This project was completed with the guidance of regional archaeologists, historians, geographers, and members of local Native communities. Reports recounting their efforts and findings were produced for the NPS in 2013. This presentation will discuss the process developed to create criteria and methodology for identifying and mapping areas likely to contain ICLs, and explore the ways in which such a project might inform large landscape conservation beyond the Chesapeake Bay region.