Cultural Heritage Partners

05/27/2026

We are honored to have CHP's negotiating strategies featured in Dr. Sarah Federman's brilliant new book, Corporate Reckoning. Get a copy today!

Increasingly, corporate executives find themselves called upon to atone for their predecessors’ moral transgressions. While many are prepared to address inherited failed product lines or dysfunctional teams, few know how to handle demands that their enterprise address legacies of mass atrocity...

05/25/2026

“I had to quickly do as much research as I could, pull all the things we had off our shelves and start studying it,” said Mike Clem, a regional archaeologist for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources who helped authenticate the site. “This is amazing,” added Jonathan Connolly, a state project review archaeologist, who worked at Yorktown earlier in his career.

No other French encampment from the Revolutionary War has been thoroughly documented in Virginia.

05/22/2026

"We chose to focus this year on sites important to the idea that all people are created equal," said Carol Quillen, the organization's president. "Over time, brave people have fought for equality before the law, equal opportunity, freedom of speech, due process, birthright citizenship. We wanted sites where those things happened."

Eleven historically significant sites across the country will receive $25,000 from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to commemorate the country's 250th anniversary.

05/22/2026

The possibility of more changes at the Smithsonian have led to a grass-roots effort to monitor the existing language in Smithsonian museums.

“When the White House orders museums to comply with a single viewpoint on our shared history, that violates the First Amendment and Americans’ rights to free expression under the Bill of Rights,” said Jessica Dickinson Goodman, a historian at Georgetown University who is part of the effort.

The Smithsonian has changed or eliminated some interpretive language that typically accompanies exhibited artworks. Critics call this self-censorship.

05/20/2026

NABS also recognized the efforts of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, the Native American Rights Fund, Cultural Heritage Partners, survivors, and advocates who helped secure the ruling.

“This decision extends beyond one case,” Barnes said. “It establishes a precedent that Tribal Nations have enforceable rights under federal law to reclaim their relatives and protect the sanctity of Native ancestors.”

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) is celebrating a landmark federal court ruling that affirms the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) applies to Native children buried at the former Carlisle Indian Industrial School cemetery. In a decis...

05/20/2026

Mark your calendars for May 30 at Longwood Farm in Fauquier County, Virginia! Our founding partner Marion Werkheiser is the keynote speaker for Piedmont Environmental Council's annual gathering. She'll talk about how we can leverage the law to protect the Piedmont region’s irreplaceable natural and cultural resources against the mounting pressure of industrial development. Tickets are available here:

Join PEC for a day of learning and community at Longwood Farm in Fauquier County.

05/20/2026

Werkheiser said he is “deeply proud” of the Americans who have stood in opposition to Trump proposals like the arch.

“We have so much going on with the country, one could easily understand if the American people just said ‘we don’t have time to debate or get involved in a defense of these important places,’” Werkheiser said. “But that’s not what’s happened. The American people have shown up by the thousands in written comments, and the hundreds of thousands online.”

President Donald Trump is implementing a slew of architectural changes and overhauls to D.C.’s historic buildings, monuments and landmarks, embracing designs that architects said are often rushed or designed in poor taste.

05/18/2026

Come join us in Chicago for the 2027 Society of Architectural Historians Annual Conference! CHP's Katherine Sorrell and Priya Jain (Texas A&M University, SAH Heritage Conservation Committee) are co-chairing a timely session how civic architecture has been shaped by nationalist political ambitions. The deadline for submissions is June 8th. For more details on our session and how to submit an abstract, check out the SAH website and our highlights below: https://sah.org/conferences/chicago-2027/call-for-papers-2027-annual-international-conference/

05/14/2026

The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, represented by the Native American Rights Fund, Big Fire Law & Policy Group LLP, and Cultural Heritage Partners, PLLC is celebrating today’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacating the lower court’s dismissal and holding that the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) applies in Winnebago v. Department of the Army. The ruling allows the Tribe to proceed with its lawsuit against the U.S. Army seeking repatriation of the remains of Samuel Gilbert and Edward Hensley, two Winnebago boys who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School more than 125 years ago.

This decision is a powerful affirmation of Tribal sovereignty, dignity, and the right of Tribal Nations to bring their children home. It acknowledges the profound injustice inflicted on Native families through the federal boarding school system and reinforces that NAGPRA is not limited to museum shelves or boxed collections. NAGPRA applies where federal agencies have retained Native children’s remains without the consent of their families or their Tribe.

“This is an extraordinarily important decision not only for the Winnebago Tribe, but for Tribal Nations across the country seeking to ensure that federal agencies finally comply with the laws enacted to help address the profound and multigenerational trauma inflicted by the federal Indian boarding school system,” said Greg Werkheiser of Cultural Heritage Partners, cocounsel for the Tribe.

On January 17, 2024, the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska sued the U.S. Army in federal court seeking repatriation of the remains of two children who died at the infamous Carlisle Boarding School. Carlisle provided the blueprint for more than 400 other schools designed for cultural genocide by stripping....

05/14/2026

Are you an expert in historic building conservation? The Eisenhower Executive Office Building needs your help!

We're especially looking for additional specialists with experience in three key areas to support the next stage of our advocacy to protect the grand EEOB:

• Paint application and testing for historic buildings
• Lighting system development for historic buildings
• Cost estimation for architectural renovation of historic buildings

Whether you're available for confidential consultation or public-facing assistance, we'd love to hear from you. Please send us your background and information via this form: https://form.jotform.com/253234163444048 We are also always glad to get submissions from other experts with architectural, historical, or historic preservation expertise that may be important.

05/13/2026

Cultural Heritage Partners, PLLC is honored to sponsor and speak at the 2026 Cultural Resource Protection Summit, hosted by Suquamish Tribe on May 20 and 21 at the House of Awakened Culture in Suquamish, WA.

This year's theme, Cultivating a Stewardship Mindset, could not feel more timely, and we are grateful to join Tribal leaders, agency colleagues, and cultural resource professionals from across the country for two days of honest conversation about strengthening protections for sacred places, ancestors, and the descendant communities who carry that work forward.

Ellen Chapman and Jessie Barrington will join the opening panel, "Sacred Sites, Sovereign Tools: Developing Cultural Protections for Your Tribe," sharing practical legal tools Tribes can use to defend sacred places under their own laws.

Marion Werkheiser will deliver the annual "Update From Both Washingtons" with Allyson Brooks Ph.D. MPA, M.Sc. of DAHP, then return on Day 2 as a discussant on the Summit's lively Mystery Panel.

Virtual registrations are still available until May 13.

Whether you are joining in Suquamish or virtually, please come find us. We would love to connect! https://www.theleadershipseries.info/summithome.html