USC makes great strides in the Bears Ears Digital Cultural Heritage Initiative Project
The towering buttes that look out on Utah’s breathtaking views are home to Bears Ears National Monument, a sacred space, a political football, and a home for countless artifacts that multiple Indigenous tribes claim in their ancestral traditions.
Dr. Eric Heller and a hand-picked group of USC students traveled to Bears Ears National Monument in San Juan County in southeastern Utah this summer to work alongside Navajo and Zuni tribal members, elders and youth, in the Bears Ears Digital Cultural Heritage Initiative. They used virtual reality and photogrammetry programs to recreate the sacred sites perched high above the valley floor as accessible, immersive learning experiences. Using digital humanities and ethnography, these Navajo and Zuni people seek to represent the sacred sites of Bears Ears the way they believe is right. The archaeologists and students worked to elevate these varied narratives of Indigenous people, and to make space for the perspectives of the land management agencies, and archaeologists alike.
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