Alliance for Heritage Conservation

“Adfministrative cost =28611; travel-lodging = 6560; travel-meals = 3281; professional servcies = 15560”

“PACOY - The Proyecto Arqueologico Colaborativo del Oriente de Yucatan (PACOY), or the Eastern Yucatan Collaborative Archaeological Project. This project has been funded by private donors and institutions, including the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA), the National Geographic Society, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the National Science Foundation. In 2023 and previous years, this project carried out archaeological research with the participation and collaboration of the local Maya community of Tahcabo in Yucatan, Mexico. As part of this project, InHerit designed educational workshops and a community museum in Mexico. Since 2021, US partners have visited Tahcabo to continue to update the community museum, conduct oral histories and interviews with Tahcabo residents, and provide presentations about archaeological and ethnographic research results. We also continue to host anniversary celebrations for the museum each August 23, including in August of 2024.”

“Amplifying Native Voices in North Carolina History is an InHerit project funded by the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and the North Carolina Humanities Council. The project began in 2020 and focuses on developing educational resources and workshops for 6-12th-grade teachers with the Museum of the Southeast American Indian in Pembroke, NC at UNC-Pembroke. Through this project, we are creating and donating free curriculum resources for middle schools and high schools about the history of Indigenous cultures in the state, the Lumbee tribe, and the science of archaeology. 2024 activities included coordinating our third four-and-a-half-day Amplifying Native Voices in North Carolina History Summer Teacher Institute at the Museum of the Southeast American Indian where the curriculum was be shared with North Carolina educators. The Institute took place July 28-August 1, and twelve teachers were in attendance. Additional activities included preparing lesson plans and resources that were shared at the Teacher Institute and making these materials available on the InHerit website so that they are now widely accessible.”

“The Deep History of Biodiversity Conservation and Agricultural Practices at Tahcabo, Yucatan is an InHerit and PACOY project funded by the National Geographic Society, which began in 2022. The research identifies past and present cultivation practices that optimize resilience and productivity amid climate, demographic, and political change. Project methods included interviews with current farmers, plant surveys, airborne laser imagery for the study of canopy height and archaeological features, ground-based settlement survey, and the study of paleoenvironmental data from sinkholes (rejolladas and a cenote), which have served as important agricultural features. In 2022, this project kicked off with a summer-long field season including archaeological excavation and interviews of Tahcabo residents. Project activities including archaeological survey continued in 2023. These activities included working with students from the Universidad de Oriente de Yucatan for ground survey to verify LIDAR analysis of the area. In 2024, project members teamed up with the Frugal Innovation Hub at Santa Clara University to begin developing a phone application to share the lidar maps with community members as well as important information about farming that can be used for intergenerational knowledge exchange among Tahcabo residents. In addition, team members began giving conference presentations about the research in 2023 and 2024, with the first publication in drafting stage by late 2024.”

“Fundraising Drives in 2024: InHerit distributed two issues of its electronic newsletter and posted on social media.”