Funding opportunity number: L24AS00142FUNDING opportunity goals: goals management-driven research: on the ground research that provides information that can directly inform a pertinent and pressing…

Funding opportunity number: L24AS00142FUNDING opportunity goals: goals management-driven research: on the ground research that provides information that can directly inform a pertinent and pressing management question at units of blms national conservation lands. Community citizen science: on the ground research that engages citizens (volunteers) as assistants in data collection, compilation, or analysis to improve BLM s management, advance evidence-informed decision-making, while benefiting society. Tribal CO-stewardship: studies which explore opportunities for, evaluate, or seek to RE-invigorate CO-stewardship activities with tribal entities, including but not limited to application of indigenous knowledge. Indigenous trails are an underrepresented dimension to the national conservation lands (nlcs). Of the more than 900 units, just the mojave trails national monument and NEZ perce and trail of tears national historic trails (nhts) place specific attention on this important aspect of the nations history. To help remedy this, our project builds upon past trails research in the sonoran desert national monument (sdnm) in southern arizona. The regions indigenous communities long ago built a series of trails through this region as short-cuts across the great bend of the gila river. These trails materially and metaphorically connect the homelands of the oodham and piipaash, two tribes represented today by the gila river and salt river pima-maricopa indian communities. The earliest euro-american expeditions followed these trails as they explored the western and most remote reaches of north america. In particular, our most recent field research has shown that the segments of the juan bautista DE anza and butterfield overland nhts passing through the sdnm are predicated on extant indigenous trails. These historical facts, however, are just now being addressed, made possible by the remarkable success of our ongoing work in and around the sdnm. Our project will continue inventorying indigenous trails and associated cultural resources in the sdnm. IT will move that effort forward with a survey and inventory of the remaining 50.9 miles of the congressionally designated alignment of the butterfield overland NHT on BLM land in arizona. The purpose is two-fold. The project will provide BLM with a comprehensive inventory and assessment of this new NHT in order to aid in management planning. And the survey will evaluate whether the relationship between the historic road and indigenous trails that was confirmed in the sdnm exists on other parcels of BLM land in arizona. To do so, the project calls for 14 sessions of fieldwork, with 7 devoted to continuing and completing efforts in the sdnm and the other 7 for surveying the remainder of the butterfield overland NHT. The planned survey and inventory of both the indigenous trails and the butterfield overland NHT will meet fieldwork and reporting standards established by the BLM and the arizona state museum. Outcomes will include a comprehensive study of the butterfield overland NHT on BLM lands in arizona and a completed inventory of associated indigenous trails and related properties in the sdnm. Project deliverables will include a technical report on the findings and ancillary data, including high precision shapefiles, photographs, and cultural resource records, all of which will be provided to the relevant BLM field offices. All work will be carried out by archaeology southwest and volunteer citizen-scientists, and no subrecipient activities are planned or anticipated. Beneficiaries from this project will be the BLM, tribes, and the general public. The BLM will acquire high-quality professional documentation and data regarding the location and condition of the butterfield overland NHT and associated properties across arizona, as well as similar data about indigenous trails in the sdnm.