The Petroglyph National Monument Rapid Ethnographic Assessment Project had two primary goals. One was the identification of those American Indian Tribes, Pueblos, and Spanish heritage groups who wanted to participate in a long–term consultation process with the National Park Service about the management of the new Petroglyph National Monument located outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The second goal was to document the cultural resource concerns of the Native Americans and the Spanish heritage people, so that protection of these cultural resources could be incorporated into the General Management Plan that the National Park Service is developing for the Petroglyph National Monument.

The research team that conducted this study was composed of Drs. Richard W. Stoffle and Michael J. Evans, both of whom are anthropologists in the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology at the University of Arizona. A third team member was Sandra Lee Pinel, M.A., a planner with the state of New Mexico who has experience working with a number of Pueblo tribes. The time frame for this study was short: the start date was December 16, 1991, and the review draft of the report was due June 1, 1992.

After beginning the study, we learned through meetings with the Monument and planning staff that the National Park Service was also interested in how to go about establishing a long-term working relationship with the Indian Pueblos, Tribes, and Spanish groups with concerns in the area so that both management and research could be conducted appropriately as the Monument is developed. Consequently, we added this topic to those we had already included in response to the scope of work. As a result, the Petroglyph National Monument project serves as one type of model for how such studies should be approached in the future, in conjunction with Indian Pueblos, Tribes, and other cultural groups.

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