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Badger-Two Medicine Traditional Cultural District,
Montana - Boundary Expansion Project
Cultural Resource
Studies
2004-2005
Badger-Two Medicine, also known as the "Blackfeet Unit" of Lewis and
Clark National Forest, Montana is a large watershed formed by the
tributaries of Badger Creek, Birch Creek, and the Two Medicine River
which run through the aboriginal territory of the Blackfeet Tribe
of Montana and join the Marias River. This pristine, resource-rich
area has been threatened by oil and gas exploration along the Rocky
Mountain Front since the 1960s. One of the many efforts made to avert
impacts from this industry was to create the Badger-Two Medicine Traditional
Cultural District, which is eligible for listing in the National Register
of Historic Places. This property excludes the northernmost portion
of the Lewis and Clark N. F, where a previously banned gas lease became
active in 2000. The USFS sponsored Section 106 research aimed at identifying
and documenting places and resources of traditional cultural significance
for the Blackfeet people that could be potentially damaged by gas
extraction. Zedeno, in partnership with the Blackfeet Community College
and the Tribal Historic Preservation Office, conducted ethnographic
field surveys and archival research to document traditional, historical,
and contemporary cultural attachments to, and uses of, the excluded
area. The research results led Zedeno to recommend that the boundaries
of the current Traditional Cultural District be expanded to encompass
this area. The USFS will use research results to determine whether
new Environmental Impact Assessments of the gas lease are warranted,
and to develop management strategies for culturally significant places
and resources
BARA Researchers:
M. N. Zedeno
©BARA - The Bureau of Applied Research
in Anthropology |
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