voices
The case for a strong Section 106 is best made by the people who use it. Across the country, Tribal Nations, communities, preservation leaders, experts, and public officials are speaking out about what Section 106 protects, why public participation matters, and what America stands to lose if that voice is weakened.
Send us additional voices at fightback@culturalheritagepartners.com
ON THE ACHP’S REGULATORY ATTACK
Communities learn too late
“communities are not going to know that major projects are happening in their backyard until the bulldozers show up”
Marion F. Werkheiser, Founding Partner, Cultural Heritage Partners, PLLC | The Washington Post | July 20, 2026
Participation as a democratic principle
“Public participation is a founding principle of this democracy, and today's vote treats it as an obstacle to be removed.”
Illya Azaroff, FAIA, president, American Institute of Architects | American Institute of Architects | July 27, 2026
Making destruction easier
“deliberately mislead its own members about what it is doing, and making it easier to destroy our historic places”
Erik Hein, Executive Director, National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers | CBS News | July 22, 2026
Consultation is a distinct legal obligation
“Public comment and government-to-government Tribal consultation serve different purposes and fulfill different legal obligations.”
Joint statement by NCAI, AAIA, NATHPO and USET Sovereignty Protection Fund | Red Lake Nation News | August 24, 2026; statement dated August 18
Undocumented sites at risk
“We won't even know that they exist before they potentially get bulldozed.”
Holly Norton, Colorado State Archaeologist and Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer | KSUT / Mountain West News Bureau | August 4, 2026 know that they exist before they potentially get bulldozed.”
An attack on shared inheritance
“The proposed changes threaten the history of our nation and the fabric of our society — this is an attack on our civic and cultural inheritance”
Brent Leggs, CEO, National Trust for Historic Preservation | The Washington Post | July 25, 2026
History beyond buildings
“It is the whitewashing and bulldozing of our history and culture”
Heather Cox Richardson, historian and author | Letters from an American | July 26, 2026; essay dated July 25
Development and irreplaceable landscapes
“We have to have oil and gas development, obviously, but we don’t have to have it on America’s most amazing landscapes.”
Paul Reed, Archaeologist | The New York Times | July 31, 2026 | Reed acknowledges the need for oil and gas development before making this point about location.
Notification replaces collaboration
“Taken together, these provisions would move Section 106 away from an informed and collaborative planning process and toward an agency-directed review, followed by notification to interested parties.”
Lakota Hobia, chair, NATHPO; quoted in Eva Marie Carney’s column | Citizen Potawatomi Nation website | September 22, 2026
A fundamental change
“It’s not even a small tweak — it’s a complete gutting of the Section 106 process.”
Rebecca Miller, Executive Director, DC Preservation League | CNN Newsource | July 21, 2026
Tribal sovereignty
“The ACHP’s proposed regulations are an affront to Tribal sovereignty”
Ira Matt, Executive Director, Indigenous Diplomacy and Federal Relations, National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers | KSUT / Mountain West News Bureau | August 4, 2026
A warning from a former council chair
“would greenlight a wave of destruction of our historic and culturally significant properties that we’ve never seen before.”
Sara Bronin, former chair, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation | The New Republic | July 21, 2026
The national reach of a Washington project
“This is essentially the big triumphal arch in Washington coming home to a site anywhere near you. It would impact historic sites all over the country, large and small.”
Philip Kennicott, Washington Post Culture Critic, interviewed by PBS | PBS NewsHour / Art Canvas | July 28, 2026
Central to the federal trust relationship with Tribal Nations
“Section 106 has never been exclusively about preserving historic buildings or archaeological sites. For Native Nations, it is one of the few laws that operationalizes the federal trust responsibility by requiring meaningful government-to-government consultation before federal actions may irreversibly affect sacred places, traditional cultural properties, and other places of religious and cultural significance.”
Association on American Indian Affairs statement | Native News Online | July 31, 2026
ON THE ACHP’S REGULATORY ATTACK
On Trump’s Arch
“There has been no authentic negotiation.”
Charles Birnbaum, President and CEO, The Cultural Landscape Foundation | The Washington Post | September 24, 2026
Checking a box
“it feels like more of a box-checking than an actual, legitimate process.”
Ed Stierli, Vice President of Government Affairs, National Parks Conservation Association | NPR, republished by Oregon Public Broadcasting | August 7, 2026
Dangerous precedents
“the EEOB plan disregards legal and institutional rules in ways that will create dangerous precedents”
Dorothy Robyn, author | The Atlantic | August 6, 2026
A review in name only
“Let’s stop calling this a proper Section 106 process.”
Rebecca Miller, Executive Director, DC Preservation League | NPR, republished by Oregon Public Broadcasting | August 7, 2026
Disempowering experts and the public
“This is about power, and the disempowerment both of experts like Kelley and the public”
Philip Kennicott, Culture Critic | The Washington Post | July 24, 2026
A temporary tenant
“Each President is a temporary tenant, not the owner, of the White House”
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Majority Opinion | Reuters | August 7, 2026
SECTION 106 CAMPAIGN AND PRESERVATION PERSPECTIVES
A place saved by Section 106
“Were it not for Section 106, our ancient capital of Rassawek would be gone”
Chief Diane Shields, Monacan Indian Nation | The Washington Post | August 27, 2026
The public’s stake
“The public will be completely cut out of any conversation around the future of places that matter to them in this country.”
Greg Werkheiser, Founding Partner, Cultural Heritage Partners, PLLC | NPR, republished by WLRN | July 23, 2026; updated July 28
The legacy of a protected landscape
“The question before us is simple: What kind of legacy will we leave?”
Phillip Quintana, Governor, Cochiti Pueblo | High Country News | July 24, 2026; updated July 27