ABSTRACT
A number of federal laws obligate federal agencies to abide by a planning process for management of cultural, historic, archaeological, and Native American resources located on lands subject to federal jurisdiction. Principal among these are the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), now 40 years old, which requires federal agency officials to look at the area that is potentially impacted by proposed federal undertakings and take account of significant historic properties; the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires federal agencies to consider the environmental impacts of proposed federal actions “significantly affecting the quality of the human environment”; the Department of Transportation Act section known as 4(f ), which prohibits harm to parks, wetlands, and historic properties in the path of new highway construction, unless there are no feasible and prudent alternatives; the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA), which protects archaeological resources (that is, those evidencing past human life and exceeding 100 years of age) located on federal or Indian land, requires permits for excavation, and extends, by regulation, curation standards and requirements for items retrieved due to activities under the other laws mentioned here; and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which concerns disposition of Native American human remains and certain cultural items “excavated and removed” from federal or tribal land.
