Gilfillan to help teach other federal agencies protection of Native American sacred sites

Published Feb. 12, 2015
Mark Gilfillan, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District tribal liaison is photographed near his office in Grand Junction, Colo.

Mark Gilfillan, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District tribal liaison is photographed near his office in Grand Junction, Colo.

SACRAMENTO, California -- Mark Gilfillan, tribal liaison with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District, has been asked to help teach members of other federal agencies how to best protect Native American sacred sites.

Gilfillan will be teaching as part of a federal Memorandum of Understanding to improve the protection of and tribal access to Indian sacred sites through improved interdepartmental coordination and collaboration. The partnering agencies are the Departments of Defense, the Interior, Agriculture, and Energy, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

He was selected from over 100 applicants to help in this educational project.

Gilfillan served as a regulatory project manager for more than 12 years and part-time cultural liaison for more than seven years at the Corps office in Grand Junction, Colorado. His assignment has changed and he is now solely dedicated to communicating with the 56 federally-recognized tribes within the Sacramento District jurisdiction.

He grew up at a small reservation in Reserve, Kansas, and is an enrolled tribal member of the Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska.