South Dakota State Plan for Archaeological Resources 2018 Update

Sundstrom, Linea

From the introduction: "The State Plan is designed to define goals, both general and specific, relating to the management of archaeological resources; to set priorities for meeting these goals; and to present realistic measures to attain them. It describes known archaeological resources in the state and a summary of past cultural resource activities, such as surveys, excavations, and collections research. This information is presented in three sections of the document. Sections IV, V, and VI discuss a series of archaeological contexts: that is, summary discussions of particular periods, regions, and site types. Contexts are a means of placing information about a particular site or set of sites into a larger framework. They allow the resource manager to see how the site or sites contribute to an understanding of human history in the state. Section IV includes information on the various temporal periods used in South Dakota's archaeology. Section V review various types of archaeological sites in the state. Section VI presents information specific to each of South Dakota's 24 archaeological regions. Section VI also describes the extent of previous work in a specific region and the chronological range of known sites in that region. ...In summary, this document provides cultural resource managers and the public access to information complied by the South Dakota State Historical Society. This allows researchers and cultural resource managers to understand how preservation decisions are made and to apply the plan to the archaeological resources as a coherent whole rather than as individual pieces. Putting the resources into historic context allows cultural resource managers to set goals and to outline methods and priorities for achieving them. Such planning allows researchers and resource managers to organize material, goals, and priorities and to present them in a comprehensive way to outside funding agencies, decision-making bodies, and the public. In short, a well formulated plan shows that researchers and resource managers understand their material in terms of goals, actions, and recommendations. ...The current update is intended to incorporate the many changes of the last two decades and to provide a document that is easy to understand and use by both cultural resource managers and the public. The ubiquity of computers, improvements in data and graphics software, and portability of data via electronic media mean that this version of the State Plan can be both more comprehensive and more accessible than its predecessors." Project funding was provided in part by a Historic Preservation Fund grant to the South Dakota State Historical Society administered by the State, Tribal, Local Plans and Grants division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior (grant number P18AF00022).

South Dakota State Plan for Archaeological Resources 2018 Update

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