Testaments to Place and Time: Cultural Landscape Report, Sitka National Historical Park, National Park Service

Smith-Middleton, Holly; Alanen, Arnold

Cultural Landscape Report for Impressions of Indian River at Sitka National Historical Park. In 1994, a cultural landscape study of Sitka National Historical Park was initiated by the Alaskan Regional Office of the National Park Service to document, assess, and take necessary measures to protect the park’s cultural landscape. This report represents the second phase of that undertaking. Beginning with an overview of the park’s landscape history, this report does the following: 1) document the current park landscape; 2) identifies its character-defining features; 3) evaluate its ethnographic and historic significance and integrity, and 4) provide cultural landscape management guidelines and treatment recommendations. In addition to our own Phase One investigation, data for this study have come from other historic studies of the park, research conducted by anthropologists on Tlingit culture, and use and history within the park; other information has been derived from natural resource studies conducted on geomorphology of the landscape, the hydrology of the Indian River, and park vegetation. This report synthesizes the findings of these studies to evaluate the cultural significance and integrity of the park landscape. The present landscape of Sitka National Historical Park is a composite of layers that derives from the multiplicity of human activities in the area. Our challenge is to make sound management decisions that protect the dynamics of the natural and cultural environments, while at the same time serving to protect and interpret the historic features in the landscape. In order to accomplish this purpose, we utilized the findings of the landscape history study to identify both the tangible and intangible components of the park’s historic landscape. We then conducted a detailed survey for each landscape area of the present park landscape, in which both processes, such as land use, patterns of spatial organization, and cultural traditions, and features- including buildings, objects, totems, vegetation, and views- were documented. Based upon the landscape survey, the character-defining features of the present landscape were defined. The cultural significance of the overall landscape and of the character-defining components was evaluated through a combination of consultation with the Tlingit community and the use of the criteria for historic significance as defined by the National Register for Historic Places. Landscape management guidelines and treatment recommendations were generated following the completion of the historic and ethnographic evaluation and analysis of the park. Because protection of the health of ecological processes also protects the cultural significance of the natural landscape, ecological considerations were important in the selection of alternatives. Therefore, a landscape management approach that integrates natural and cultural resource preservation has been adopted. After we generated a set of management guidelines and treatment alternatives, public presentations were held in Sitka to allow for community participation before the recommendations were finalized and set forth in this report.

Testaments to Place and Time: Cultural Landscape Report, Sitka National Historical Park, National Park Service

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