Who Are We

Founder and President — Christopher L. Harper (RPA, M.A.) has over 35 years experience in all aspects of cultural resource management accumulated from working within Federal service, large environmental and small business firms, and Tribal Governments. His experience and research interests encompass both prehistoric and historic archaeology, as well as ethnography and geoarchaeology. He has directed all aspects of archaeological projects throughout the American Southwest and the Great Basin, ranging from archaeological survey to full data recovery efforts that vary in size from 0.1 to over 50,000 acres. Mr. Harper is an enrolled tribal member of the Chickasaw Nation and has worked for or with Native American tribes throughout the Southwest U.S. for three decades.

Prior to establishing IRC Heritage Preservation, Inc., he served for five years as the Cultural Heritage Manager/Tribal Archeologist for the AhaMakav Cultural Society of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, with the previous 10 years providing support on a project-by-project basis to the Fort Mojave and other tribes throughout Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. With this experience and perspective, Mr. Harper brings cultural heritage resource management firmly within the indigenous viewpoint of historic preservation.