Æ’s staff has the subject matter expertise to support timely and meaningful inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge in the environmental review process. Æ employs specialists in historic preservation law and Native American outreach and engagement with extensive experience in compliance issues and working directly with tribes.
Æ has a unique ability to collaborate with Native American tribes, communities, and organizations throughout the West. Our staff has a rich history in developing and maintaining trust relationships, collaborative resource stewardship and management, and facilitating meaningful outreach, engagement, and consultation.
In collaboration with and deference to Native American tribes, communities, and organizations, Æ is successful in identifying properties of traditional religious and cultural importance (PTRCI), traditional cultural properties (TCP), traditional cultural landscapes (TCL), and tribal cultural resources (TCR), including national, state, and local eligibility evaluations and nominations, and assessments of impacts/findings of effects.
Our program staff offers extensive experience in cultural resource consulting, including preparation of cultural resource management documents required under federal and state laws, such as Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
The Æ team possesses a thorough understanding of regulatory requirements and compliance procedures and has successfully guided clients in identifying and redesigning project alternatives that minimize or eliminate impacts to culturally-sensitive areas and landscapes. We also provide expert historic preservation planning guidance to assist private developers, municipalities, and agencies at the local, state, and federal levels. Our senior staff determines specific client needs, formulates appropriate tribal relations strategies for each project, and follows through with well-managed implementation and high-quality deliverables.
Tribal Relations Services
Fostering collaborative and meaningful relationships with Native American tribes, communities, and organizations
• Outreach and engagement with Native American tribes, organizations, and communities
• Resource identification, assessment of impacts/effects, and development of treatment/mitigation
• Facilitating compliance with federal and state Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)
• Expert testimony
• Ethnographic and Ethnohistorical research, overviews, and assessments
• Facilitating tribal involvement in projects as cultural practitioners, Indigenous Knowledge holders, members of sovereign nations, and members of Æ field survey, excavation, and monitoring crews
• Cultural Heritage Management and Treatment Plans
• Sensitivity landscape modeling
• Tribal monitor training
Our dedicated staff of professional historic preservation specialists and historical researchers routinely documents and evaluates culturally-sensitive sites, districts, and landscapes throughout the western United States. We have extensive experience working with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and Guidelines for the Treatment of Historic Properties, as well as local design guidelines, historic preservation zoning overlays and policies, and ordinances.
We provide clear and consistent guidance for preservation, rehabilitation, and other proposed cultural and natural area treatments to heritage resources to ensure compliance with those requirements.
Æ’s preservation professionals coordinate extensively with federal agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Land Management, and the USDA Forest Service; state agencies such as the California Energy Commission and California Department of Transportation (Caltrans); and numerous local city and county municipalities. Our experienced team has a demonstrated ability to provide quality work on schedule and produce thorough, accurate, and easily understood technical documents.