Heritage Voices · The Archaeology Podcast Network

Chatting with Aaron Brien - Ep 103

·57 min·3 clips

Aaron argues USDA and Army Corps projects wrongly push consultation onto 80-year-old farmers instead of the federal agency.

Aaron Brin is back on Heritage Voices episode 103. Jessica Quinto opens by noting that their last episode together launched in July 2020, so they have more than five years to catch up on, then turns to Brin's work as Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Crow Tribe. The change matters. Brin talks about moving from teaching into preservation and how that shaped the way he speaks, since explaining NHPA, ARPA, Antiquities, and NAGPRA to others forced him to make the work plain. That skill counts. He treats speaking as one of the main tools preservation officers have, especially when the job depends on turning dense law into something communities and colleagues can actually use. The conversation stays grounded. Brin explains that many places inherit not just a preservation office but a whole way of thinking about it, and he is clear that inherited philosophy is not always the right one. He also points out that there is no training manual for this work, so people learn by doing and by comparing notes with others in similar roles. That gap is real. From there, he and Jessica widen the lens. Tribes often had the chance to define cultural resources, landscapes, and artifacts in their own legal and cultural terms, yet too often ended up using borrowed language from non-Native systems and federal law. That tension runs through the episode. Brin says the work is tied to law for a reason, because law shapes what can be protected, how it is named, and who gets to name it. He sounds frustrated, but committed. He says his current work includes trying to amend parts of that framework and fix what can be fixed, which keeps the conversation focused on repair more than complaint. Jessica gives him room to think aloud, and the exchange moves through memory, governance, preservation practice, and the daily work of making Native priorities legible inside institutional systems. What lingers is the sense that tribal historic preservation is not abstract at all. It is a lived responsibility that asks for language, law, and constant adjustment.

As heard by us

A grounded look at tribal preservation work, where law, language, and practice meet.

This episode keeps its focus on Aaron Brin and the work of being the Crow Tribe's Tribal Historic Preservation Officer. Brin lays out what that job looks like in practice, from defining cultural resources to translating preservation law into something usable, while Jessica…

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Why you'd press play

You want a clear view of preservation work from the inside, with the law left visible.

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