Nominating the Mortandad-Sandia Cavate Complex: Using the National Register to Advance the Goals of Applied Archaeology

This project aimed at completing the process of nominating the Mortandad-Sandia Pueblo Complex to the National Register of Historic Places as a final applied thesis project for the completion of a Master’s degree in Humanities with a focus in Cultural Resource Management from Adams State University’s Department of History, Anthropology, Political Science, Philosophy, Spanish (HAPPS). This task was accomplished as a partnership among Los Alamos National Laboratory’s environmental stewardship group and Adams State University. This task was carried out for the Department of Energy (DOE) in consultation with the Historic Preservation Department of New Mexico, the federally recognized State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) for the state of New Mexico, and the Pueblo de San Ildefonso. This project served as a way to help the Laboratory seek further compliance with Section 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) by following guidance to nominate exceptional historic and archaeological resources to the National Register. As an applied thesis project in Cultural Resource Management (CRM), this nomination aimed to exemplify the ways to build a bridge between an academic archaeology program and the realm of cultural resource compliance archaeology. In accomplishing this, it also addressed the goals of applied archaeology, as defined by the Society for American Archaeology.