Why is ODOT involved with archaeological resources?
Seven federal laws and three Oregon State Laws regulate the protection of archaeological resources. Of these laws, the three Oregon statutes and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Department of Transportation Act (sec. 4f) are the primary legal mandates, and detail specific regulatory requirements which ODOT must satisfy. The responsibility for ensuring that significant archaeological sites are considered during transportation project development rests with the archaeological staff of ODOT’s Environmental Services Section. In most cases, the regulations primarily consider a site’s research potential—that is, a site’s potential to inform us about the past. However, there are nine federally recognized Native American Tribes in Oregon; in many cases, Oregon’s archaeological sites possess a cultural significance for the Tribes that transcends the information value they contain. ODOT bears a responsibility as a steward of thes
