Early Days CRM—the WARC Factor

Dale R. Croes; Steven Hackenberger

doi:10.7273/000008638

This paper is Chapter 8, pp. 669-83, with our Appendices A and B: pp. 249-292 of a 275+ page volume on How Did We Get Here? Early Days of Cultural Resource Management (CRM) in the Pacific Northwest (1966-1996), a free source book on the history of early CRM development in the Pacific Northwest of North America. This book is freely available for those that want to see what tended to work or not work in early CRM. In our chapter, WARC, as a 1980s revised and statewide program with multi-layers of cooperation and region-wide input, produced a continued CRM legacy. Though not all initiatives have survived, certainly many ideas and much information remains for the benefit of today’s archaeological diverse CRM and academic communities. As reported, we digitally entered, updated, and standardized over 4,500 site records (the entire state at the time), an average of 20,000 lines of data per county (39; as of 1985), as well as several other efforts to digitally/electronically make our overall archaeological database available (reports, maps, ethnographic records, artifact collections, etc.). This easy access to the archaeological record no doubt vastly improved our field’s CRM and research capabilities. The baseline digitized data continues to be used today by the archaeological community through the Washington Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) systems; these systems directly evolved from this WARC interinstitutional effort and WARC student interns spending endless hours of input. Therefore, WARC’s main and priority site record digitization goals were accomplished over these eight 1980s years and remain a big part of our CRM legacy. We are glad we documented much of our region’s early 1980s CRM and research communities’ specific activities, often through input of early CRM’s specific players, in the 68 issues of the The Thunderbird, Archaeological News of the Northwest, the basis of this new article on WARC and early CRM collection of Thunderbirds newsletter). Of note here, Dale had military training in the 1970s as a Public Information Specialist. There he trained in journalism and photography, including, key here, producing newsletters. His focus was on historic events of the U.S. Army Washington National Guard. We mention this since the training led into an emphasis on producing newsletters throughout his archaeological career, including production of 3 years of Hoko River Wet Site and Rockshelter Hoko News, 8 years of The Thunderbird, and 40 years of PNWAS News Bulletins (currently on # 176). Now in retirement he is working with Ed Carriere, Suquamish Elder and Master Bas-ketmaker, and they together wrote Re-Awakening Ancient Salish Sea Basketry, Fifty Years of Basketry Studies in Culture and Science, Memoir 15, Journal of Northwest Anthropology (Carriere and Croes 2018). This book highlights their work analyzing and replicating 2,000-year-old Biderbost wet site basketry housed at the UW Burke Museum. They define this work as a new approach called Generationally-Linked Archaeology (GLA; Croes et al. 2018, Croes 2023b). They also recently added a new example of GLA in a book comparing how Ed used 44 natural resources in the first half of his life to support his Great Grandmother Julia Jacobs; Dale compares Ed’s 44 natural resources to the fauna/flora remains in 9 archaeological sites within 20 miles of Ed’s home allotment and for 4,000 years. They do see continuity and sustainability for 4,000 years and add to their approach, calling it Generationally-linked Ecological Knowledge. The new book is titled: “Living-Off-The-Land” for 4,000 Years on the Salish Sea, Memoir 25, Journal of Northwest Anthropology (Carriere and Croes 2025). Adjunct Professor, Anthropology, Washington State University and Director, Pacific Northwest Archaeological Society Email: dcroes444@gmail.com Steven Hackenberger received his BA from the University of Tulsa, and his M.A. (1985) and Ph.D. (1989) in anthropology at Washington State University. His thesis and dissertation work focused on Nez Perce and Shoshone co-utilization of the Salmon River Mountains of Idaho. His research included spatial models and predictive maps for site location and simulations of climate change and resource fluctuations. Similar work for the Hoko River Project was published with Dale Croes (Croes and Hackenberger 1988). His Peace Corps work in the Eastern Caribbean (1985-87) developed into several site investigations, including one Earthwatch project (1990-96, and 2003). After a start with Dr. Frank Leonhardy and Lee Sappington with more work on the Salmon River and Middle Snake, and interludes mapping on Effigy Mounds in Wisconsin (University of Wisconsin Colleges and the Ho-Chunk Nation 1990-1994), he was invited to join the Flathead National Forest and an inter-tribal team. His work in Idaho and Montana lead to coauthoring, “Prehistory of the Eastern Plateau,” with Dr. Tom Roll in the Columbia Plateau volume of the Smithsonian Institution Handbook of North American Indians (Vol 12, Roll and Hackenberger 1998). Upon returning to CWU in 1995, his work with NAGPRA inventories and repatriations soon involved him the NPS Kennewick Man background studies, and later the Walla Walla ACE Marmes repatriation project. In addition to heavy teaching commitment (including chairing over 40 MS thesis) he remains involved in Columbia Plateau CRM and has authored three regional overviews and context statements. In the past five years he has conducted a dozen geophysics studies while training students in CRM field work. He has twice joined archaeological excavations (Late Glacial Maximum Period) in the Transbaikal on the border of Mongolia and Russian Siberia. Over the past fifteen years he has collaborated with the Purepecha community of Parangaricutiro and co-directed five site investigations in the volcanic highlands of Michoacan, Mexico. Professor of Anthropology and Cultural and Environmental Resource Management Central Washington University Email: hackenbe@cwu.edu

Early Days CRM—the WARC Factor

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