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SHSND Home > Historic Preservation > Survey & Inventory > Guidelines for Cultural Resource Inventory Projects
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Cultural Resource Inventories in North Dakota

(from North Dakota SHPO Guidelines Manual for Cultural Resource Inventory Projects. SHSND, Bismarck, North Dakota, 2012)

North Dakota Century Code (NDCC 55-03 & NDAC 40-02-02) outlines the permitting process for cultural resource investigations, and the SHSND is charged with the responsibility of implementing the permitting process on an annual (calendar-year) basis. Additional information regarding the permitting process may be obtained by contacting the SHSND Chief Archeologist or by downloading a Permit application cover letter and form.

Identification of cultural resources is an obvious prerequisite to a determination of their significance, to the evaluation of impacts on such resources, and to the planning of methods for the preservation of the resources or the mitigation of identified impacts. Once an undertaking's impacts on significant resources have been evaluated, it will then be possible to ascertain whether data recovery constitutes appropriate mitigation, whether some other mitigative measure must be developed and implemented, or whether the project should be reevaluated, redesigned, or relocated.

Although the exact activities necessary for the identification of cultural resources will vary, depending on the nature of federal or state land holdings or jurisdiction and on the nature of the proposed undertaking itself, one or more of the following steps will generally be required:

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