Asset Mapping Part 1

iD+Pi worked with the Navajo Nation Department of Economic Development's Tourism Department in establishing a Chaco Canyon Cultural Asset Mapping Report. This project was key in informing how culturally verdant the landscape is the Chaco Canyon area and given the Navajo sacred sites in the existing Navajo chapter communities.

Chaco Canyon as a US National Park draws numerous visitors to the area from all over the world. Hence, there was a need to identify cultural assets within their respective chapter communities that might be leveraged to toward economic development ventures.

Often times, Navajo chapter communities are only limited to administrative and educational sector jobs, so diversifying the employment sectors becomes crucial, especially when the greatest assets that they have in their backyard are sacred sites and a National Park.

Asset mapping in this project helped to understand that sacred landscapes and the communities themselves are being negatively impacted by the natural resource extraction. Also, that it is a living landscape that holds so much meaning for the Navajo people.

Zuni Pueblo is located 45 minutes south of Gallup, New Mexico. It is one of the 19 Pueblo nations in New Mexico. It is the furthest Pueblo away from the other Rio Grande-situated Pueblo communities. Over 80% of their population make their living through their art-making.

iD+Pi worked with Zuni Pueblo on two major projects: an economic development master plan for their newly established Zuni Pueblo Main Street program and a Zuni Pueblo ArtWalk as a creative placemaking strategy.

In both instances, asset mapping was critical to the conversations we had with the community about places they wanted to protect from outsiders that visit their community, while as the same time enhances their economic vitality leveraging their arts sector.

Taos Pueblo, the most northern Pueblo, worked on an Indigenous Comprehensive Plan garnishing an award for the best planning document from the New Mexico Chapter of the American Planning Association. 

The process involved 13 stakeholders, including elders, tribal officials, tribal staff, farmers, children, and business owners. In these conversations asset mapping was it critical tool in understanding how the development of community occurred over time.

Revealing the correlation between infrastructure projects (i.e. water lines, utility lines, roads, etc.) and the decentralization of their community. Thus, making it important for them to consider how to site future infrastructure development that will unify them. Also, it revealed strategic areas where development should and should not occur.

The University of New Mexico (UNM) Latin American Iberian Institute and iD+Pi hosted three Ecuadorian Indigenous visitors in Albuquerque.

Our Indigenous Ecuadorian guests traveled to NM because they wanted to learn about Indigenous planning , its principles, and tools. One of those tools included asset mapping, in particular mapping of cultural assets because many Indigenous communities are interested in developing their own Eco-Tourism plans.

The content they hoped to include in such plans included the community's voices about the places they would and would not share with outsiders. Similar to US Indigenous communities, the diversification of economic development opportunities are lacking and in need of creative ideas to bolster their quality of life. 

The course, offered in partnership between UNM School of Architecture and Planning's iD+Pi, Community and Regional Planning Department, and Historic Preservation and Regionalism Program , Preservation, Tourism and Community Development provided students an opportunity to learn community engagement techniques necessary to practice and apply Indigenous design and planning practices among Indigenous communities. 

Through the process of digital storytelling, community asset mapping, and the analysis of settlements and demographic change, students gained an understanding of the role of culture and identity in community development. Second, the students learned how to identify the social, cultural, political, economic, and ecological forces that shape built environments of Puebla, Mexico.

The primary objective of the class was to understand the process of Indigenous Planning as an agency in generative placemaking/PlaceKnowing in various Indigenous communities. Here are examples of maps that were generated during the asset mapping exercise, below is a summation of the students' analysis of the maps.