Federal legislation had passed earlier in 1906 under the Antiquities Act, but it was not until the 1970s when the term "cultural resources" was coined by the National Park Service.
[3] The National Park Service defines cultural resources as being "Physical evidence or place of past human activity: site, object, landscape, structure; or a site, structure, landscape, object or natural feature of significance to a group of people traditionally associated with it.
The subject developed from initiatives in rescue archaeology, sensitivities to the treatment of indigenous people, and subsequent legislation to protect cultural heritage.
In the US, such investigations are now done by private companies on a consulting basis,[6] and a national organization exists to support the practice of CRM.
In the United States, a common Cultural Resource Management task is the implementation of a Section 106 review: CRM archaeologists determine whether federally funded projects are likely to damage or destroy archaeological sites that may be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
One could obtain a career with an action agency that works directly with the NEPA or even more specifically, Native American resources.
Jobs at private cultural resource management companies can range from field technicians (see shovelbum) to principal investigators, project archaeologists, historic preservationists, and laboratory work.
The criteria that is stated by the National Register of Historic Places is said to be able to be "interpreted in different ways so that the significance... may be subjectively argued for many cultural resources.
Development plans for a proposed project may not be able to be changed to limit impact and to avoid damage to the resource.