Cultural site assessment of land-transfer parcels underway

Members of the Lab's Cultural Resources Team, part of Ecology (RRES-ECO), excavate a cultural site located on a tract of Department of Energy land scheduled for transfer to Los Alamos County. The team is in the process of documenting and archiving cultural sites located on land-transfer parcels. Photo by Brad Vierra, RRES-ECO

Archaeologists with the Laboratory have begun excavating cultural sites on Department of Energy land parcels that are to be transferred to Los Alamos County.

The work represents the first excavations of archaeological sites to take place on Laboratory property in more than 10 years. Laboratory archaeologists are working closely with representatives from San Ildefonso Pueblo on the effort, which will document and archive cultural sites located on land-transfer parcels.

Several parcels of land are scheduled for transfer from DOE ownership to Los Alamos County and San Ildefonso Pueblo under Public Law 105-119. Under that law, DOE had to identify parcels of land that were no longer considered necessary to the Laboratory’s mission. The department identified 10 parcels, amounting to about 4,000 acres, for transfer. The transferred land is intended for use in community self-sufficiency; economic diversification; or historical, cultural or environmental preservation purposes.

Because the transfer parcels are located on the Pajarito Plateau -- an area rich in archeological sites representing 10,000 years of human occupation -- they contain nearly 200 sites that are eligible or potentially eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Because lands slated for transfer to Los Alamos County will lose federal protection once the transfer is complete, the Laboratory is required by law to prepare a cultural resources mitigation action plan as well as a cultural preservation agreement between the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, New Mexico’s Historic Preservation Officer and the County. This was done in consultation with San Ildefonso Pueblo, which is considered an ancestral tribe to the sites.

Laboratory archeologists are asking for public cooperation throughout the scheduled three-year excavation process to ensure that no sites are disturbed or entered.

“Sites are not open to the public during the excavation process,” said Laboratory archaeologist Brad Vierra of Ecology (RRES-ECO). “All material and information collected will be catalogued, evaluated for its significance, recorded and placed into the protection of the state of New Mexico or repatriated with the Pueblo of San Ildefonso as appropriate. We are asking members of the public to please respect the historic and cultural significance of these sites and to avoid entering any sites they may notice.”

Members of the Laboratory’s Cultural Resources Team in RRES-ECO collaborated with state and federal officials on the best strategy for preserving and protecting cultural sites on land-transfer parcels. After considering all parcels, John Isaacson of RRES-ECO developed a cultural preservation and protection strategy based on the ultimate suggested use of the parcels. Sites slated for economic development use incorporated recovery strategies, while sites slated for preservation will include easements to allow cultural resources to remain undisturbed. Consequently, total cost of site protection and preservation was reduced by about $45 million.

-- James E. Rickman

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