Tribal Cultural Landscapes (TCLs) as defined in this way are areas of cultural importance to communities that have multi-generational ties to geographic regions.

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Second, TCLs enable the consideration of a community’s worldview and identity. The primary focus of identity for a given society or cultural group is how its members understand their world and interact with it. Their stories, places of cultural practice, villages, places of creation, and religious locations define not just usage and worldview, but also an intimate relationship between space and identity. By expounding the worldview of an indigenous group, we can moreclearly understand a people’s concept of identity and how it is transferred between generations.

 

Third, for most indigenous cultures, the practice of culture is not something rooted in the past. It is a living, breathing, interactive part of modern identity. TCPs and many standard archaeological methods situate the practice of indigenous culture in the past. By looking at contemporary indigenous groups’ cultural practices, we can more clearly understand past and future use of a given place, and the value it has to a community. Importantly, TCLs are determined by indigenous people with a relationship to that place.