National Park Service stewardship responsibilities include the preservation of cultural resources associated with park units, including museum collections.
The Alaska park units have been the traditional homelands to indigenous groups for thousands of years, resulting in a large number of archaeological
sites across the state requiring NPS stewardship.
The NPS preserves, researches, and maintains archaeological sites in alignment with federal law and policy, and is further responsible for the curation of collections generated from these many culturally significant areas.
At present, there is a backlog of at least 60,000 archaeological objects that need to be curated for preservation at the Alaska Regional Curatorial Center.
The objective of this Agreement between the University of Alaska Anchorage Department of Anthropology (UAA) and the Department of the Interior, National Park Service (NPS) is for the purpose of providing collections management and preservation training opportunities to university students through their participation in processing the backlog of collections held at the Alaska Regional Curatorial Center (ARCC).
Student participants will provide curatorial support to the NPS Alaska Regional Curatorial Center by assisting with the processing and preservation of collections from national parks across the state, including Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, the Western Arctic Parklands, Kenai Fjords National Park, and other park units.
Students will be trained in all aspects of the curatorial work they will be conducting, providing them with a foundation of knowledge that may be utilized in other aspects of their studies or career trajectories.
This work influences the effectiveness and acceptability of agency goals.
Programs carried out by this partnership will directly affect the preservation and enhancement of cultural resources maintained by the national parks in Alaska.
It is anticipated that at least 60,000 items will be cataloged and rehoused to professional standards during the course of this project.