National Park Service: Oasis of Mara Traditional Cultural Property Study Phase 3 Grant

This collaborative undertaking will produce a Traditional Cultural Property (TCP) Report. The TCP Report will provide park managers with the information necessary to guide development and management activities in and around the Oasis of Mara for the next 20-30 years. The report will provide information on the important characteristics of the Oasis of Mara as they relate to the Native American communities who consider this a Traditional Cultural Property, and identify those features and characteristics that should be preserved, maintained, and restored.

The Oasis of Mara and Queen Mountain represent a significant landmark in the cultural origins and oral traditions of the Chemehuevi, Serrano, and Cahuilla Native American peoples. These natural features are inseparably linked in the cosmological views of the Native American peoples who traditionally inhabited the lands now set aside as Joshua Tree National Park. The Oasis of Mara (Maarraâ¿¿) and Queen Mountain plays a prominent role in the origin stories, clan histories (oral traditions), and migration histories of the Native American people who once occupied these lands. These linked locations continue to retain cultural significance for living communities and Native American religious practitioners as places to perform ceremonial activities in accordance with traditional cultural rules of practice.

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) includes a variety of historic property types ranging from individual buildings, structures, sites, objects, and natural features to landscapes and groups of buildings, structures, and sites forming districts. A location that is significant to living communities for its association with the traditional beliefs of Native American groups about their origins, cultural history (cultural traditions), or ceremonial activities known to have taken place in the past and known or thought to occur today, has special designation on the NRHP referred to as a Traditional Cultural Property (TCP). TCPs are defined by their association with the cultural practices or beliefs of a living community, their role or place in the communityâ¿¿s history, and their importance in maintaining the continuing cultural identity of the community.

In 2012, Joshua Tree National Park initiated efforts to identify potential TCPs within the park and outline the research and documentation efforts necessary to support TCP documentations and nominations for listing on the NRHP. The parkâ¿¿s associated Native American communities strongly supported the endeavor and committed to participating in the efforts to identifying, recording, and documenting oral traditions associated with the potential properties. The first property identified as a potential TCP candidate was the Oasis of Mara and Queen Mountain. The project lead established the research design and identified specific tribal elders and cultural resource advisors at each of the associated Native American communities with traditional knowledge of the Oasis of Mara (Maarraâ¿¿) and Queen Mountain willing to participate in the study.

B. Project Objectives â¿¿

The end result of this project is a TCP report that meets the guidelines established in NPS-28 and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservationâ¿¿s guidance on Traditional Cultural Properties. In order to produce this report, the recipient will employ a Principal Investigator (PI) to synthesize all information compiled in phases 1 and 2 of the Master Cooperative Agreement. The PI will draw together existing documentation and conduct limited follow-up communications with stakeholders to produce a synthetic report. The PI will draft the TCP report and provide it to the recipient for distribution to participating tribal communities and the NPS for comments and edits. The PI will incorporate and rectify all edits and comments and produce a final report for the recipient. The recipient will provide this report to NPS for final review. Following acceptance of the final report, the recipient will distribute the report to all participating tribal communities.